.

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

BRITISH BIRDS.

VOL. III.

HISTORY

OF

BRITISH BIRDS.

WILLIAM YARRELL, F.L.S. V.P.Z.S.

ILLUSTRATED BY 535 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.— VOL. III.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.

M.DCCC.XLV.

LONDON :

Printed by S. & J. BENTIEY, WILSON, and FLEV,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

BRITISH BIRDS.

SCOLOPACIDM

THE WOODCOCK.

Scolopaoo rusticola.

Scolopax rusticola, The Woodcock, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 40.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 45.

„ „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 105.

„ „ „ „ SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 1 07.

„ „ „ „ JKNYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 204.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

„ „ Becasse ordinaire, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 673.

SCOLOPAX. Generic Characters. — Beak long, straight, compressed, slender,
soft, slightly curved at the point ; both mandibles grooved over the basal half
of their length ; point of the upper mandible extending beyond that of the lower

VOL. III. B

fe 37

2 SCOLOPACID^E.

mandible, the curved part forming a slight crook ; superior ridge elevated at the
base, prominent. Nostrils lateral, basal, pierced longitudinally near the edges
of the mandible, covered by a membrane. Legs moderate, slender, naked space
on the tibia, but short, or entirely wanting ; three toes before, one behind, the
anterior toes entirely, or almost entirely, divided. Wings moderate, the first or
the second quill-feather the longest in the wing.

ALTHOUGH the eggs or the young of the Woodcock have
been found, during one summer or another, in almost every
county in England, as well as in several of those of Scot-
land, and also more frequently of late years than formerly,
yet the great bulk of the species must be understood as
only winter visiters, arriving early in October, or soon
afterwards, and again departing northwards in March.
Mr. Selby, one of our best observers, residing in the eastern
part of Northumberland, and only four or five miles from
the sea, says, " I have found that these birds always come
over in the greatest bodies in hazy weather, with little
wind, and that blowing from the north-east ; and it is pro-
bable that they then find the upper region of the atmo-
sphere, in which they fly, freer from counter currents of
air, than in more open weather. After a night of this
description I have frequently met with great numbers upon
the edges of plantations, in hedges, and even in turnip-
fields, and enjoyed excellent sport for the day; but on
seeking, on the following morning, for a renewal of similar
success, I have not found a single bird, the whole flight
having proceeded on their course during the intervening
night. It is during this time that Woodcocks, like most
migratory birds, perform their journeys : and it seems pro-
bable that those which halt upon the eastern coast of Scot-
land, and the northern counties of England, have completed
their task from shore to shore, between sunset and sunrise,
as they appear but little fatigued on their arrival, provided
the weather has been calm. The distance of the coasts of

WOODCOCK. 3

Norway and Sweden, from whence these visiters are sup-
posed to come, offers no objection to this supposition, as a
continued flight of eight or ten hours, even at a rate in-
ferior to what I conceive they are capable of accomplishing,
would suffice for the transit. Another argument in favour
of this supposition, is the high state of condition in which
the birds generally arrive on our shores, especially at an
advanced period of the season, by no means indicating the
wasting effects of very long-continued exertions. It ap-
pears that they fly at a considerable altitude, as indeed
most birds do when performing their migratory movements.
A respectable person who lived upon the coast, and who,
being a keen pursuer of wild-fowl, was in the habit of fre-
quenting the seashore at an early hour in the morning, as-
sured me that he had more than once noticed the arrival of
a flight of Woodcocks coming from the north-east just at
day-dawn. His notice was first attracted by a peculiar
sound in the air over his head, that, upon attending to, he
found proceeded from birds descending in a direction al-
most perpendicular ; and which, upon approaching the
shore, separated and flew towards the interior ; these he
pursued and shot, and which proved, as he surmised by
the view he had of them as they flew past him, to be
Woodcocks.'1 Mr. Selby has also observed that " the first
flights of these birds, which seldom remain longer than for
a few days, and then pass southward, consist chiefly of
females ; whilst, on the contrary, the subsequent and latest
flights which continue with us, are principally composed of
males. It has been noticed by several authors, that the
arrival of the males, in a number of our summer visitants,
precedes that of the females by many days ; a fact from
which we might infer, that in such species a similar sepa-
ration exists between the sexes during their sequatorial

B2

4 SCOLOPACID.E.

migration." The circumstance of the separation for a time
of the males and females in the Woodcock, or Woodsnipe,
as it is sometimes called, accounts for the result which
occurred at the early part of the present Woodcock season.
On making internal examination of twelve Woodcocks,
from one locality, for the purpose of ascertaining the sex,
for my use in this work, only two of them proved to be
males.

Under the influence of a north-east wind, their course is
probably between south and west ; this will account for the
numbers of Woodcocks found in Devonshire, Cornwall, in
Wales, and in Ireland ; the birds in many instances pur-
suing their course till they reach the sea, or returning, if
possible, when they have overshot the land. In Ireland,
says the Rev. Mr. Daniel, in his Rural Sports, " the Earl
of Claremont shot fifty couple in one day ; but it should be
premised that such was the abundance of these birds as to
be sold in some parts near Bally shannon, in the county of
Donegal, for one penny each, and the expense of powder
and shot." The author of Wild Sports of the West, says,
" the Woodcock-shooting in the West of Ireland is ac-
knowledged to be very superior ; and when the flight has
been large, and the season is sufficiently severe to drive the
birds well to cover, there is not, to a quick eye, more beau-
tiful shooting in the world. Some of the covers are copses
of natural wood, situated in the very centre of the moun-
tains ; consequently, when the snow falls, every Woodcock
for miles around deserts the heath, and seeks the nearest
shelter. Then will the sportsman be amply repaid for his
labour. From a copse of not more than thirty acres1 ex-
tent, I have seen fifty couple of Woodcocks flushed ; and
as several excellent covers lay in the immediate vicinity, it
was no uncommon thing for two or three guns to bring

WOODCOCK. 5

home twenty, nay, thirty couple. I have known a party
fire a number of shots that would appear incredible ; and I
have more than once expended my last charge of powder,
and left, for want of ammunition, one or two copses un-
tried/'' It is recorded in Daniel's Rural Sports, that Mr.
Yea of Swansea, killed one hundred couple of Woodcocks
in the season of 1796. Gilbert White of Selborne, says, in
his Journal, " a gentleman writes word from St. Mary's,
Scilly, that in the night between the 10th and llth of Oc-
tober, the wind being west, there fell such a flight of
Woodcocks within the walls of the garrison, that he him-
self shot, and conveyed home, twenty-six couple, besides
three couple which he wounded, but did not give himself
the trouble to retrieve. On the following day, the 12th,
the wind continuing west, he found but few. This person
further observes, that easterly and northerly winds only
have usually been remarked as propitious in bringing
Woodcocks to the Scilly Islands. So that he is totally at
a loss to account for this western flight, unless they came
from Ireland. As they took their departure in the night
between the llth and 12th, the wind still continuing west,
he supposes they were gone to make a visit to the counties
of Cornwall and Devonshire. From circumstances in the
letter, it appears that the ground within the lines of the
garrison abounds with furze. Some Woodcocks settled in
the street of St. Mary's, and ran into the houses and out-
houses." A Woodcock when flushed on the coast has
been known to settle on the sea, and when again disturbed,
rose without difficulty and flew away. Three or four in-
stances are recorded of Woodcocks alighting on the deck
of ships in the English Channel, and that they go much
farther south on their migration over the European Con-
tinent to the east of us, will be proved by the quantities

6 SCOLOPACID^E.

found throughout the winter in various localities to be
hereafter quoted.

The Woodcock is a nocturnal bird, seeking its repose by
day, remaining quietly hid in the dry grassy bottoms of
brakes and woods, seldom or ever moving unless disturbed.
Sir Humphrey Davy in his Salmonia, says, " a laurel, or a
holly bush, is a favorite place for their repose : the thick
and varnished leaves of these trees prevent the radiation of
heat from the soil, and they are less affected by the refrige-
rating influence of a clear sky, so that they afford a warm
seat for the Woodcock."

Towards night it sallies forth on silent wing, pursuing a
well-known track through the cover to its feeding-ground.
These tracks or open glades in woods, are sometimes called
cockshoots, and cockroads, and it is in these places that
nets were formerly suspended for their capture, but the
gun is now the more common means of obtaining them. A
few may still be caught with nooses of horse-hair, set up
about the springs or soft ground where the birds leave the
marks of the perforations, or borings made with their
beaks. The common earth-worms appear to be the food
most eagerly sought after. Two or three ornithologists
have borne testimony to the almost incredible quantity of
earth-worms which a single Woodcock, in confinement,
has been known to consume in one night ; and Daniel
has thus described their mode of feeding as observed in an
aviary at St. Ildephonso, in Spain. " There was a foun-
tain perpetually flowing to keep the ground moist, and
trees planted for the same purpose ; fresh sod was brought
to them, the richest in worms that could be found. In
vain did the worms seek concealment ; when the Woodcock
was hungry, it discovered them by the smell, stuck its beak
into the ground, but never higher than the nostrils, drew

WOODCOCK. 7

them out singly, and, raising its bill into the air, it ex-
tended upon it the whole length of the worm, and in this
way swallowed it smoothly, without any action of the
jaws. This whole operation was performed in an instant,
and the action of the Woodcock was so equal and im-
perceptible, that it seemed doing nothing : it never missed
its aim ; for this reason, and because it never plunged its
bill beyond the orifice of the nostrils, it was concluded
that the bird was directed to its food by smell."

Woodcocks appear to leave this country by the same
route on which, as here mentioned, they have been ob-
served to come ; namely, our eastern coast. Mr. Wil-
liamson, in his remarks on birds in the vicinity of Scarbo-
rough, says, " good sport is sometimes gained at Wood-
cock-shooting in March, when from any cause these birds
are prevented continuing their journey northward. In one
or two instances a Woodcock has been seen here as late
as June."

That some Woodcocks remain in this country almost
every season, and produce their young here, there are
many proofs, and that they are also very early breeders
seems equally certain. The young are usually hatched by
the end of March, or the beginning of April. In 1836,
Mr. Blyth saw two young Woodcocks on the 20th of
April. On the 22nd of April 1838, Mr. Gould exhibited
at the Zoological Society two young Woodcocks, appa-
rently three weeks old ; and I have in my collection a
young Woodcock five or six weeks old, which I bought on
the 23rd of April 1822, in the market at Orleans.
Scarcely a season passes that young Woodcocks are not
sent up to Leadenhall Market for sale, intended for the
table ; these, by my notes, have generally occurred in
May : the price about seven shillings each. In the Fifth

8 SCOLOPACID.E.

Earl of Northumberland's household book, begun in 1512,
the price of a Woodcock is stated to be one penny or
three-halfpence ; and in the Norfolk household book, which
begins with 1519, and has been frequently quoted here,
the reward for four Woodcocks on the 1 8th of October,
four-pence ; and in another instance, paid for three Wood-
cocks, sixpence.

In proof that the Woodcock breeds frequently in the
British Islands, particularly in Scotland, two or three of
the most interesting of the instances are thus recorded.
At the Zoological Society, July 24th 1832, a letter was
read, addressed by Sir F. Mackenzie to the Secretary of
the Society : it related to the breeding of some Wood-
cocks, Scolopax rusticola, Linn., at Conan, on the eastern
coast of Ross-shire, the estate of that gentleman. For
several years past, two or three of these birds have occa-
sionally been seen in the woods, and about five years since
a couple were shot just before St. Swithin's day: these
were, however, old birds, and from their being covered
with fat, it was evident that they had not nested. The
keeper, in fact, had never been able to find one of their
nests or to see a young bird, until the present season. In
two small woods near his house he this year discovered
four Woodcocks' nests, one having four, and the others
three eggs each, all of which were hatched and ran. The
young birds he repeatedly saw before they took wing ; and
now five or six couple may every evening, towards dusk,
be observed flying about the lodge as they pass to their
feeding-grounds. The soil where the nests were found is
gravelly and rather dry ; the grass tolerably long, with-
out underwood ; and the trees, oak, birch, and larch, not
exceeding thirty years' growth. The situation is warm,
and not one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the

WOODCOCK. 9

sen ; it is not far distant from the river. The woods are
kept quiet, and several pheasants1 nests were hatched in
their close vicinity. It is prohable that the parent birds
sought this spot for the purpose of breeding, as they must
have arrived in the spring from other localities ; for those
who shot in the covers till February declare that they
did not know of a single Woodcock being then left in
them, and had there been two or three, the keeper must
have been aware of it. — Zool. Pro.

Mr. W. C. Williamson, Curator to the Natural History
Society, Manchester, made the following communication
to Mr. Loudon for his Magazine in June 1836. Ornitho-
logists have for some time been convinced of the fact that
the Woodcock occasionally breeds in England ; but the in-
stances have been rare, and, generally, a single pair of
birds, without others in the neighbourhood to evince that
the stay was entirely a voluntary one. This spring, how-
ever, the nests of three pairs were found in one wood, be-
longing to Francis Hurt, Esq. of Alderwasley, near Derby.
The nests when discovered all contained eggs, the old
birds being then sitting. I wrote to Mr. Hurt on the
29th of April, requesting him to procure for our Society a
nest with eggs ; and two or three days after, he kindly
sent me the nest, with broken shells of four eggs, which,
as well as those of other nests, had been hatched even at
that early period of the year. Two of the young broods,
with the old birds leading them about, have been seen by
the keepers of that gentleman, who remarks in his letter,
that, on going to the nest, the old bird did not rise until
he had approached within the distance of a yard. They
were all in dry, warm, situations, amongst dead grass
and leaves, without any attempt at concealment. The
nest sent was wholly composed of dead leaves, chiefly

10 SCOLOPACID^E.

of the common fern, loosely laid together, and without any
lining. The underwood was thin, and of not more than
from seven to ten years1 growth. There was good reason
to believe that Woodcocks had bred in these covers in
previous years In the tenth volume of the Magazine of
Natural History, for 1837, at pages 120 and 337, are two
other accounts of Woodcocks breeding in Scotland : the first
at Brahan Castle, in Ross-shire, where two nests were
pointed out by the keeper ; the second at Castle Forbes,
in Aberdeenshire. The game-keepers, both at Brahan
Castle and at Conan, assured those to whom they showed
the different nests, that they had seen the old Woodcocks
carry their young in their claws ; and this account was
positively spoken to as a fact, by a third person who had
witnessed it. Another writer, in the same volume, states
that he had seen a similar act performed in the woods
at Dunkeld, a locality in which Woodcocks have often
been known to breed. In June 1842 a gentleman saw a
brood in the park at Drummond Castle in Perthshire,
and observed the old bird repeatedly take up one of the
young ones in its claws. Bewick, quoting Buffon, says,
they sometimes take a weak one under their throat, and
convey it more than a thousand paces. White, in his
Natural History of Selborne, quotes the words of Scopoli
in reference to the Woodcock, that, " pullos rostra portat
fugiens ab hoste" and comments upon it as improbable. A
writer in the fifth volume of the magazine before quoted,
page 570, mentions having seen an old Woodcock fly off
with a young chick in her claws. A boy fishing disturbed
a, nest, the birds from which flew in different directions,
one with a bird in its bill. The boy followed the weakest
of the brood, and discovered it to be a young Woodcock,
which is now in the possession of Mr. Burgoin, game-

WOODCOCK. 11

keeper to the Duke of Devonshire, at Chats worth. The
bird which the boy first saw, was one of the parents con-
veying its offspring from the impending danger, across
the river at Ashford. — Derby Mercury. Lastly, I may
add, that Mr. L. Lloyd, in his Field Sports of the North
of Europe, using the words of Mr. Grieff, who is a high
authority among Scandinavian sportsmen, says, " If, in
shooting, you meet with a brood of Woodcocks, and the
young ones cannot fly, the old bird takes them separately
between her feet, and flies from the dogs with a moaning
cry."

In the spring of 1843, Mr. George Harrison, game-
keeper to the Earl of Lonsdale, found two Woodcocks'*
nests in Melkinthorpe woods near Lowther ; each nest
contained four eggs ; both broods were hatched out, and
went off. For several years, nests of these birds have
been found nearly in the same locality. These woods
are strictly preserved, and several young Woodcocks have
been seen during the present summer, 1845.

Woodcock's are now known to have bred in York-
shire, in Nottinghamshire, in Norfolk, Sussex, and in
the Holt and Woolmer Forests of Hampshire : in the
former, two nests were found in one small piece of fir
plantation.

At the meeting of the British Association held at
Cork in August 1843, Mr. Thompson of Belfast, called
attention to the circumstance of the nidification of the
Woodcock in Ireland, with especial reference to Tullamore
Park, in the county of Down, the seat of the Earl of
Roden. Here this species was first observed to remain
throughout the summer, and rear its young, in 1835 ; since
which period the numbers so remaining have been gradually
on the increase; and in the year 1843, twenty-two nests

12 SCOLOPACIDJ).

have been found, so that Woodcocks now are as plen-
tiful in summer as in winter in the park.

The nests of the Woodcock have been already noticed :
the eggs are of a pale yellowish white ; the larger end
blotched and spotted with ash grey, and two shades of
reddish yellow brown : the length one inch nine lines,
by one inch four lines in breadth. I have received the
eggs of this bird from Sussex and Hertfordshire, and had
one presented to me in the spring of 1839, by Mr. William
Rayner of Uxbridge, which was obtained about three
miles north-east of that town.

Mr. Dunn says the Woodcock is occasionally seen both
in Orkney and Shetland, but does not stay any time,
merely resting itself on its passage to and from the coun-
tries bordering the Baltic.

Mr. Dann informs me that the Woodcock arrives in
Scandinavia at the latter end of March or the beginning
of April, and is seen at that period in the neighbourhood
of the coast in considerable numbers, particularly if the
frost be severe. They proceed into the interior, however,
with the first west wind. During the summer season
they are rarely to be seen on the wing, except at night.
They are common and frequently to be seen crossing the
Guldsbradalen (Golden Valley) in Norway, and flitting
down the road after the sun is down, but it is rare to flush
them in the forests. On the island of Hitteren, near
Drontheim, they are common, and at Quickiock in West-
ern Lapland beyond the Arctic Circle. They are widely
dispersed, but nowhere numerous. The pine forests are
their summer haunts. They breed also in Finland, Russia,
and Siberia ; Sir W. Jardine says the Woodcock is found
in Silesia, sometimes called Polish Prussia, from April to
October. There are said to be but few Woodcocks in

WOODCOCK. 13

Germany, and not many in France. A few breed in
Switzerland, but their numbers are very variable. Com-
mon in Italy, Corfu, Sicily, arid Malta, in winter, and
also still further west, south, and east. Dr. Heineken
says the Woodcock is found all the year through at
Madeira ; they are found in Barbary, are common at
Athens ; and Mr. Strickland says, Woodcocks were so
abundant at Smyrna during the winter of 1835-6, that
many were killed in small gardens in the midst of the
town ; they are found also in Egypt and Aleppo. The
Zoological Society have lately received notice of our
Woodcock having been obtained at Cashmere. I possess
a skin from India which is identical with our bird, and
others have recorded them as inhabiting Thibet, Nepal
and Calcutta ; M. Temminck says it is also found . in
Japan.

The beak is dark brown at the point, pale reddish brown
at the base, and generally about three inches long ; the
irides dark brown ; the eye large, convex, and prominent ;
from the beak to the eye a dark brown streak : the colour
of the plumage of this bird is a mixture, principally of three
shades of brown ; namely, pale wood-brown, chestnut-
brown, and dark umber-brown ; each feather on the upper
surface of the body contains the three shades, but so dis-
posed as to produce a beautifully variegated appearance.
The cheeks pale wood-brown, spotted with dark brown ;
the forehead, to the top of the head, greyish brown ; occi-
put and nape rich dark brown, transversely divided into
three nearly equal patches by two bars of yellow wood-
brown ; each feather of the neck below pale brown, edged
with dark brown ; the back greyish brown, varied with
reddish brown, and dark umber-brown ; all the wing-
coverts reddish brown, with open oval rings of dark brown ;

14 SCOLOPACID^.

primary quill-feathers blackish brown, with triangular spots
of pale reddish brown along the margin of each web;
secondaries and tertials of the same ground colour, blackish
brown, but the light-coloured marks are more elongated,
and extend from the margin of the web to the shaft of the
feather ; rump and upper tail-coverts chestnut-brown,
tinged with grey and barred transversely with dark brown ;
tail-feathers black above, tipped with pure dark grey ; chin
very pale yellow brown ; neck in front, breast, and all the
under surface of the body, wood-brown, transversely barred
with dark brown, both shades of brown on the under sur-
face becoming lighter in old birds ; under wing-coverts
pale brown, barred with dark brown ; under surface of the
quill-feathers dry-slate grey, the triangular markings yel-
lowish grey ; under surface of the tail-feathers nearly black,
tipped with delicate snow-white ; legs and toes livid brown,
claws black.

The whole length about fourteen inches and a half.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, eight inches
and a half; the second quill-feather the longest.

As in this family generally, the females of the Woodcock
are larger than the males at the same age ; the youngest
birds have the shortest beaks. Females have the upper
part of the back more black, and the lower part of the
back more red, than males.

Males have the forehead more inclined to grey, with the
chin white ; and the space above and below the decided
dark brown mark, from the beak to the eye much lighter in
colour, almost white, with the small dark triangular speck
at the end of these light- coloured feathers better defined :
the back has more of the pale brown and grey, and the
rump less of the red, than the females ; but the triangular
marks on the outer web of the first quill-feather are rather

WOODCOCK. 1 5

indications of youth than of sex, and are obliterated by
degrees, and in succession, from the base to the end of the
feather.

The weight of a Woodcock, from its great variation, is
a matter of interest with the naturalist as well as the
sportsman. A young male bird of the year, in October,
will sometimes weigh only seven ounces; an old female
will frequently weigh fourteen or fifteen ounces. I am in-
debted to the kindness of Lord Braybrooke for the follow-
ing particulars of some Woodcocks of very large size, with
permission to attach the statements to this history.

Copy of a letter from Lady Peyton to Miss Hoste,
dated Uggeshall, Dec. 25th, 1801.

11 MY DEAR Miss HOSTE,

" The Woodcock which Mr. Hoste enquires after,
was found sitting on a very low branch of a fir-tree in the
long plantation at Narborough,* about eleven o'clock in the
morning, by James Crow the postilion, who was exercising
the coach-horses. He came back with the intelligence to
the house, and the keeper immediately went out and shot
the Woodcock. I saw it weighed both in scales and steel-
yards, as did Sir Henry, and a carpenter at work from
Swaffham ; and, wonderful as the weight may appear, it
was exactly twenty-seven ounces. I believe it was about
1775 or 1776. Some years before that, a Woodcock was
killed at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, which weighed twenty-four

" Lady Peyton's brother, the late Lord Stradbroke, then
Sir John Rous, told me (Lord Braybrooke,) he recollected

* The snow was deep, and the bird was resting on the branch of a spruce-fir,
weighed down to the ground.

16 SCOLOPACIDJ3.

arriving at Downham, Sir Henry Peyton's residence,
twenty-four hours after the Woodcock was shot, and hear-
ing the particulars ; but the bird had been dressed.

" Mr. Roger Wilbraham, a great sportsman, living at
Swaffham, not believing the account, summoned the car-
penter many years afterwards, who confirmed all the cir-
cumstances.

" The Earl of Leicester also told me, that he, in com-
pany with Mr. Ralph Button, when they were young men,
followed a gigantic-looking Woodcock for some hours, near
Holkham, but could not get near him.

" A Woodcock shot at Audley End about seven years
ago, weighed full sixteen ounces, and was much the largest-
looking bird, as well as the heaviest, I ever saw."

A note in the last edition of Pennant's British Zoology
is as follows : " I have been credibly informed that one was
killed near Holywell, which reached the weight of twenty
ounces ;" and in Daniel's Rural Sports there is a record of
one which weighed seventeen ounces.

Varieties in plumage are not uncommon, sometimes with
a portion of white, or entirely of a dull yellowish white, or
buif colour.

A communication was lately made to the Zoological
Society to the following effect. In the year 1833 a Wood-
cock with white feathers in the wings was observed in a
cover on the manor of Monkleigh, near Torrington, in the
county of Devon. The same bird, or one of exactly similar
plumage, reappeared in the same place during the four
succeeding seasons, in which period it was so repeatedly
shot at by different persons without effect, that it at last
acquired among the country people the name of 'the
witch/ In the year 1837, however, it was killed by John
Piper, of Monkleigh, while following the owner of the

WOODCOCK.

17

property which it frequented, the Rev. J. T. Pine Coffin, of
Portledge, who has the stuffed specimen in his possession.
In reference to the suhject below, forming the vignette,
I may explain that in the month of November 1830, Sir
Francis Chantrey, when shooting at Holkham, killed two
Woodcocks at one shot. To record this event, Sir Francis
Chantrey sculptured two Woodcocks on a marble tablet,
which he presented to Mr. Coke, afterwards Earl of Lei-
cester. Sir Francis has since kindly given to me the draw-
ing on wood, which is here engraved. The occurrence,
from its singularity, has been the subject of many epigrams
and complimentary verses. The following couplet was
written by Hudson Gurney, Esq.

** Driven from northern climes that would have starv'd them,
Chantrey first shot, and then he carv'd them."

VOL. III.

18

SCOLOPACID^l.

GRALLATORES.

SCOLOPACIDM.

THE GREAT SNIPE.

Scolopax major.

Scolopaif major, Great Snipe,

Solitary
Great

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 62.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 51.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 105.
« „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 115.

„ „ „ ^ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 205.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

„ „ Grande B£cassine, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 675.

THE GREAT SNIPE was first described as a British Bird
by Pennant, from a specimen killed in Lancashire, pre-
served in the Leverian Museum, and was at that time con-
sidered a very rare bird : it was, however, probably undis-
tinguished by many from the Common Snipe, till specific
distinctions among species were closely investigated. It is

GREAT SNIPE. 19

now by no means uncommon, but occurs more frequently
in autumn than in any other season : the major part of the
examples obtained, are young birds of the year ; and from
this species being known to breed in high northern lati-
tudes, these autumnal visitants are seen while on their
route to their more southern winter quarters. Their
course, both in spring and in autumn, is considered by Mr.
Selby to be generally to the east of the longitude of the
British Islands ; and I may mention, in corroboration of
this view, that I am not aware of more than one record of
the occurrence of this species in Ireland, and in England
they are most frequent in the eastern counties.

The habits of this Great Snipe, or Solitary Snipe, as it
is often called, will be best elucidated by references to the
communications and accounts of those who have enjoyed
opportunities of observation in this and in other countries.
The Rev. Richard Lubbock writes me from Norfolk as fol-
lows : Mr. Paget says of this bird, " not uncommon in the
autumn," which is strictly true. I have known more than
twenty specimens come under my own observation in the
same season ; but I cannot remember a single instance
where this Snipe has occurred in spring: I have made
many inquiries, and have invariably found them occurring
in autumn, generally early in the season, often in Sep-
tember. This species is very frequently found in pairs,
and does not deserve to be called Solitary. On the wing
it looks but little larger than the Common Snipe, and may
be recognised at once by its tail, spread like a fan. Its
flight is steadier and heavier, which may in some degree
arise from the aptitude of the bird to make fat. I have
handled more than a dozen specimens ; have shot the bird
three times myself; and all I have seen were loaded with

flesh and fat. I find I have noted that Richardson, the

c 2

20 SCOLOrACID^E.

fenman, killed six of the Great Snipes in the second week
of September 1835 ; four of these birds were in pairs, and
proved male and female respectively.

When shooting in Sweden, Mr. Lloyd says, "the
Double, or Solitary Snipe, I always found singly, or at
most in pairs. These birds are usually so fat in autumn
as apparently to be hardly able to fly ; indeed, when
flushed, they usually proceed but a short distance before
they settle again ; their flight is heavy and steady, and
they present the easiest mark possible. Four couple were
the greatest number of these birds that I ever killed in
Sweden in any one day. They were by no means plen-
tiful in the vicinity of Gothenburg." That Mr. Lloyd
was not advantageously located for these particular birds,
may be inferred from the account of Mr. Greiff, who says
" the Double Snipe is a bird of passage in Sweden, and
amongst those which arrive the latest. At the end of the
month of July, when the meadows are mowed, the
shooting of these birds with the pointer commences, and
continues till towards the end of September. In the whole
round of sporting, this affords one of the greatest pleasures.
These birds are easy to shoot ; and in some places fifty or
sixty may be killed in a day, particularly in autumn, when
they are so fat that they almost burst their skins. They
are most delicious eating." Mr. Greiff adds, " I was an
old sportsman of thirty years1 standing before it came to
my knowledge that Double Snipes had their lek or play-
ing-ground. I heard their cry a whole spring, which was
in a marsh where I had a good orr-lek, but never observed
them, and therefore believed it to be some frogs or reptiles ;
but at last I discovered they were Double Snipes, which
ran like rats among the hillocks. Their cry commences
with a sound resembling the smack of the tongue, and

GREAT SNIPE. 21

thereupon four or five louder follow." Sir Humphrey
Davy says, " an excellent sportsman, and good observer,
informs me, that, in the great royal decoy, 'or marsh-
preserve, near Hanover, he has had ocular proofs of
Double Snipes being raised from the nest there ; but
these birds require solitude and perfect quiet, and, as their
food is peculiar, they demand a great extent of marshy
meadow. Their stomach is the thinnest amongst birds of
the Scolopax tribe ; and, as I have said before, their food
seems to be entirely the larvae of Tipulte,* or congenerous
flies." From Mr. Dann I learn that the Great Snipe
breeds in considerable numbers in the mountainous parts
of Norway and Sweden, as high as the range of birch
woods extend. In the Dofre Fi-el, at Jerkin and Fog-
stuen, they are numerous on the edges of the grassy
swamps, avoiding the wet. They also frequently resort to
the borders of the small rills used for irrigating the grass
lands. Their nest is placed on a hummock or tuft of grass
near the willow bushes on the borders of the swamps.
During the pairing-season they fly to a vast height.
They make a drumming noise as they descend, which is
produced by a slight and peculiar vibration of the wings.
Mr. Dann does not consider that the Great Snipe goes to
the northward of Drontheim, they leave the more northern
parts in August, but are sometimes shot in Sweden, as late
as November. Mr. Selby and other observers have re-
marked that this Snipe utters no cry when flushed. Mr.
Hewitson, in his work on the eggs of British Birds, says,
the egg of the Great Snipe is another of the rarities for

* Tipulae. Flies, known by the more common name of Father Long- Legs;
the species of which are very numerous, and in their larva or caterpillar state are
too well known for their extensive destruction of the roots of grass, and the con-
sequent death of the herbage.

22 SCOLOPACID.E.

which he was indebted to the perseverance of Mr. Hoy,
of whom he obtained the following particulars : " There
is no doubt that by far the greater number of the Great
Snipe retire to the swamps of the north to breed ; still a
considerable number are spread over the fens and morasses
of Holland, and have hitherto escaped observation during
the time of breeding. It may, however, be met with
during that season, though not in great numbers, in the
marshy districts lying between Gouda and Gorinchem, and
an extensive fenny tract, abounding in peat bogs, in the
eastern part of Dutch Brabant. There is another locality
bordering upon the Dutch side of the river Meuse, over
which they are found scattered during the breeding-season.
The Great Snipe resembles the Jack Snipe very much in
its habits ; lying close, and, when disturbed, rarely flying
far. It begins to breed early in May. The nest is
similar to, and placed in the same situation as, that of the
common species. The eggs are four in number." These
are of a yellow olive-brown, spotted with two shades of
reddish brown ; the length one inch nine lines, by one inch
and two lines in breadth.

I do not find any notice of the occurrence of the Great
Snipe in Orkney or Shetland, but it is seen in the Danish
Islands in the breeding- season. A few breed in Ger-
many, appearing in May, and departing in September ;
it is also said to be found in Bohemia. It is not very
common in Holland ; still more rare in France ; and in
Switzerland, Italy, Corfu, Sicily, Malta, and Crete, this
species, according to Messrs. Necker, Schinz, and Savi,
is observed in spring and autumn on its passage. The
Zoological Society have received specimens, sent by Messrs.
Dickson and Boss, from Trebizond, obtained in the month
of April, and said to be common in boggy ground; and

GREAT SNIPE. 23

M. Menetries found it in the vicinity of Caucasus, where
he says it is a bird of passage.

The beak dark brown at the end, pale yellow brown at
the base ; irides dark brown ; from the base of the beak to
the eye, a dark brown streak ; over that, over the eye and
the ear-coverts, a streak of pale brown ; forehead and top
of the head rich dark brown, divided along the middle
line from before backwards by a pale brown stripe ;
neck all round pale brown, the centre of each feather
darker brown ; interscapulars, scapulars, and back, rich
brownish black, with central lines and broad margins of
rich buff or fawn colour ; lesser wing-coverts nearly
black, the upper series tipped with pale brown, the lower
series tipped with white; great coverts black, tipped with
white ; primary quill-feathers dull greyish black, with
white shafts; secondaries dull black, tipped with white;
tertials black, barred and streaked with pale brown ;
rump very dark brown, edged with pale brown ; upper
tail-coverts pale yellow brown, varied with dark brown ;
tail-feathers sixteen, the four on each outside nearly all
white, the others rich brownish black over three-fourths
of their length from the base, then a patch of chestnut,
bounded by a circle of black, and tipped with white ;
chin pale yellow brown ; breast and sides of the body with
half-circular bands of brownish black on pale brown ; belly
and vent pale brownish white ; legs and toes greenish
brown, the claws black. The legs and toes are subject to
some variation in colour : I have seen them in fresh-killed
birds of a livid green, and even of a light drab colour.

The whole length about twelve inches. From the
carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is
the longest in the wing, five inches and a half. The
weight from seven to nine ounces, depending on age and

24 SCOLOPACIDJS.

sex. The females larger than the males. The Eev.
Richard Lubbock mentions having met with one that
weighed ten ounces.

The males are lighter in colour above and below the
dark stripe behind the base of the beak, like the Wood-
cock ; and the breast is less covered with the dark half-
circular markings : the white spots at the ends of the
wing-coverts are rather larger, and more conspicuous from
their purer white colour. Young birds in their first
autumn have short beaks, and fewer, if any, white outside
tail-feathers ; these are probably obtained at their first
moult, as this species is sometimes described as being
without any white outer tail-feathers, and at others with
as many as five on each outside.

The vignette below represents the young of the Common
Snipe.

COMMON SNIPE.

GRALLATORES.

25
SCOLOPAC1D&.

THE COMMON SNIPE.

Scolopax gallinago.

Scolofxuc yallinayo, Common Snipe,

The
Common

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. GO.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 55.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 106.
„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 121.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 205.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvi.

„ „ Btcassine ordinaire, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 676.

THE COMMON SNIPE may be truly characterised as in-
digenous to this country. It is known to breed in small
numbers, in most of, if not in all, the counties along the
southern line of the English coast; and as this bird is known
to go to high northern latitudes for the breeding- season, it is
found, as might be expected, producing its eggs and young

26 SCOLOPACID^E.

much more constantly, as well as frequently, in the north-
ern counties of England, in Ireland, in Scotland and its
islands, than here with us in the south. Still, the quantity
produced in the whole of the British Islands bears but a
small proportion to the numbers seen here, so generally
dispersed, during winter, which probably visit us during
that season from various parts of Scandinavia, and leave
us again in March, frequently shifting their ground under
the influence of the weather.

The Common Snipe breeds both in Cornwall and Devon-
shire : I have also received the eggs from Dorsetshire, and
from the New Forest in Hampshire. White of Selborne,
in that part of his journal published by Mr. Jesse, says,
under date of July 30th, " Young Snipes were seen at the
Bishop of Winchester's table, at Farnham Castle, on this
day. They had bred on all the moory heaths of this
neighbourhood." I have bought the young birds, when
three parts grown, in the London market. The Rev.
Leonard Jenyns, in reference to Cambridgeshire, says,
" Many of these birds remain with us the whole year,
and breed constantly in Bur well and Swaffham fens ; "
and under date of June 15th, 1837, '" Common Snipe taken
in Burwell fen, with two young ones recently hatched."
The Rev. Richard Lubbock writes me word from Norfolk,
that these birds breed there in considerable numbers, which,
however, fluctuate greatly in different years, and are
never sufficient to account for the number which sometimes
appear in August, in which month as many Snipes may
often be killed as at any time of the year. Mr. Selby
says, " In addition to our native Snipes, great flights
come annually from Norway, and other northern parts
of Europe; and in Northumberland they arrive in the
greatest numbers in the beginning of November. They

COMMON SNIPE. 27

seldom remain long in one situation, moving from place
to place, under the regulation of various causes ; so that
the sportsman, who has enjoyed excellent Snipe- shooting
one day, may find the same spots entirely deserted on the
following. Towards the end of March, or beginning of
April, Snipes, having nearly perfected their summer or
nuptial plumage, select appropriate places for nidification,
and the male bird commences his calls of invitation for a
mate. These are always uttered upon the wing, and
consist of a piping or clicking note, often repeated, and
accompanied at intervals by a humming or bleating noise,
not unlike that of a goat,* apparently produced by a pe-
culiar action of the wings, as the bird, whenever this sound
is emitted, is observed to descend with great velocity, and
with a trembling motion of the pinions. At this season
it soars to an immense height, remaining long upon the
wing ; and its notes may frequently be heard when the
bird itself is far beyond the reach of sight. These flights
are performed at intervals during the day, but more com-
monly towards the evening, and are continued during the
whole time that the female is engaged in incubation."
Mr. Selby, who was in Sutherlandshire in the summer of
1834, observed that the Common Snipe was very abundant
there in all the moory and marshy tracts.

Sir Humphrey Davy says, " In the heather surrounding
a small lake in the island of Hoy, in the Orkneys, I found,
in the month of August in 1817, the nests often or twelve
couple of Snipes. I was grouse-shooting, and my dog con-
tinually pointed them ; and, as there were sometimes three
young ones and two old in the nest, the scent was very
powerful. From accident of the season, these Snipes were

* In France, one of the names by which the Common Snipe is known, is
that of " Chevre volant."

28 SCOLOPACID^E.

very late in being hatched, for they usually fly before the
middle of July; but this year, even as late as the 15th of
August, there were many young Snipes that had not yet
their wing-feathers. The nest is very inartificial, the eggs
large, and the young ones soon become of an enormous size,
being often, before they can fly, larger than their parents.
Two young ones are usually the number in a nest, but I
have seen three. The old birds are exceedingly attached
to their offspring ; and, if any one approach near the nest
they make a loud and drumming noise above the head, as
if to divert the attention of the intruder.'1

Mr. Salmon, who, with his brother, passed three weeks
in the Orkneys in the summer of 1831, observes, " We
found the Snipe in abundance in every island wherever
there was the least moisture ; and their nests, in
general, were placed among the long grass, by the side of
the small lochs, and amid the long heather that grows upon
the sides of the hills." Mr. Hewitson met with several
nests upon Foula, the most westerly of the Shetland
Islands, among the dry heath on the side of a steep hill,
and at an elevation of not less than from 500 to 1000 feet
above the marshy plain.

Before tracing the Snipe into other countries, I may notice
that the nest is very slight, consisting only of a few bits of
dead grass, or dry herbage, collected in a depression on the
ground, and sometimes upon, or under the side of a tuft of
grass or bunch of rushes. The eggs, four in number, of a
pale yellowish or greenish white, the larger end spotted with
two or three shades of brown ; these markings are rather
elongated, and disposed somewhat obliquely in reference to
the long axis of the egg ; the length of the egg about one
inch six lines, by one inch one line in breadth. The feeding
ground of the Snipe is by the sides of land springs, or in

COMMON SNIPE. 29

water meadows; and in low flat countries they are fre-
quently found among wet turnips. A writer in the Maga-
zine of Natural History, describing their mode of feeding,
as observed by himself with a powerful telescope, says, u I
distinctly saw them pushing their bills into the thin mud,
by repeated thrusts, quite up to the base, drawing them
back with great quickness, and every now and then shifting
their ground a little.11 The holes made with their bills,
when thus searching for food, are easily traced. In my
own communication on the subject of Snipes, published in
Mr. London's third volume, I described a peculiarity in the
beak of all the species of the genus Scolopax. The end of
the beak of a Snipe, when the bird is alive, or if recently
killed, is smooth, soft, and pulpy, indicating great sensi-
bility ; but some time afterwards it becomes dimpled like
the end of a thimble. If the upper mandible be macerated
in water for a few days, the skin, or cuticle, may be readily
peeled off; and the bones thus laid bare exhibit an appear-
ance, of which the engraving here introduced is a magnified
representation.

The external surface presents numerous elongated, hexa-
gonal cells, which afford at the same time protection, and
space for the expansion, of minute portions of nerves supplied
to them by two branches of the fifth pair ; and the end of
the bill becomes, in consequence of this provision, a delicate
organ of touch, to assist these birds when boring for their
food in soft ground ; this enlarged extremity of the beak,

30 SCOLOPACID^E.

which it will be recollected is a generic distinction, possess-
ing such a degree of sensibility as to enable these birds to
detect their prey the instant it comes in contact with it,
although placed beyond the reach of sight. The food of
the Snipe consists of worms, insects, small shells with their
animal inhabitants, and minute seeds ; these last, perhaps,
not picked up designedly, but swallowed probably while
adhering to the glutinous surface of their more usual
animal food. A Snipe that had been slightly wounded in
the pinion, which was kept in confinement for some time by
Mr. Blyth, would eat nothing but earth-worms. When
the feeding ground of the Snipes becomes limited by the
effects of frost and snow, the birds suffer greatly, and soon
become very thin. Many go still farther south.

Muller includes our Snipe among the birds of Denmark.
M. Nilsson says it is common in Sweden, where, however, it
is a migratory bird, appearing in March, and departing soon
after the end of the breeding-season. So numerous are
these birds in the marshes in the vicinity of Gothenburgh,
that Mr. Lloyd, in his Field Sports of the North of Europe,
mentions having " bagged upwards of thirty couple of
Snipes in seven or eight hours." These were either the
Common, or the Double Snipe, Scolopax major, as he was
careless of wasting his powder and shot about the Jack, or
Half Snipe. Linnaeus, in the Journal of his Tour in Lap-
land, says, under date of the 14th of May, 1732, when
near Gefle, in the marshes, the note of the Snipe was heard
continually. Mr. Dann tells me the Common Snipe is far
more widely dispersed than the Great Snipe. It breeds in
extensive morasses and swamps in the mountainous districts
of Norway and Sweden, as well as in the small mosses and
bogs in the cultivated districts. From Scona to Lapland,
both eastern and western, it is widely distributed. The

COMMON SNIPE. 31

eggs are generally three or four, and the nest is placed on a
hummocky tuft of grass in the morass. They migrate
south in the middle of August, from the northern parts,
although they linger in the south of Sweden until October.
This bird goes in summer as far north as the Faroe Islands,
Iceland, and Greenland. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology,
says, it is found in all parts of Eussia and Siberia. It
breeds in Germany, Holland, and France. It is found also
in Spain, Provence, Switzerland, and Italy. It is common
at Corfu, Sicily, and Crete in winter, and is observed as a
bird of passage at Malta in September and February. Sir
Humphrey Davy mentions, that the Common Snipe breeds
in great quantities in the extensive marshes of Hungary and
Illyria. In 1828, in the drains about Laybach, in Illyria,
these birds were seen in the middle of July. Mr. Strick-
land observes, that it is abundant in the marshes about
Smyrna in winter, and it is said to go to Lower Egypt.

In winter the beak is dark brown at the end, pale reddish
brown at the base ; the irides dark brown ; from the base
of the beak to the eye a dark brown streak ; over the
streak, over the eye and the ear-coverts, a streak of pale
brown ; all the upper part of the head very dark brown,
divided along the centre by a single pale brown streak ;
back, dark brown, slightly spotted with pale brown ; inter-
scapulars, and scapulars dark brown in the centre, with
broad external, lateral margins of rich buff, forming four
conspicuous lines along the upper surface of the body; wing-
coverts spotted with pale brown, on a ground of dull black,
and tipped with white ; tertials barred with pale brown, on
a black ground ; the primaries dull black, secondaries the
same, but tipped with white ; upper tail-coverts barred,
alternately, with pale brown, and dusky black ; tail-feathers
fourteen, basal half dull black, varied on the margins with

32 SCOLOPACID^E.

pale reddish brown, on the distal half of the feather an oval
patch of pale chestnut, bounded by a dusky brown band,
and tipped with paler chestnut. The chin, brownish
white ; cheeks pale brown, ear-coverts darker ; sides, and
front of the neck, pale brown, spotted with darker brown ;
breast, belly, and vent, white; sides, and flanks, greyish
white, barred with dusky black; under tail-coverts, pale
yellow brown, barred with greyish black ; legs and toes
greenish brown.

A Snipe shot by myself in the first week in August, an
old bird in summer plumage, but with the autumn moult
just commencing, has the outer lateral margin of the inter-
scapular, and scapular feathers narrow, and almost white ;
all the parts of the plumage, on the back and wings, which
are pale yellow brown in winter, are in this bird of a rich
reddish brown ; the first new inter-scapular feather on each
side has just appeared, with its usual broad, buff-coloured
margin, affording a striking contrast to the narrower white
margins of the feathers lower down on the body.

The whole length of a Common Snipe is about ten inches
and a half ; the length of the beak about two inches and
three-quarters ; from the carpal joint to the end of the first
quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing, five inches ;
the sexes are alike in plumage, but the female exceeds the
male in size.

A young bird about two-thirds grown, with the beak
only one inch long, and with down still adhering about the
head, has the narrow, light-coloured margins, and the rich
red brown on the feathers of the upper surface of the body,
and wings, as in the old bird in summer.

JACK SNIPE.

(IRA LLA TOIiES.

S3

SCOLOPACIDM.

THE JACK SNIPE.

Scolopax gallinula.

Sculopcu; galiinula. Jack Snipe,

The Judcock,
Jack Snipe,

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 63.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit Birds, vol. ii. p. 59.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 106.
,, „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 125.

,, „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 206.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvi

„ „ Btcassine sourde, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 678.

THOUGH allied to the Snipes in its haunts and general
habits, the Jack Snipe is still distinguished by various pecu-
liarities. It is more decidely a winter visiter only, the in-
stances of its remaining through the summer in this country
being very rare. It is more solitary than the Common
Snipe, though sometimes found in pairs, but these seldom
get up together, or go far before they settle again ; and

VOL. HI. D

34 SCOLOPACID^E.

although it feeds on bare, boggy ground, yet when not
searching for food it chooses sheltered situations among
strong rushes, or coarse long grass, and the luxuriant vege-
tation common to moist grounds. In such places the Jack
Snipe is remarkable for its sluggishness, seldom taking wing
till almost trodden upon, which has induced French Natu-
ralists to call this species Becassine sourde, as though it were
deaf to the approach of an enemy, and instances have oc-
curred in which a Jack Snipe has allowed itself to be
picked up by hand before the nose of a pointer. Though
generally dispersed over the British Islands in winter, it is
considered to be less numerous as a species than the Com-
mon Snipe, and does not, when flushed, utter any note.
The Jack Snipe appears to have particular attachment to
certain localities, so much so, that a sportsman shooting for
years in succession over the same ground, knows exactly
where to look for any Jack Snipe that is in his country.
Thus Mr. Selby, who is a good sportsman as well as an
accomplished naturalist, says of this species, in reference to
his own locality in Northumberland, u the first flights gene-
rally arrive here as early as the second week of September,
as I have seldom failed to meet with it in a favourite haunt
between the 14th and 20th of that month," and I receive
similar accounts from other country friends with whose
communications in ornithology I am favoured.

This bird is to be seen in the London poulterers'* shops as
late as the first week in April in every year, and the plum-
age then exhibits all the bloom and brilliancy of the ap-
proaching nuptial period, but I have never seen a bird that
was killed in summer, or a British example of the egg.
Mr. Paget, in his sketch of the Natural History of Yar-
mouth and its neighbourhood, says, " Mr. C. Girdlestone
offered a sovereign to any one who would bring him a spe-

JACK SNIPE. 35

nincn of this bird shot in summer. In 1822 he had one
brought to him in June ; and in the same month, in 1824,
he himself saw a pair on Brad well common : about two
years after another specimen was shot. As, perhaps, no
one in the kingdom was ever more practically acquainted
with these birds, his authority may be considered indubita-
ble. Mr. Miller says he has had Jack Snipe's eggs brought
to him : they were smaller, and of a more elliptical shape
than those of the Common Snipe, which they otherwise
exactly resembled." The Rev. Richard Lubbock wrote me
word that the Jack Snipe referred to by Mr. Paget, as
produced by Mr. Girdlestone's offered reward, is now in his
possession. Mr. Lubbock says, " my lamented friend,
Girdlestone, sent it to me after it was set up. I got from
the man who shot it a full account of the particulars. He
observed that after the Snipes departed in April, one Jack
Snipe had still established his residence on the corner of a
small swamp, not three hundred yards from the fenman's
house. Stimulated by Mr. Girdlestone's reward, he went
often to look for it, taking care not to disturb it much, but
only to ascertain that it still remained. The middle of
May came, and sun and dry weather contracted the limits
of the Snipe's territory ; still it maintained its post, but
grew more and more sluggish as the season advanced, inso-
much that when flushed it did not fly more than twenty or
thirty yards. When June arrived, Hewitt, the fenman,
was of course quick in taking measures to secure the sove-
reign. On the 2nd of June he loaded his gun and went in
search of the Snipe ; it did not fly far enough to allow him
to level without the danger of cutting it to pieces, and ap-
peared still more feeble than formerly. He laid down his
gun, took his hat off, and after flushing it two or three

times, knocked it down as boys do butterflies. It was not

» -2

36 SCOLOPACID^E.

very lean, but still in poor condition, the plumage ragged
and the skin scurfy. Close examination did not give any
cause for supposing it to have been a wounded bird ;
indeed, in that case, it would rather have got stronger than
weaker, as time rolled on. I was with Mr. Girdlestone
when we found the pair of Jack Snipes upon Bradwell
common, which Mr. Paget mentions, but by my note
the time was May, and on the 8th of May we searched
closely again for them, but they had departed. On the
first of August 1833, a Jack Snipe was shot on Barton
fen, in my presence, a perfectly healthy, good- conditioned,
well plumaged bird. The man who shot it told me that
once, and only once, he had shot a Jack Snipe in summer
upon the same fen. He lives upon the broads and marshes,
and would doubtless have detected any, as he is quite alive
to the rarity of their appearance. The eggs which have
once or twice been offered to me as those of the Jack
Snipe, were those of the Purre, and I regret that I can
say nothing in favour of its breeding in Norfolk. I
think that some worm, or particular aliment must be
wanting here in summer, and that short diet made Mr.
Girdlestone's Jack Snipe so feeble and unhealthy. The
one shot on the first of August might be a migratory
bird.11

Some years ago, I was told by several residents in York-
shire, that a Jack Snipe's nest with four eggs had been
taken in that county, and was in the possession of Colonel
Dalton. Mr. Selby says, when in Sutherlandshire " the
gamekeeper of the Tongue district assured us that the Jack
Snipe breeds there almost every year. Sir W. Jardine
accompanied him to a spot where he had frequently seen
them in summer, but he was not so fortunate as to meet
with any." I am not aware that the eggs of this bird have

JACK SNIPE. 87

ever been obtained eitber in Orkney or Shetland. Sir
Humphrey Davy says, " I was informed at Copenhagen,
that the Jack Snipe certainly breeds in Zealand, and I saw
a nest with its eggs, said to be from the island of Sandholm,
opposite Copenhagen ; and I have no doubt that this bird
sometimes makes its nest in the marshes of Holstein and
Hanover. The Jack Snipe feeds upon smaller insects than
the Common Snipe : small white larvae, such as are found
in black bogs, are its favourite food, but I have generally
found seeds in its stomach, once hempseeds, and always
gravel."

I saw eggs of the Jack Snipe in the Museum at Paris, of
one of which I have an exact drawing. The egg is of a yellow-
ish olive, the larger end spotted with two shades of brown ;
the length of the egg one inch three lines by ten lines in
breadth. Mr. Dann says the Jack Snipe is far less nume-
rous in Scandinavia than either of the two preceding
species, but frequents the same localities. It however
migrates south considerably later ; he has met with them
on the Dofre Fi-ell as late as the end of September, after a
frost of some days1 duration with deep snow, and has seen
them at Lulea, on the Bothnian Gulph, in October. They
are not unfrequently to be met with as late as November
and December, in Sweden. M. Temminck, in the fourth
part of his Manual, mentions that this bird breeds in con-
siderable numbers in the environs of St. Petersburgh ; and
Pennant says it visits Siberia. Mr. Hoy is said to have
found the nests and eggs of the Jack Snipe at Falcon-
swaerd, in North Brabant. It is a winter visiter only to
France, Provence, and Italy. It is found in Sicily during
winter, and at Malta in March and October. Mr. Strick-
land mentions that it is abundant at Smyrna in the same
season ; the Russian Naturalists found it in the vicinity of

38 SCOLOPACID^.

the Caucasus. Colonel Sykes includes it in his Birds
of the Dukhun, and Mr. Blyth has obtained it in the vici-
nity of Calcutta.

The beak is dark brown at the point, pale reddish brown
at the base ; irides dark brown ; from the beak to the eye
a dark brown streak ; over that, over the eye and over the
ear-coverts a broad pale brown streak, with a narrow
darker one along the middle line of the posterior part ;
forehead and top of the head rich dark brown, not divided
along the middle by a pale brown streak, as in the Great
Snipe and Common Snipe ; back of the neck greyish brown,
varied with dusky brown ; back rich dark brown ; inter-
scapulars and scapulars nearly black, tipped with reddish
brown, both sets having broad external lateral margins of
rich buffy yellow : wing-coverts dusky black, edged with
pale brown ; primary quill-feathers dusky black, secondaries
the same, but ending in a white point ; tertials brownish
black, spotted and streaked with rich reddish brown ;
upper tail-coverts brown, edged with buff; tail-feathers
twelve, greyish black ; cheeks, chin, and neck, greyish
brown, spotted with darker brown ; breast, belly, and vent
white ; legs and toes dark greenish brown ; claws black.

The whole length eight inches to eight inches and a half.
The length of the beak one inch and a half; from the
carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the
longest, four inches and three-eighths.

Females are larger in size than the males, but not so
bright in their colours. In the plumage of winter the red-
dish brown parts are more inclined to ash grey.

Young birds have not the brilliant green and purple re-
flections observable in old birds.

SABINES SNIPE.

GRALLATORES.

39
SCOLOPACIDJE.

SABINE'S SNIPE.

Scolopax Sabini.

Scolopax Scdrinii Sabine^s Snipe, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 53.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 105.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol ii. p. 118.
JENVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 204.
EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 100.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvi.
Becassine Sabine, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 432.

THIS Snipe was first made known by the late N. A.
Vigors, Esq., in the fourteenth volume of the Transactions
of the Linnean Society, and it is due to that eminent Orni-
thologist to introduce it here in his own words.

" This species is at once distinguished from every other
European species of Scolopax, by the total absence of white
from its plumage, or of any of those lighter tints of ferru-
ginous yellow, which extend more or less in stripes along
the head and back of them all. In this respect it exhibits

40 SCOLOPACID^E.

a strong resemblance to the Scolopax saturata of Dr. Hors-
field, from which, however, it sufficiently differs in its gene-
ral proportions ; and I find no description of any other
extra European species of true Scolopax which at all ap-
proaches it in this character of its plumage. In the num-
ber of the tail-feathers again, which amount to twelve, it
differs from Scolopax major, which has sixteen, and from
Scolopax gallinago, which has fourteen : it agrees however
in this point with Scolopax gallinula, which also has but
twelve; but it never can be confounded with that bird,
from the great disproportion between the essential characters
of both ; the bill alone of S. Sabini exceeding that of the
latter species by one third of its length. In the relative
length and strength of thje tarsi, it equally differs from all.
These members, although stouter than those of S. gallinago,
fall short of them by •£$ of an inch : they are much weaker,
on the other hand than those of S. major, although they
nearly equal them in length. In general appearance it bears
a greater resemblance to S. rusticola, than to the other
European Scolopaces, but it may immediately be recognised
as belonging to a different station in the genus ; the two
exterior toes being united at the base for a short distance,
as in the greater number of the congeneric species ; while
those of S. rusticola are divided to the origin."

" This bird was shot in the Queen's County in Ireland,
by the Eev. Charles Doyne, of Portarlington, in that
county, on the 21st of August 1822 ; and was obligingly
communicated to me the same day. I have named the
species in honour of the Chairman of the Zoological Club of
the Linnean Society, whose zeal and ability have thrown
so much light upon the ornithology of the British Islands."

Mr. Vigors adds in a note, " Since this communication
was read to the Society, I have been enabled to record a

SABINE'S SNIPE. 41

second instance of this bird having been met with in the
British Islands. On the 26th of October 1824, a female of
this species was shot on the banks of the Medway, near
Rochester, and is preserved in the valuable collection of Mr.
Dunning, of Maidstone. The specimen was kindly com-
municated to me by that gentleman, and was exhibited to
the Zoological Club on the 23rd of November 1824. It ac-
cords in every particular with the specimen first obtained,
with the exception of being somewhat smaller. This dif-
ference of size most probably indicates the difference of
sex." This example passed recently into the possession of
Mr. Gould. A third specimen was afterwards exhibited at
one of the evening meetings of the Zoological Society in
London, by Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast. ." This bird
was shot by Captain Bonham of the 10th Hussars, at the
end of November or beginning of December, 182-7, near
Garvagh, in the county of Londonderry, being the second
individual killed in Ireland. In a letter to a mutual friend,
Captain Bonham remarks of this bird, that it sprung from
the side of a high heathery hill, from which common snipes
were at the same time raised, but that it did not call as
they do. His want of success in obtaining it before the
third shot, afforded Captain Bonham an opportunity of re-
marking its disregard for his presence, which was manifest-
ed by its alighting quite near again, after being fired at, in
the manner of the Jack Snipe."

Mr. Selby has since recorded a fourth example, which was
received by him from Morpeth, possessing all the character-
istics of Mr. Vigors's bird : the under parts were perhaps a
little darker, having fewer bars or undulations of the lighter
tint.

In 1836, Mr. Eyton, in his Bare British Birds, says, he
was informed by the Earl of Malmesbury that a Snipe of

42 SCOLOPACIDvE.

this species had been killed by his son, in the breeding-
season, near Heron Court in Hampshire.

From an article in the eighth volume of Mr. London's
Magazine of Natural History, there is reason to believe
that another example of this rare Snipe has occurred in
Lancashire ; but, singular as it may appear, this species
does not seem even yet to have fallen into the hands of any
Naturalist out of the British Islands, and all that is known
of the bird, or its habits, is contained in the notices here
cited.

On the 5th of March of the present year, 1845, another
specimen was shot on Appledram common, about two miles
south of Chichester. A. E. Knox, Esq., of New Grove,
near Pet worth, obtained this bird for his own collection,
and sent me notice of the occurrence.

The beak is dark brown at the point, paler reddish brown
at the base ; irides dark brown ; upper part of the head, the
back of the neck, back, scapulars, wing-coverts and tertials,
dusky brown, each feather varied by narrow transverse
bands of pale yellow brown, which are less numerous on the
back than over the wings ; primary quill-feathers dull black,
with black shafts; upper tail-coverts greyish brown; tail-fea-
thers with the basal half black, the terminal half chestnut
brown, spotted and barred with black ; the two centre fea-
thers have rather more, and the outer feathers rather less of
black than the others ; chin, neck, breast, and all the under
parts of the body, a mixture of dull brown and pale yellow
brown, in alternate narrow bars over the whole surface;
legs and toes very dark chestnut brown, claws black.

The whole length about eleven inches ; the beak two
inches five-eighths, or three-quarters ; from the carpal joint
to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest in
the wing, five inches.

BROWN SNIPE.

l,'RA LLA TORES.

43

SCOLOPACIDW.

THE BROWN SNIPE.

Macrorhamphus griseus.

Scolopax grisea,

Macrorhamphus griscus,
Scolopax grisea,

Macrorkamphus griseus,

n »»

Scolopax, grisea,

Brown Snipe, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 65.
„ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 106.

„ Longleak, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 103.
„ Snipe, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 205.
Red breasted Snipe, EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 36.
Grey Snipe, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iii.

Decassine ponctuee, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 679.

MACRORHAMPHUS. Generic Cliaracters. — Beak long, straight, rounded, rather
slender in the middle, the tip dilated, slightly incurved and rugose. Nostrils
lateral, basal. Legs with four toes, the outer toes connected at their base by a
membrane ; hinder toe touching the ground only at the tip ; lower part of the
tibia naked. Wings long and pointed.

THE BROWN SNIPE was first made known as a British
Bird by Col. Montagu, who described it in his Ornitholo-
gical Dictionary, and gave a figure of it in its winter
plumage in his Supplement. This example, which was

44 SCOLOPACIDiE.

killed in Devonshire in the month of October, is preserved
in the British Museum. According to Dr. Edward Moore,
and Mr. Bellamy, a second example has occurred in De-
vonshire, which is in the collection of Mr. Drew. A spe-
cimen was killed near Carlisle in 1835, which belongs to
T. C. Heysham, Esq. and which I have seen. A fourth
example was killed at Yarmouth in the autumn of 1836,
and is now in the possession of the Rev. Leonard Rudd,
residing in Yorkshire, who did me the favour to bring his
bird to London that I might see it. My kind friend, J.
H. Gurney, Esq. of Norwich, has two British killed spe-
cimens of this bird in his collection, one of which was
obtained in Norfolk so recently as the year 1840.

This bird has been killed in Sweden, and figured by
M. Nilsson under the name of Scolopax Paykullii in his
Ornithologia Suecica, supposing it to be new, but corrected
his oversight in his Fauna Scandinavia ; it has also lately
been included among the Birds of Greenland, by Pro-
fessor John Reinhardt of Copenhagen, in a paper pub-
lished in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Denmark.

This bird is very common in the United States of Ame-
rica, and is described by the American Naturalists, Wil-
son, Audubon, and Nuttall, in their respective histories of
the birds of that country. It was generally considered to
be a true Snipe, but the bill is intermediate in its length
between that of the true Snipes and the Sandpipers, and
some other peculiarities, in which it also differs from both,
as close examination will show, induced Dr. Leach to
propose for it a generic distinction, under the term Ma-
crorhamphus, by which it is now pretty generally known.
Mr. Aububon, in his account of this species, says, that
the Creoles of Louisiana call it Becassine de mer, an ap-
propriate name for the bird, since the beak is in structure,

BROWN SNIPE. 45

that of a Snipe ; while the habits, and great seasonal
change of plumage, are those of the marine Sandpipers.
The English names given to this bird are not so happily
chosen, being of more partial application. It has been
called, as the synonyms indicate, Red-breasted Snipe,
Brown Snipe, and Grey Snipe ; but the bird is only red
during summer, brown in the autumn, and grey in winter.

The Red-breasted Snipe, as it is called by Wilson on
account of the prevailing colour of its summer plumage,
" arrives on the sea-coast of New Jersey early in April ;
it is seldom or never seen inland ; early in May it proceeds
to the north to breed, and returns by the latter part of
July or beginning of August. During its stay, it flies in
flocks, sometimes very high, and has then a loud and
shrill whistle, making many evolutions over the marshes;
forming, dividing, and reuniting. They sometimes settle
in such numbers, and so close together, that eighty-five
have been shot at one discharge of a musket. They fre-
quent the sand-bars, 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 great numbers."

These birds, Wilson observes, " of all our sea-side
Snipes, are the most numerous, and the most delicious for
the table. They doubtless breed not far to the northward
of the United States, if we may judge from the lateness
of the season when they leave us in spring, the large size
of the eggs in the ovaries of the females before they depart,
and the short period of time they are absent." This hiatus
in their history has been supplied by Dr. Richardson in his
Fauna of North America, who says, " they are well known
in the fur-countries, and have an extensive breeding range
from the borders of Lake Superior to the Arctic Sea."

46

In the summer or breeding plumage, the beak is reddish
brown, darker at the point than at the base ; the irides
reddish hazel ; cheeks, top of the head, and back of the
neck, pale chestnut brown, streaked with black; upper
part of the back, the scapulars and tertials, nearly black,
edged and streaked with bright yellowish chestnut ; wing-
coverts and quill-feathers dusky ash brown; the lower
part of the back white ; upper tail-coverts white, spotted
with black ; tail-feathers barred alternately with black
and white, of which the black bars are broader than the
white bars ; sides and front of the neck, the breast and
belly, reddish chestnut, spotted and barred with black ;
sides, flanks, vent, and under tail-coverts white, tinged
with red and spotted with black ; legs and toes greenish
brown, the claws black.

From this state, these birds pass, during autumn, through
various shades of dark brown and ash brown, to the ash
grey plumage of winter ; when the cheeks, head, and neck,
are ash brown, varied with darker brown ; scapulars, wing-
coverts, and tertials, dusky ash brown, margined with
greyish buffy white ; the lower part of the back, upper
tail-coverts, wing, quill, and tail-feathers as in summer ;
breast and belly nearly white ; flanks and under tail-
coverts dull white, spotted with black.

The whole length of the bird is from ten to eleven
inches, depending on age and sex ; the beak also varies in
length from two inches to two and a half inches ; from
the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which
is the longest in the wing, five inches and five eighths.

Along the middle line of the upper mandible inside,
there is a row of minute horny points directed backwards ;
the food in this country was said to be worms, and small
marine bivalve mollusca.

CURLEW SANDPIPER. 47

CKA LL A TORES. SCOLOPA CIDM.

THE CURLEW SANDPIPER.

Tringa subarquata.

Numenius pygmaus, Pigmy Curlew,
Scolopax „ „ „ .

Tringa subarquata

Curlew Tringa,
Pigmy Curlew,

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 38.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 42.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 107.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 157.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 208.
„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. vi.

„ „ Btcasseau cocorli, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 60.9.

TRINGA. Generic Characters. — Beak of moderate length, about as long as the
head, sometimes slightly curved, rather flexible, compressed at the base, depressed,
dilated, and blunt towards the point, both mandibles grooved along the sides.
Nostrils lateral, pierced in the membrane lining the groove. Legs slender, lower
part of tibia naked ; three toes before, one behind, those in front entirely divided
to their origin, the hind toe articulated upon the tarsus. Wings of moderate
size, pointed, the first feather always the longest.

THE species last described leads, by an easy gradation, to
the true Sandpipers or marine Snipes, most of which, as

48 SCOLOPACHLE.

their name implies, frequent and obtain their living on the
sandy shores of the sea. These birds generally go in
flocks, sometimes including a considerable number ; and
they are remarkable for the change of colour, more or less
decided, forming their nuptial dress, or summer plumage,
produced by a partial moult, and also by the assumption of
colour, similar to that of the new feathers, in some parts of
those feathers which are not changed, the birds regaining
the colour of the plumage of winter by the general moult
which takes place in autumn.

One of the earliest notices of the Curlew Sandpiper, or
Pigmy Curlew, as a British bird, occurs in Boy's History
of Sandwich, in reference to a specimen shot in that neigh-
bourhood, and Pennant refers to a second example killed
in August, at Greenwich. This species was formerly con-
sidered to be a rare visiter to this country, but probably
remained in some instances undistinguished, when in its
winter plumage, from the Dunlin at the same season ; the
beak, however, is longer, rather more slender, as well as
more curved ; the legs longer and thinner, and the bare
part above the joint of greater extent : there is also a con-
stant and marked difference on the rump and in the upper
tail- coverts, which in this bird are invariably white, but in
the Dunlin the feathers along the central line of the rump
and upper tail- coverts are of the same colour as those of
the back. In their decided summer plumage, and in the
various consequent vernal and autumnal changes in both,
the differences are very obvious, the present bird changing
to red underneath, and the Dunlin to black, as the illustra-
tions here inserted exhibit.

There is reason to believe that a few pairs of this species
occasionally breed in this country. Mr. Gould shot a pair
not far from Sandwich in the perfection of their summer

CURLEW SANDPIPER. 4.9

plumage, during the last week of May 1833. I have ob-
tained this bird in June in the height of its summer
plumage from Norfolk, and have seen the young from the
same locality early in July. Mr. Heysham of Carlisle has
also recorded the occurrence of a very beautiful male in
nearly complete summer plumage, which was met with on
Rock Cliff salt-marsh on the 27th of May 1833 : the
stomach contained the remains of shrimps and sandhoppers.
In the autumn of 1834 a considerable flock frequented the
same locality : the specimens killed were young birds of
the year.

During autumn these birds in small flocks are not uncom-
mon in various localities. Mr. Thompson says this species
is a regular summer visitant to Ireland. It is seen about
the same period in Cornwall, Devonshire, and Hampshire.
More than twenty were exposed for sale on the same day
in Leadenhall market in London, in September 1837. It
occurs also during autumn in small flocks in Kent, Norfolk,
Durham, and Northumberland. Sir William Jardine has
met with it in Dumfries-shire, and it has been seen in small
parties on the shores and rocks of Scotland.

According to M. Nilsson this species visits Sweden, re-
maining there from spring to autumn, frequenting the eastern
part of Scandinavia, but has not been met with by Mr.
Dann in the western parts. The Red Sandpiper of Pen-
nant's Arctic Zoology is this species in its summer plum-
age, which is there stated to visit the shores of the
Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, and especially the mouth of the
Don.

M. Temminck says this bird breeds occasionally in Hol-
land, and that the eggs are yellowish white, spotted with
dark brown ; but the birds are chiefly seen on their passage
in the more southern parts of the European Continent,

VOL, III. E

50 SCOLOPACID^

some of them remaining in Sardinia during winter, going
northward in May. The Zoological Society have received
specimens from Tangiers, where, however, they are said to
be rare. It inhabits other parts of North Africa, going as
far south as Senegal and even to the Cape. It is found at
Corfu and is very numerous in Sicily from October to April,
and is seen at Malta on its passage in spring and autumn.
The Zoological Society have also received examples of this
bird sent by Messrs. Dickson and Boss from Erzeroom, and
M. Temminck says that it inhabits the Islands of the
Indian Archipelago.

Mr. Blyth has obtained it in India.

This species breeds in high northern latitudes in North
America ; and according to Mr. Audubon goes as far south
as Florida in winter. They feed on insects, small Crustacea,
and worms, which they obtain by probing in the soft sand
at the edge of the water.

The Curlew Sandpiper in its summer plumage has the
beak nearly black ; the irides brown ; the head and neck
all round reddish chestnut, slightly varied with small
streaks of black and white ; the back, scapulars, small
wing-coverts and tertials nearly black, each feather edged
with reddish chestnut ; the greater wing-coverts ash brown
edged with greyish white ; primary and secondary quill-
feathers nearly black with white shafts ; rump and upper
tail-coverts white with a few dark spots ; tail-feathers ash
colour with white shafts ; breast and belly reddish chestnut
indistinctly barred transversely with lines of black ; axillary
plume white ; vent, flanks, and under tail-coverts, reddish
white, barred and spotted with black ; under surface of
tail-feathers greyish white ; legs and toes greenish black.
The whole length about eight inches and a quarter; the
females rather larger than males : the wing from the

CURLEW SANDPIPER. 51

carpal joint to the end of the first feather, which is the
longest, five inches.

In autumn the under surface of the body of an adult bird
is a mixture of white and pale red in patches, and the dark
feathers on the back and wing-coverts are mixed with some
new feathers which are ash grey ; the quill-feathers dusky.

Young birds of the year in their first autumn have the
neck ash grey ; the feathers of the back, scapulars, wing-
coverts and tertials dark brown, margined with reddish
buff colour, which, later in the season as winter approaches,
change slowly to ash colour, with buffy white, and ulti-
mately with pure white edges ; under surface of the body
white tinged with red, becoming afterwards pure white.

Adult birds in their winter plumage have the beak
brownish black ; irides dark brown ; lore and ear-coverts
ash brown, bounded above with a streak of white; the
cheeks also white ; top of the head and back of the neck
ash brown, streaked and spotted with darker brown ; back,
scapulars, wing-coverts and tertials ash brown, margined
with white ; primary quill-feathers dusky black with white
shafts ; secondaries ash brown edged with white ; rump
and upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers ash grey, edged
with white ; chin, breast, and all the under surface of the
body pure white ; axillary plume pure white ; legs and
toes greenish brown, the claws black.

Average length of the beak one inch and a half; of the
leg with the bare part above the joint one inch and three
quarters. In the adult Dunlin the relative length of the
same parts are, beak, one inch and a quarter ; leg, one inch
and three eighths, but the white rump and upper tail-
coverts distinguish the Curlew Sandpiper from the Dunlin
at all ages and seasons.

E 2

52

GR ALL A TORES.

SCOLOPACID^E.

SCOLOPACIDM.

THE KNOT.

Tringa canutus.

Tringa islandica, Red Sandpiper, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 89.

„ cinerea, Ash-coloured „ „ „ „ 78.

„ canutus, The Knot, „ „ „ 76.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ islandica, Red Sandpiper, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 96.

„ „ Ash-coloured „ „ „ „ 97.

„ canutus, The Knot, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 109.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 1 38.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 213.

Calidris „ „ „

Tringa cinerea, B&casseau canut,

GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 627.

THE KNOT is by no means an uncommon bird in this
country from autumn through the winter to the spring, re-

THE KNOT. 53

maining sometimes as late as the beginning of May, and as-
suming the fine red tints of plumage peculiar to their breed-
ing state before they leave for those northern districts in
which they produce their young. Dr. Fleming mentions
having shot one in Sanda on the 15th of June 1808 ; but I
am not aware of any record of the Knot breeding in the
British Islands, nor do I know of any British collection that
contains its eggs. According to M. Nilsson, the Knot in-
habits the arctic portions of Sweden and Norway in sum-
mer, but no description of the eggs is given. Mr. Dann's
notes on this species are as follows : — " Except on the
coast of Scona and the southern parts of Scandinavia in
spring and autumn, these birds have not been met with
by me, nor have its summer haunts in Europe been clearly
ascertained ; there is, however, little doubt but that these
are in Finland and the north-eastern parts, as the bird
seems to make its appearance on the eastern coast of Scan-
dinavia first. It would be interesting to know whether we
are indebted to Europe, Iceland, or North America for the
vast numbers that appear on the eastern coasts of England
in autumn."

The Knot visits Iceland and goes to much higher northern
latitudes every summer, as reference to the Natural History
details of the various Arctic Expeditions from this country
will prove. Captain Sabine in his Memoir on the Birds of
Greenland, says, " The Knot was killed at Hare Island in
June." On Sir Edward Parry's first voyage these birds
were found breeding in great abundance on the north
Georgian Islands ; and on the second voyage a young male
of the year was killed in the Duke of York's Bay on the
17th of August. Dr. Richardson adds, "Knots were ob-
served breeding on Melville Peninsula by Captain Lyon,
who tells us that they lay four eggs on a tuft of withered

54 SCOLOPACID.E.

grass, without being at the pains of forming any nest." In
the Fauna Boreali Americana, Dr. Richardson says the Knot
breeds in Hudson^s Bay and down to the fifty-fifth parallel ;
the eggs are described as being of a light yellowish brown,
marked at the larger end with grey and reddish spots,
forming more or less a sort of zone, and but little spotted
towards the point. This bird in all its various states of
plumage appears to be well known to the ornithologists of
the United States.

Returning to the British Islands, Mr. Thompson sends
me word that the Knot is a regular autumn visitant to Ire-
land. It is also found in flocks on most of the shores of the
southern and eastern counties of England in autumn ; the
greater portion of these are young birds of the year that have
come southward from the breeding grounds, and the London
markets exhibit a good supply through the winter. They
are excellent birds for the table, and their good qualities as
food appear to have been long known. In the Norfolk
Household Book, which I have frequently quoted, and
which commences in 1519, are various records of rewards
to the fowler for bringing in Knots. Pennant quotes Cam-
den as saying " that these birds derive their name from
King Canute, Knute or Knout as he is sometimes called ;
probably because they were a favourite dish with that
monarch."

The birds appear to feed principally on aquatic insects
and the soft animals inhabiting bivalve shells. They
have been observed to swim with great ease, and are
stupidly tame on their first arrival in autumn. Sir William
Jardine mentions " that he once met with a large flock on
the east side of Holy Island, in the month of September,
which were so tame as to allow him to kill as many as he
wanted with stones from the beach, and he possesses

THE KNOT. 55

another specimen, in full plumage, killed by a boy on
Portobello Sands by the same means/1

M. Temminck says the Knot is seen in spring and
autumn in Holland, but that it is rare in Germany, France,
and the more southern portions of Europe, and is seen, but
very rarely, at Sicily and Malta. I am unable to trace it
as going to the eastward, but Mr. Blyth has obtained it in
the vicinity of Calcutta.

A male in perfect summer plumage obtained from Yar-
mouth so late in the season as the 25th of May 1820, and
from which the figure in the front of the illustration here
given was drawn, has the beak black ; the irides hazel ;
cheeks and round the eye chestnut red, with a few dark
brown spots between the beak and the eye, and on the
ear-coverts ; the forehead, top of the head and the back of
the neck reddish brown, streaked with dark brown ; back,
scapulars, smaller wing-coverts and tertials black, margined
with reddish brown and white ; greater wing-coverts ash
grey; primaries greyish black, with white shafts; second-
aries edged with white ; rump and upper tail-coverts
white, tinged with red, with crescentic bars of black and
edged with white ; tail-feathers ash colour, darker near the
margin, and edged with white ; chin, neck, breast, and
belly nearly uniform rich reddish chestnut ; flanks, vent,
and under tail-coverts white, tinged with red and spotted
with black ; legs, toes, and claws, bluish black.

The whole length of an adult bird ten inches ; from the
carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the
longest in the wing, six inches and a half.

Young birds of the year in autumn have the upper
surface of the body ash grey, each feather with two narrow
half circular bands near the end, the first of greyish black,
the ultimate band buffy white, later in the season pure

56

SCOLOPACID^E.

white ; the neck white, streaked with grey ; the breast
dull white, tinged with reddish buff.

Adult birds in winter have all the upper surface of the
body and the wing-coverts uniform ash grey ; wing-
primaries as in summer ; all the front of the neck, the
breast, and under surface of the body white, slightly
streaked with grey.

BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 57

GRALLATORES. SCOLOPACIDJE.

THE BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER.

Tringa rufescens.

Tringa rufescens^ Buff-breasted Tringa, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 142.
„ „ „ „ Sandpiper, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 214.

„ „ „ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 39.

„ „ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

„ „ Btcasseau rousset, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. pt. iv. p. 408.

I HAD the gratification of obtaining the specimen of the
interesting and prettily marked Sandpiper, from which the
figure above was taken, in the autumn of 1826, when at
Royston ; and soon afterwards made it known as a new*
visiter to England and Europe in the Transactions of the
Linnean Society. This bird was shot early in the month
of September 1826, in the parish of Melbourne, in Cam-
bridgeshire, in company with some Dotterell (Charadrius
morinellus) ; and passed immediately afterwards into the
possession of Mr. Baker of Melbourne, by whom the skin
was preserved, and of whom it was purchased by John

58 SCOLOPACIDvE.

Sims for me. A few years afterwards, Mr. John Sims,
who had then removed to Norwich, obtained a second
example of this species, which was killed at Sherringham
on the coast of Norfolk, and which he preseved for the
Museum at Norwich.

For the knowledge of a third specimen, I am indebted
to the Rev. T. Staniforth, of Bolton Rectory, Skipton, in
whose collection the bird is preserved. This gentleman
very kindly at my request, sent me word that his example,
which was a male, was killed at Formby on the banks of
the river Alt, about thirteen miles north of Liverpool, in
May 1829, and was sent to Liverpool market for sale along
with some Snipes. A fourth specimen, shot at Yarmouth
in the autumn of 1839 or 40, is now in the possession of T.
C. Heysham, Esq. of Carlisle, who did me the favour to
send his bird to London that I might see it.

Two specimens of this rare Sandpiper have since been
killed at Yarmouth, one in the autumn of 1841, the other
about the same time of the year 1843. These were re-
corded by J. H. Gurney, Esq. and Mr. W. R. Fisher.

M. Vieillot includes this species in his Birds of France,
on account of its having been found in Picardy by M.
Jules de Lamotte.

This bird was first made known as a species by M.
Vieillot, from an example obtained in Louisiana ; and it is
described and figured in his Galerie des Oiseaux, as the
type of the genus Tringa^ p. 105. pi. 238. It is also de-
scribed as Le Tringa roussdtre, Nouv. Diet. d^Hist. Nat.
2de edit. torn, xxxiv. p. 470, and Encycl. Meth. p. 1090.

From M. Natterer, we learn that this bird is common
in Brazil ; but though found also in Louisiana and occa-
sionally in the more northern states of America, it was not
known to Wilson or to the Prince of Musignano. Mr.
Nuttall, in his Manual of the Ornithology of the United

BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 59

States and of Canada, says, "this elegant species, some
seasons, is not uncommon in the market of Boston, in the
months of August and September, being met with near the
capes of Massachusetts Bay. My friend Mr. Cooper has
also obtained specimens from the vicinity of New York.
Its food, while here, consists principally of land and marine
insects, particularly grasshoppers, which abounding in the
autumn, become the favourite prey of a variety of birds."
Vol. ii. p. 113.

The figure in Mr. Audubon's work was taken from an
American specimen, procured at Boston. I regret, how-
ever, says the author, " that I can say nothing respecting
the habits or haunts of this bird, farther than, that having
seen a wing of it in the possession of my friend Captain
James Clark Ross, I think it probable that it breeds near
the Arctic Circle, as he received the wing from the sailors,
who had found it in the course of one of the numerous in-
land excursions in the desolate regions, from which these
intrepid navigators have recently returned."

This species is readily distinguished from all the other
birds of this genus by the peculiar markings of the under
surface of the wings.

The plumage and the state of the ossification of the tarsi,
prove my specimen to be a young bird of the year ; the
specimen obtained at Sherringham, of which Mr. John
Sims sent me a coloured drawing, and Mr. Heysham's ex-
ample, I believe to be also young birds, but whether they
had wandered from the north eastern shores of America to
the Arctic portion of Lapland, and had from thence accom-
panied the Dotterell, or other birds, in their southern
autumnal visit to this country, or had been bred in the
marshes of the counties in which they were killed, can only
be conjectured. M. Nilsson does not include it in his
Fauna of Scandinavia.

60 SCOLOPACID.E.

The beak is slender, and very slightly curved, three-
quarters of an inch in length, and greenish black ; from the
point to the gape it measures one inch, and from the gape
to the occiput is also one inch : the irides hazel ; the fea-
thers on the top of the head dark brown, approaching to
black, each feather edged with very light brown, giving a
mottled appearance ; the back of the neck light brown, the
dark spots formed by the centre of each feather minute ;
the back very dark brown, the extreme edges only of the
feathers light brown ; the wing-coverts brown ; the pri-
maries nearly black, tipped with white ; the shafts white ;
the tertials brown, edged with light brown ; upper tail-
coverts brown, with lighter coloured borders ; the tail
cuneiform, the centre feathers black, the shafts and edges
lighter ; the feathers on each side light brown, enclosed by
a zone of black, and edged with white ; the chin, sides of
the neck, throat and breast, light brown, tinged with buff;
abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts white, but pervaded
also with the buff colour of the higher parts ; the sides of
the neck spotted, from the dark centres of the feathers
occupying a larger surface than upon the front ; axillary
plume pure white ; under surface of the broad web of the
primaries beautifully mottled with dark specks ; under sur-
face of the secondaries ending in sabre-shaped points, pre-
senting a series of lines formed by alternating shades of
white, black and dusky bands, which in the adult bird are
well defined, and present a beautifully variegated appear-
ance, peculiar to this species. The legs are bare for half
an inch above the joint ; the tarsus measures one inch and
one quarter ; legs and toes brown, the claws black. Whole
length of the bird about eight inches. From the carpal
joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the
longest, five inches and a quarter.

BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 61

GRA LLA TORES. SCOLOPA CIDM.

THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER.

Tringa platyrliyncha.

Tringa platyrhynclia, Broad-billed Sandpiper, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.
„ „ Btcasseau platyrliinque, TEMM. Man. d"0rnith. vol. ii. p.

616.
„ „ „ „ „ vol. iv. p. 403.

THE flatness and breadth of the beak in this species has
suggested the names by which it is distinguished, and one
example of this rare Sandpiper having been killed in Nor-
folk, and recorded by the late Mr. F. D. Hoy, in the
tenth volume of the Magazine of Natural History, the bird
is entitled to a place in this work, and I quote Mr. Hoy's
original notice.

" The Flat-billed Sandpiper Tringa platyrliyncha, and
Becasseau platyrJiinque of M. Temminck's Manual, was
shot on the 25th of May 1836, on the muddy flats of
Breydon Broad. It was in company with some Dunlins
and Ring-plovers. From the season of the year, it had

62 SCOLOPACID^E.

probably acquired its summer plumage ; and it very closely
agrees with the description of the nuptial garb of the species
as given by M. Temminck. This bird is rather inferior in
size to the Dunlin, but may be always readily distinguished
from that species by the peculiar form of the bill, as well as
considerable difference in plumage. This specimen was
preserved by a friend of mine, who did not notice the sex.
It is probable that this Sandpiper may occasionally be
found on our eastern coasts during the time of its periodical
flights, but, from its similarity to one or two closely allied
species, has hitherto escaped detection."

A second example of this rare bird was shot on the oozy
banks of Belfast Bay on the 4th of October, 1844, as re-
corded by W. Thompson, Esq., in the Annals of Natural
History, vol. xv. This bird was in company with Golden
Plovers and Dunlins.

Although this species has been obtained, but very rarely,
in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Scandinavia,
as a reference to the works of Savi, Schinz, Brehm, Vieillot,
and Nilsson will prove, yet little or nothing of its habits
are known.

This subject, however, in its most interesting particulars,
those referring to the breeding-season, has now been com-
pletely ascertained by Richard Dann, Esq., who, during his
recent visits to Norway and Lapland, having ascertained the
breeding grounds of this species, has succeeded in obtaining
the old birds in their breeding plumage, their eggs, and a
young bird when just able to fly. Mr. Dann has most
liberally presented me with the eggs, the young bird, and
an old one. I am moreover indebted to his kindness for a
long series of notes for my use in this work, of the localities
frequented during the breeding season, by a very large pro-
portion of those birds which only visit this country for the

BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 63

winter. Mr. Dann's name, as well as information obtained
from him, has already appeared, on many occasions, in this
history, and his notes in reference to the Broad-billed
Sandpiper are to the following effect.

This Sandpiper is by no means uncommon during the
breeding season in Lulea, and Tornea Lapmark, frequenting
grassy morasses and swamps in small colonies, generally in
the same places as those frequented by the Totanus glareola,
our Wood Sandpiper. It breeds also at Fogstuen on the
Dovre Fi-eld mountains, about three thousand feet above
the level of the sea, in Norway, where it arrives at the
latter end of May. On its first appearance it is wild and
shy, and similar in its habits to the other species of the
genus, feeding on the grassy borders of the small pools and
lakes in the morasses. On being disturbed it soars to a
great height in the air, rising and falling suddenly like the
Snipe, uttering the notes too who, which are rapidly repeated.
As the weather becomes warm, its habits totally change,
skulking and creeping through the dead grass, and allowing
itself to be followed within a few yards, and when flushed,
dropping again a short distance off. It seems to lay its eggs
later than others of this tribe generally. I found the eggs
not sat upon on the 24th of June, and the last week in July
the young were unable to fly ; a period when all the other
Sandpipers are on the move south. The eggs were of a
deep chocolate colour, and its nest, like that of the Snipe,
was on a hummocky tuft of grass. Although I found the
young only half fledged the last week in July, and hunted
the morasses very carefully, I never flushed or saw a single
old bird, yet undoubtedly they must have been there,
so difficult is it at that period to get them on the wing, and
so entirely different from their habits in the spring. They
are said by M. Nilsson to be rare visitants to Scandinavia,

64 SCOLOPACID.E.

but they are undoubtedly numerously disposed, but from
their very small size and hidling habits, are difficult to be
discovered, added to the almost impassable nature of the
swamps they frequent. There were several small colonies
of them in different parts of the extensive swamp at Fogs-
tuen ; I procured five specimens there, and might have
obtained as many more, had I desired it ; I also procured
one nest with four eggs in it.

M. Schinz of Geneva, says, in his Fauna Helvetica, that
this Sandpiper has been taken in the vicinity of two or
three of the lakes of Switzerland, and that these captures
have always occurred in the month of August. M. Tem-
minck mentions that this species is found on several of
the islands of the Indian Archipelago, at Borneo, Sumatra,
and Timor, and he has been assured that it is also found
on the continent of India.

The adult bird, in the breeding season, has the beak,
which is one inch and one sixteenth in length, dark brown
at the point, inclining to reddish brown at the base ;
irides brown ; from the base of the beak to the eye a dark
brown streak ; over that and the eye a white streak, with
a brown central longitudinal line ; top of the head brown-
ish black, slightly varied with greyish white, and tinged
with ferruginous ; inter-scapulars nearly black with rufous
edges ; scapulars, wing-coverts, lower part of the back, and
the tertials, black, the feathers having broad margins of
buffy white or rufous ; the primary and secondary quill-
feathers black ; the shafts white ; upper tail-coverts black
with rufous edges ; the two middle tail-feathers nearly
black, longer than the others, pointed and margined with
rufous ; the others ash grey, margined with buff colour ;
chin nearly white, with minute dark specks ; sides and
front of the neck, and the upper part of the breast greyish

BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 65

white, varied with black spots and tinged with buffy red ;
belly, vent, and under tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and
claws, greenish black. The whole length of the adult birds
six inches and three-eighths ; wing, from the carpal joint to
the end of the first, which is the longest feather, three
inches and seven-eighths ; length of the tarsus five-eighths.

The young bird so closely resembles the parent in its
plumage at this season, that it is unnecessary to describe it.

The example figured by Mr. Gould in his Birds of Eu-
rope, was killed in autumn, and has the margins of the fea-
thers on the upper surface of the body almost white.

By the kindness of Mr. Bartlett I now possess a specimen
of this bird in its winter plumage which closely resembles
that of our Dunlin at the same season. The beak is dark
brown, almost black ; from the base of the beak to the eye
a brown streak, over that a broad one of white ; top of the
head, nape, back, all the wing- coverts and tertials ash grey,
the centre of each feather darker and the margin lighter ;
primaries black ; chin, neck in front, and all the under
surface, pure white ; legs blackish brown. The bird in this
state of plumage is well figured in the 16th Part of ' Gray
and Mitchell's Genera of Birds.'

The figure below represents one of the eggs which is
mottled with chocolate brown ; upon the others the choco-
late brown colour was uniformly spread over the whole
surface.

VOL. in.

66 SCOLOPACID^E.

GRALLA TORES. SCOLOPACWM.

THE LITTLE STINT.

Tringa minuta.

Tringa pusilla, Little Sandpiper,

„ Stint,

minuta, „ Sandpiper,
„ Minute Tringa^

„ Little Stint,
„ „ Sandpiper,

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 95.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii p. 115.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 109.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 147.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 212.

GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. v.

„ Becasseau ecliasses, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 624.

THE LITTLE SANDPIPER, or Little Stint, as it is also
called, from its diminutive size, goes through seasonal
changes of colour in its plumage like those observed to
take place in the Curlew Sandpiper and the Knot, already
described, but is more common in autumn than at any
other period of the year. The species was first mentioned
by Pennant as a British Bird from a specimen killed in
Cambridgeshire, and is most frequent on the southern and
eastern shores of this country. Indeed from the eastern

LITTLE STINT. 67

localities that will be quoted as within the geographical
range of this little bird, it is probable that it seldom comes
so far to the westward as the British Islands, when on its
way in the spring to the high northern latitudes in which
a portion of them every year produce their young. One
specimen was obtained by the Naturalists on Sir Edward
Parry's second Arctic voyage. M. Nilsson says it is found
in Sweden from spring to autumn. Mr. Dann's note, as
communicated to me, is as follows : The Little Stint is by
no means common, and the only specimens I have met
with have been in the autumn, in the flooded grounds on
the banks of rivers and lakes. On being approached they
squat down and allow you to advance within a few feet of
them. According to Mr. W. Thompson a small number
are seen every autumn in Belfast Bay. Mr. Heysham has
several times recorded the appearance of old and young
birds in autumn, in the vicinity of the Solway. Mr.
Thomas Howitt sent me notice of the occurrence of this
bird in the western part of Lancashire. The Kev. W.
S. Hore, with his friend Mr. Gutch, saw from forty to
fifty examples on the Laira mud banks near Plymouth,
in October 1840, and shot ten or twelve of them. They
are frequently observed on the sands of the coast of
Sussex. I have obtained them in the London market,
once in the summer plumage, once in that peculiar to the
winter, but more frequently in autumn. Mr. Plomley
sent me word from Romney Marsh, that a flock of thirty
was seen there in October 1839. They are frequent on
the coasts of Suffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Durham, in
the autumn : Bewick's specimen was obtained in Septem-
ber ; but they are not so often killed in the more northern
counties. They are most frequently found on the sandy
shores of the sea, and generally in company with the Dun-
lin or the Sandeiiing, or both, as they fly in small, and

F 2

68 SCOLOPACID^E.

sometimes in large flocks together. They select for food
aquatic insects, small Crustacea, worms, and mollusca. Of
their breeding ground, or their habits at that season, very
little is known.

M. Temminck says this species is observed on its passage
in spring and autumn, in Germany, Holland, and France.
M. Vieillot says that it has occasionally been obtained in
France both in summer and winter. Polydore Roux in-
cludes it as a bird of Provence.

The Zoological Society have received this bird from Tan-
giers ; and Dr. Andrew Smith obtained it in South Africa.
Mr. Selby mentions having seen specimens of this bird from
Italy in summer plumage ; it is said to be found in consider-
able numbers in the salt marshes of Dalmatia. It is found
in Corfu, Sicily, Malta, and Crete. The Zoological Society
have received specimens from Trebizond, sent by Messrs.
Dickson and Ross ; and M. Menetries, the Russian Natural-
ist, met with it in the vicinity of the Caucasus. Lastly, I
may add, that Major Franklin, Mr. Selby, M. Temminck,
B. Hodgson, Esq., and Mr. Blyth, have recorded that spe-
cimens from India agree exactly with the European bird.

In its summer plumage the beak is black ; the irides dark
brown ; the top of the head and the neck ferruginous, with
specks of black ; the feathers of the back, scapulars, wing-
coverts, tertials, and upper tail-coverts, black in the centre,
with broad ferruginous margins ; the point of the wing
nearly black ; the primaries black, with white shafts ; the
secondaries nearly black, tipped with white ; the tail, when
perfect, doubly forked, the feathers ash brown ; the chin,
breast, and all the under surface of the body pure white ;
sides of the neck, down to the front of the wing, and a
band round the front of the neck, ferruginous speckled with
black ; axillary plume pure white ; legs, toes, and claws,
dull black.

LITTLE STINT. 69

The whole length six inches ; the beak three-quarters of
an inch ; from the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the
first quill-feather, which is the longest, three inches and
three-quarters ; the length of the tarsus ten lines and a
half.

An adult bird in its autumn plumage, killed in Septem-
ber, has the beak black ; irides dark brown ; from the
base of the beak to the eye, and on the ear-coverts, a brown
streak ; above and below the eye greyish white ; sides and
back of the neck ash grey, streaked with darker grey ;
feathers of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials,
nearly black, with broad margins of reddish brown and
buify white ; quill-feathers dusky with white shafts ;
secondaries edged and tipped with white ; rump and upper
tail-coverts dark brown, edged with dull reddish brown ;
tail-feathers ash grey, margined with bufFy white ; chin,
breast, and all the under surface, pure white, with the
exception of a dusky band across the bottom of the neck in
front ; axillary plume white at all seasons ; legs, toes, and
claws, nearly black.

Young birds of the year, in their first autumn, have the
feathers of the upper surface of the body ash brown rather
than black, in the middle, with broad margins of bufFy
white, which soon become almost pure white.

The adult bird in winter plumage has the head and neck
ash grey, the central line of each feather being a little
darker than the margin. ; back, wing-coverts, rump and
upper tail-coverts, ash colour, the shaft of each feather
forming a decided dark line ; primary and secondary quill-
feathers as in autumn ; tertials ash brown, with lighter
coloured margins ; tail-feathers ash grey with narrow white
edges ; all the under surface of the body as in autumn ;
beak, irides, legs, toes, and claws, also as in the autumn.

70

GRALLA TORES.

SCOLOrACID/E.

SCOLOPACIDM.

; \&<&

TEMMINC1TS STINT.

Tringa Temminckii.

Tringa pucilla. Little Sandpiper, MONTAGU, Appendix to Ornith. Diet.
„ pusilla, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 112.

Temminckii, Temminck's Tringa, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 144.
„ ,, Stint, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 211.

„ „ Sandpiper, EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 44.

„ „ Tringa, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

„ Becasseau Temmia, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 622.

THIS diminutive Stint, named after M. Temminck, is still
smaller in size than the Little Stint last described, and is
the smallest of the British Sandpipers; it is also much
more rare than the Little Stint, and somewhat different in
its habits, frequenting the borders of rivers and fresh-water
lakes at a distance from the coast, like our Common Sand-
piper, T. hypoleucos, but is sometimes found on the sandy or
muddy creeks and shores of the sea.

TEMMINCK'S STINT. 71

Although not distinguished by Montagu from his Little
Sandpiper, the description given in the Appendix to the
Ornithological Dictionary, leaves no doubt that he had a
specimen of Temminck's Stint under consideration, but these
two European Stints have been confounded by others. Mr.
Thompson has not recorded the occurrence of Temminck's
Stint in Ireland. Mr. Couch, in his Cornish Fauna, says
that two specimens were killed at Swanpool, and are now
in the collection of Mr. Clement Jackson at East Looe.
Colonel Montagu's example of this species was killed in
Devonshire, and others have been obtained in the same
county since. I have seen specimens from the neighbour-
hood of Chichester, and have three British examples, in
different states of plumage, in my own collection. Mr.
Bond sent me word that he met with a pair of old birds in
the spring of 1839, on the margin of Kingsbury Reservoir
in Middlesex, and several young ones in the autumn of the
same year, obtaining one of the old ones and five young
ones. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns sent me notice of one
killed in Cambridgeshire on Foulmire moor, by Mr. Baker,
of Melbourne. Several have been killed in Norfolk, and
some in Yorkshire, one near Scarborough, another near
Hull, but they are more rare in the northern counties ; Mr.
Heysham, of Carlisle, has, however, recorded them as oc-
curring in Rock-cliff salt marsh.

M. Nilsson says it breeds on the shores of the seas of
Northern Europe, but the eggs of this bird, or its habits
at the breeding ground, are unknown. Its food is small
insects and worms.

This species is seen on its passage in spring and autumn,
in Germany and Holland ; M. Vieillot reports the same of
it in France. M. Schinz, in his Fauna Helvetica, says
it is occasionally obtained, in spring and autumn, on the
borders of rivers and lakes in Switzerland. At Genoa, and

72 SCOLOPACID.E.

in Italy, it is sometimes seen in May, but not every year.
Mr. Gould says it visits North Africa ; and Mr. Strickland
saw it at Smyrna in winter. It has been found in North
Western India. Mr. Gould mentions that specimens have
been received here from a high range on the Himalaya ;
B. Hodgson, Esq. has obtained it in Nepal; Mr. Blyth
finds it about Calcutta, and Colonel Sykes includes it in
his catalogue of the Birds of the Dukhun ; M. Temminck
says that examples from Timor and the islands of the
Indian Archipelago, are identical with those of Europe.

An adult bird, killed at a pond side in Essex, in the
month of May, and lent me by Mr. Henry Doubleday, has
the beak dull black ; the irides dark brown ; feathers of
the head and neck pale brown, speckled with dark brown ;
feathers of the scapulars and back, some ash brown, others
black with rufous margins ; wing-coverts nearly uniform
ash brown ; primaries dusky brown, the shaft of the first
quill-feather whiter than those of the others ; secondaries
dusky, but tipped with white ; tertials uniform dusky
brown ; tail-coverts dusky brown, those nearest the tail-
feathers almost black ; tail cuneiform, or somewhat gra-
duated, the central pair of feathers the longest, the darkest
in colour, and pointed ; the next feather on each outside
ash brown, the next ash grey, the three outside feathers on
each side white, tinged with light ash grey on the narrow
outer webs only, the outside feather on each side being the
shortest ; the chin white ; sides of the neck grey ; the
neck in front pale brown, spotted with dusky brown, and
tinged with buff; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts
white ; under surface of the wings ash grey, the shafts of
all the primaries white ; axillary plume pure white ; legs
and toes greenish brown.

The whole length of the largest specimen I ever saw five
inches and three-quarters ; length of the beak nine-six-

TEMMINCK'S STINT. 73

teenths of an inch ; from the carpal joint to the end of the
first quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing, three
inches and five-eighths; length of the tarsus eleven-six-
teenths, the bare part above half the length of the tarsus.

A specimen killed earlier in the season, had not acquired
the rufous margins to the dark coloured feathers of the
back and scapulars.

A young bird of the year, killed in the plumage of its
first autumn, has the beak black; irides dark brown;
head, neck, and upper part of the back, ash grey ; wing-
coverts, scapulars, and lower part of the back, ash brown,
each feather ending with a half circle of black, and a
minute terminal line of white ; primaries dusky black ;
secondaries the same, but tipped with white ; tertials ash
brown, with dark shafts, and tipped with white; central
tail-feathers elongated, pointed, ash brown, outside feathers
white ; chin, neck in front, breast, and all the under sur-
face pure white.

An adult bird, killed in October, has the head and neck
ash grey, varied with dark brown ; the back and wing-
coverts nearly uniform dusky brown, with narrow lighter-
coloured margins.

The American Stint, the Tringa pusilla of Linneus and
Wilson, is perfectly distinct from either of our British spe-
cies. It accords most nearly with Temminck's Stint in
size and measurements, but goes through the seasonal
changes of plumage peculiar to T. minuta, and has the out-
side tail-feathers ash colour. While penning this obser-
vation, I have specimens of the American Stint, as well as
several of both our species, before me.

The representations of Temminck's Stint here given,
were taken from an adult bird in spring, and a young bird
in autumn.

74

GRALLATORES.

SCOLOPACID^E.

SCOLOPACID/E.

SCHINZ'S SANDPIPER.

Tringa ScMnzii.

Tringa Schinzii, ScUnz's Sandpiper, EYTON'S Fauna of Shropshire, An. Nat.

Hist. vol. ii. p. 53.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxii.

„ „ Becasseau de ScUnze, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 401.

MR. EYTON in his Fauna of Shropshire, says, that a
specimen of this Sandpiper killed near Stoke Heath is in
the collection of Sir Rowland Hill. The specimen was
lent to Mr. Gould, who says, " We have compared the
individual from which our figure is taken, with others
killed in America, between which we could discover no
difference ; its shorter bill and white rump will at all times
serve to distinguish it from the other European members of
the group."

Another example in the Museum at Belfast, there is
reason to believe, was killed in Ireland.

SCHINZ'S SANDPIPER. 75

This Sandpiper, named after M. Schinz, the distinguished
naturalist of Switzerland, is not, however, the Tringa
Schinzii of M. Brehm, but an American species, the Tringa
Schinzii of C. L. Bonaparte, Prince Canino ; and I must
quote American Ornithologists for its habits and distribu-
tion. This species, was, however, unknown to Wilson.

Mr. Thomas Nuttall, who published his volume on the
Water Birds of the United States and of Canada in 1834,
says, " This species, so nearly related to the Purre or Dun-
lin, is also common to both continents ; penetrating inland
in America to the western plains of the Mississippi, and
inhabiting the shores of the small lakes which skirt the
plains of the Saskatchewan, and probably the remoter
wilds of the Arctic circle. According to Bonaparte, they
are rather common on the coast of New Jersey in autumn,
and Mr. Oakes met with this species in the vicinity of
Ipswich in Massachusetts. They are either seen in flocks
by themselves, or accompanying other Sandpipers, which
they entirely resemble in their habits and food, frequent-
ing marshy shores, and the borders of lakes, and brackish
waters. They associate in the breeding season, and are
then by no means shy ; but during autumn accompanying
different birds, they become wild and restless. Their voice
resembles that of the Dunlin, but is more feeble ; and
they nest near their usual haunts, by lakes and marshes,
laying four eggs smaller than those of Tringa alpina (the
Dunlin) of a yellowish grey, spotted with olive or chestnut
brown."

Mr. Audubon's account of this Sandpiper, published in
1835, is as follows: — "Although I have met with this
species at different times in Kentucky, and along our ex-
tensive shores from the Floridas to Maine, as well as on
the coast of Labrador, I never found it breeding. Indeed

76 SCOLOPACID.E.

I have not met with it in the United States excepting in
the latter part of autumn and in winter. Those procured
in Labrador were shot in the beginning of August, and
were all young birds, apparently about to take their de-
parture. My drawing of the two individuals represented
in my plate was made at St. Augustine in East Florida,
where I procured them on the 2nd of December 1831.
They search for food along the margins of pools, creeks,
and rivers, or by the edges of sand-bars."

I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Audubon for the
only specimen of this Sandpiper I possess, and from which
the drawing at the head of this subject and the following
description were taken. The bird I believe to have been
killed in spring. The beak is straight and nearly black ;
the irides brown ; the top of the head and back of the
neck ash brown, streaked with dusky ; scapulars and fea-
thers of the back ash brown, some assuming a deep black
colour in the centre and becoming rufous on the edges ;
wing-coverts ash brown edged with greyish white ; pri-
maries dusky black with white shafts ; secondaries dusky
brown with minute tips of white ; tertials dusky brown
margined with ash grey ; upper tail-coverts white ; two
middle tail-feathers pointed, longer than the others and
dark brown ; the rest ash brown ; chin white ; cheeks,
sides of the neck and upper part of the breast greyish
white, speckled with dusky ; axillary plume white ; belly
and under tail-coverts also white ; legs, toes, and claws,
almost black, tinged with green.

The whole length six inches and a half. From the
carpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather,
which is the longest, four inches and three-quarters.

PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 77

(,'/tA LLA '/>>/,'/>. SCOLOPACIDJE.

THE PECTORAL SANDPIPER.

Tringa pectoralis.

Trinya pectomlis, Pectoral Sandpiper, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 210.

„ „ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 42.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxii.

„ „ Btcasseau pectoral, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 397-

AN example of another American Sandpiper, the Tringa
pectoralis of C. L. Bonaparte has occurred in this country.
This bird was killed October the 17th 1830 on the borders
of Breydon Broad, an extensive sheet of water near Yar-
mouth in Norfolk, rather celebrated for the numerous rare
birds which have at different times been observed and shot
on its banks and waters. The person who killed it re-
marked that it was solitary, and its note was new to him,
which induced him to shoot it. The bird on dissection
proved to be a female, and was preserved by the late Mr.

78 SCOLOPACIDJE.

J. Harvey. It soon afterwards passed into the possession
of Mr. J. D. Hoy, who believing it to be undescribed as a
British bird, had selected it and sent it up to me for in-
spection. Mr. Audubon being then in London I exhibited
the bird to him, as a good authority for American species,
and he immediately confirmed the previous notion that
the bird was an example of the Tringa pectomlis of
America.

Since the occurrence of Mr. Hoy's specimen, another ex-
ample of the Pectoral Sandpiper has been obtained in this
country, and a third bird seen. D. W. Mitchell, Esq. of
Penzance sent me in June 1840 a coloured drawing of the
natural size, and a fully detailed description, with measure-
ments, of a Sandpiper, shot by himself on the 27th of the
previous month, while the bird was resting on some sea-
weed within a few yards of the water, on the rocky shore
of Annet, one of the uninhabited islands at Scilly. On the
following day another example was seen, but became so
wild after an unsuccessful shot, that it took off to another
island and escaped altogether. The close accordance of
the specimen obtained with the description of Tringa pec-
toralis in summer plumage in the Fourth Part of M. Tem-
minck's Manual, led Mr. Mitchell to a true conclusion as
to the species and its novelty and interest in this country.

Dr. Edward Clarke, who is well acquainted with British
birds, sent me word that an example of this rare Sandpiper
was killed near Hartlepool in October 1841.

This Sandpiper, like the last, was also unknown to
Wilson, and we must be indebted to later authorities for
our knowledge of its habits. Mr. Nuttall says, " This con-
spicuous species of Sandpiper, first detected by Mr. Say, is
by no means uncommon in various parts of the United
States ; migrating north, and perhaps west, to breed, as

PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 79

they are common in the remote plains of the Mississippi,
and retire at the approach of winter to the southern limits
of the Union, being met with at this season also in the
West Indies. According to D'Azara and C. L. Bonaparte,
they are found even in Brazil and at Montevideo. They
are killed in abundance on the shores of Cohasset, and
other parts of Massachusetts Bay, and are brought in num-
bers to the market of Boston, being very fat and well
flavoured. They arrive in flocks about the close of August,
and continue here, as well as in New Jersey, till the month
of September, and perhaps into October. In some in-
stances, solitary individuals have been killed in the marshes
of Charles river in Cambridge, about the 22nd of July;
these were in company with the flocks of small Sandpipers,
T. WUsonii of Nuttall, T. Pusitta of Wilson ; but whether
pairs may breed in the neighbouring marshes or not, we
have not had the means of ascertaining. While here they
feed on small coleoptera, larvae, and the common green
Ulva latissima, as well as some species of Fucus, or sea-
weed, on which they become very fat. They utter a low
plaintive whistle when started, very similar to that of some
other species. Like the Snipe they seem fond of damp
meadows and marshes, and solitary individuals are often
surprised by the sportsman in the manner of that bird.1'

Mr. Audubon in his third volume says, " This Sandpiper
is not uncommon along the shores of our Eastern States in
autumn and winter. It has also lately been found in Eng-
land, and I have seen a specimen of it in the possession of
William Yarrell of London, which was shot at no great
distance from the metropolis. I first met with this species
in the immediate vicinity of Dennisville, in the State of
Maine, feeding on the rocky bars of the river at low
water."

80 SCOLOPACIJLE.

The stomach of one examined by Mr. Audubon con-
tained the remains of small Crustacea, seeds, and fragments
of quartz.

I am in this instance also indebted to Mr. Audubon for
the specimen of Tringa pectoralis, from which the figure
was drawn and the following description taken.

The beak is dark brown at the point, orange brown at
the base ; irides dark brown ; feathers of the top of the
head dusky brown, with darker central streaks, and tipped
with rufous ; the back of the neck, the wing-coverts, the
back, and the tertials dark brown, with lighter coloured
margins ; primaries dusky black, the shaft of the first
white ; secondaries dusky black, each with a narrow edge
of white ; rump, and upper tail-coverts, and the two mid-
dle tail-feathers, which are the longest, black ; the rest of
the tail-feathers ash brown tipped with yellowish white ;
chin white ; the cheeks, sides and front of the neck, and
the upper part of the breast, greyish white tinged with
brown and streaked with dusky black in the line of the
shaft of each feather ; lower part of the breast, belly, and
under tail-coverts white ; legs and toes yellowish brown ;
claws black.

The whole length eight inches and three-quarters ; the
wing from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-
feather, which is the longest, five inches and three-eighths.

While the account of this Sandpiper was going through
the press, Mr. Mitchell very kindly sent me his specimen
from Cornwall for my use ; and this bird, killed as stated
on the 27th of May, has all the feathers of the back, the
scapulars, tertials, and two middle tail-feathers broadly
edged with ferruginous, which in my own bird, killed at a
different season of the year, are pale brownish white.

THE DUNLIN.

GR ALL A TORES.

81
SCOLOPACIDJR.

THE DUNLIN.

Tringa variabilis.

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 92.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 110.
» w « 11 l\2.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 108.
SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 153.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 209.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xviii.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 612.

IT will be observed by the first three pair of names here
quoted, from Pennant, Montagu, and Bewick, that the
Sandpiper called the Dunlin ,was long considered to be
distinct from that called the Purre, though in reality these
names referred only to the summer and winter appearance

VOL. III. G

Tringa alpina,

Dunlin Sandpiper,

n

cinclus,

Purre „

11

alpina.

Tlie Dunlin,

t)

cinclus,

„ Purre,

«

alpina,

„ Dunlin,

11

cinclus,

„ Purre,

11

alpina,

„ Dunlin,

11

variabilis,

Dunlin or Purre ,

11

•>i

„ or Purre,

n

a

Btcassc.au brunette,

82 SCOLOPACID^E.

of the same bird. The changes of plumage, however, in
this species became known to Montagu previous to the
publication of the Supplement to his Ornithological Dic-
tionary, and the subject has received further illustration
from M. Temmiuck and Mr. Selby. To avoid the per-
plexity which had attended the double nomenclature of
Tringa alpina and Tringa cinclus for one species, M.
Meyer, an Ornithologist of Germany, proposed to call it
Tringa variabilis, from the great difference observed in its
plumage at different seasons of the year, and this name ap-
pears likely to gain almost universal adoption.

This species, known all round our coast by some one or
more of the following names : — viz., Dunlin, Purre, (Sir
Thomas Browne writes it, Churr,) Stint, Ox-bird, Sea
Snipe, &c., is the most common as well as the most
numerous of all the Sandpipers frequenting our shores,
and may be seen there throughout the year, except for
a short time at their breeding season ; nor is it very often
seen inland at any other period. During autumn, particu-
larly, when the parent birds return to their marine localities
and are joined by their broods of the year, immense flocks
of these Dunlins may be seen busily employed close to the
edge of the sea, searching and probing for the minute
animals upon which they feed. They frequent sandy flats
and bars that project into the sea ; they are observed to be
incessantly upon the move, shifting their ground perpetually,
running nimbly along, or taking short flights from place to
place, frequently wading to follow the aquatic insects,
worms, mollusca, and the smaller thin skinned Crustacea,
which are put in motion by every receding wave. If
disturbed, the whole flock take wing together, and wheel-
ing along in half circles near the edge or the surface of the
water, each bird exhibits alternately a dark or light appear-

DUNLIN. 83

ance to the observer, as the upper or under side of its body
happens to be turned towards him.

During winter many dozens are shot for the table, on
various parts of the coast, and are considered to be very
good eating. In the autumn of 1 836, a few were sent to
the London market from Lincolnshire, where they had
been fatted in confinement with some Ruffs. These small
birds, from abundance of nutritious food, had increased
beyond their usual size, were very fat, delicately white in
colour, and by the party for whom they were purchased,
and by whom the birds were eaten, were said to be of
excellent flavour.

Mr. Thompson says it is abundant in Ireland, and a few
breed there. Mr. Macgillivray, in a communication to Mr.
Audubon, says, " about the middle of April these birds be-
take themselves to the moors, in the northern part of Scot-
land, and in the larger Hebrides, where they may be found
scattered in the haunts selected by the Golden Plovers,
with which they are so frequently seen in company that
they have obtained the name of Plover's pages. In the
Hebrides, from this season until the end of August, none
are to be found along the shores. The nest is a slight
hollow in a dry place, having a few bits of withered heath
and grass irregularly placed in it. The eggs are four in
number. If, during incubation, a person approaches their
retreats, the male especially, but frequently the female also,
flies up to meet the intruder, settles on a tuft near him, or
rims along and uses the same artifices for decoying him
from the nest or young as the Plover or King Dotterel.
Towards the end of August, the different colonies betake
themselves to the sandy shores. On a large sand-ford in
Harris, I have at this season seen many thousands at once,
running about with extreme activity in search of food.

84 SCOLOPACIDJL

This place seemed a general rendezvous, and after a few
weeks the host broke up and dispersed, few, if any, remain-
ing during the winter." Of this bird in Sutherlandshire,
Mr. Selby says, " we found it abundant upon the margins
of all the lochs. The nest is usually placed under the shelter
of some tuft or bush, removed a short distance from the
usual water-line of the loch." Mr. Salmon, in reference to
Orkney, says, " this little bird we found in abundance in
almost every island, associating with the Snipe ; and their
nests, like those of the Snipes, were placed upon the
ground, among the long grass and heather, and invariably
contained four eggs, which were much smaller than those of
the Snipe, although similar as to colour. The birds ap-
peared to sit very close, and suffered us to approach very
near their nests before they attempted to fly ; in two
instances I took them off their eggs. After they have been
disturbed, they make every effort to decoy you from their
nests, by pretending to be lame, &c. Both the male and
female have a black patch upon their breasts ; in the
former, rather darker than in the latter, otherwise we could
not perceive any difference in colour between the sexes."

Mr. Dunn says, " The Dunlin is plentiful in the Shetland
Isles, but that their nests are very difficult to find. I have
had the bird rise from close under my feet in the breeding
season, and resort to every trick to draw my attention
towards itself, thereby the more plainly convincing me that
the nest was close to me, and yet I have been unsuccessful
in my search, so secretly do they make it. If, when only
slightly wounded, the Dunlin should fall on the water it can
readily raise itself and fly off."

The eggs are greenish white, blotched and spotted with
two shades of dark red brown ; they measure one inch four
lines and a half in length, and eleven lines and a half in
breadth.

DUNLIN. 85

Pennant mentions having received the eggs of this bird
from Denmark. Mr. Dunn's notes to me are as follow : —
" This bird breeds in Scona in the bogs and morasses near
the coast in considerable numbers ; they breed also on the
south-western coast of Norway between Egersund and Sta-
vanger, but northward to Drontheim I met with only a few
stragglers. They soar during the pairing season in the air
like the Tringa platyrhynca, but to no great height, utter-
ing a note in some degTee like that bird. In September I
have seen flocks of them at Gefle on the Bothnian Gulf,
but have never fallen in with them in the interior, nor met
with a single specimen in any part of Lapland."

These birds go every season to the Faroe Islands, Ice-
land, and Greenland. Major Sabine, in his Natural History
Appendix to Sir Edward Parry's first voyage, says it is rare
on the coast of Davis" Strait and of Baffin's Bay, and in the
islands of the Polar Sea. On the second voyage it was
found breeding on Melville Peninsula. Captain James
Clark Boss, in his Natural History of the last Arctic
Voyage, says, " this bird was very abundant during the
breeding season near Felix Harbour, building its nest in
the marshes and by the sides of the lakes."

Dr. Richardson, in his Fauna Boreali Americana, says of
the Dunlin, " This bird, which breeds plentifully on the
Arctic coasts of America, was killed by us on the Saskat-
chewan plain on its passage northwards, and in autumn on
the shores of Hudson's Bay." This is a well-known
species in the United States, and has an extensive southern
range in winter according to American ornithologists, going
to Carolina and Florida, to Jamaica and other islands, to
Cayenne, Vera Cruz, and Mexico*

Eastward of the British Islands the Dunlin is seen in
autumn on the shores of the European Continent generally.

88

GRALLATORES.

SCOLOPACID^E.

SCOLOPACID.E.

THE PUKPLE SANDPIPEE.

Tringa maritima.

Tringa maritima, Selninger Sandpiper,
Lineolniensis, Black „

nigricans, Purple „

The Knot,
Selninger Sandpiper,

PENX. Brit. Zool. yol. ii. p.

81.

canutus,
maritima,
gtriata,
maritima,

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit Birds, vol. ii. p. 92.
w •» » » 94.

Purple „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 110.

Purple or Rock Tringa, SELBY, Brit Ornith. v. ii. p. 150.
„ Sandpiper, JENYXS, Brit Vert. p. 211.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt xix.

Btcasxau violet, TEMM. Man, d'Ornith. voL iL p.

619.

THE PURPLE SANDPIPER, though very well known in
this country, is not very numerous as a species, but is found
on various parts of our coast apparently preferring those
which are rocky rather than extensive flats of sand. It is
generally to be found from September throughout the
whiter till the following April or May, when the greater
portion of them quit our shores, and pass in many instances
to high northern latitudes for the breeding season. That

PURPLE SANDPIPER. 89

some, however, do not go to any great distance, and that
a tew pairs may even produce their young on the British
Islands, seems certain. The old hirds, as in the instance
of the Turnstone, are observed to be absent but a very
short time from their usual haunts on the coast; young
birds returning with them, or following soon after. On
the Farn Islands, on one occasion, Mr. Selby met with a
family of this species, the young of which were scarcely
able to fly.

It is, however, more commonly considered as only a
winter visiter, and is seen busily employed turning over
stones and searching among sea- weed for the smaller
shrimps and sandhoppers which are to be found there,
and this bird feeds besides on young crabs, marine insects,
and the soft bodies of animals inhabiting small shells.

It visits Ireland in winter, but is considered rare ; has
been killed on the coast both of North and South Wales ;
is more common in Cornwall, where Mr. Rodd sends me
word it has been killed in summer as well as in winter.
Various authorities mention it as appearing constantly in
winter on the shores of Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Sussex,
Kent, Essex, Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Durham. Mr. Dunn
says, " The Purple Sandpiper is very numerous in Orkney
and Shetland, appearing early in spring, and leaving again
at the latter end of April, about which time it collects in
large flocks, and may be found on the rocks at ebb-tide,
watching each retiring wave, running down as the water
falls back, picking small shell-fish off the stones, and dis-
playing great activity in escaping the advancing sea. It
does not breed there."

Mr. Dann remarks, that "unlike the others of this
tribe, the Purple Sandpiper does not altogether quit the
Scandinavian coast in winter : as the ice accumulates and

88

GRALLATORES.

SCOLOPACIDvE.

SCOLOPACIDJE.

THE PURPLE SANDPIPER.

Tringa maritima.

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 80.

* 81.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 92.

Tringa maritima, Selninger Sandpiper.

„ LincolniensiSj Black „

,, nigrieans, Purple „

„ canutus, The Knot,

„ maritima, Selninger Sandpiper, ,, „ „ „ 94.

„ striata, Purple „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 110.

„ maritima, Purple or Rock Tringa, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. v. ii. p. 150.
„ „ „ Sandpiper, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 211.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xix.

w „ B£casseau violet, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p.

619.

THE PURPLE SANDPIPER, though very well known in
this country, is not very numerous as a species, but is found
on various parts of our coast apparently preferring those
which are rocky rather than extensive flats of sand. It is
generally to be found from September throughout the
winter till the following April or May, when the greater
portion of them quit our shores, and pass in many instances
to high northern latitudes for the breeding season. That

PURPLE SANDPIPER. 89

some, however, do not go to any great distance, and that
a few pairs may even produce their young on the British
Islands, seems certain. The old birds, as in the instance
of the Turnstone, are observed to be absent but a very
short time from their usual haunts on the coast ; young
birds returning with them, or following soon after. On
the Farn Islands, on one occasion, Mr. Selby met with a
family of this species, the young of which were scarcely
able to fly.

It is, however, more commonly considered as only a
winter visiter, and is seen busily employed turning over
stones and searching among sea-weed for the smaller
shrimps and sandhoppers which are to be found there,
and this bird feeds besides on young crabs, marine insects,
and the soft bodies of animals inhabiting small shells.

It visits Ireland in winter, but is considered rare ; has
been killed on the coast both of North and South Wales ;
is more common in Cornwall, where Mr. Rodd sends me
word it has been killed in summer as well as in winter.
Various authorities mention it as appearing constantly in
winter on the shores of Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Sussex,
Kent, Essex, Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Durham. Mr. Dunn
says, " The Purple Sandpiper is very numerous in Orkney
and Shetland, appearing early in spring, and leaving again
at the latter end of April, about which time it collects in
large flocks, and may be found on the rocks at ebb-tide,
watching each retiring wave, running down as the water
falls back, picking small shell-fish off the stones, and dis-
playing great activity in escaping the advancing sea. It
does not breed there. "

Mr. Dann remarks, that "unlike the others of this
tribe, the Purple Sandpiper does not altogether quit the
Scandinavian coast in winter : as the ice accumulates and

90 SCOLOPACID.E.

the sea freezes up, it betakes itself to the outermost range
of islands and rocks with which that coast is so numerously
studded, feeding among the sea-weed left bare by the
slight fall of the tide, or the marine insects which it finds
at the edge of the water. I have procured specimens
throughout the winter on the Swedish coast, and during
very severe frosts. It is perfectly fearless. During
windy weather, when not feeding, it seeks shelter in the
crevices of the rocks. Its plumage in winter is very
thick, and the bird appears much larger than in summer."

This bird visits the Faroe islands, Iceland, Greenland,
and Spitzbergen. M. K. E. Von Baer, in his description
of animal life in Nova Zembla, mentions that eight species
of Birds were found there, one of which is the Purple Sand-
piper. On Sir Edward Parry's first voyage these birds
were found abundant in Davis' Straits, and Baffin's Bay.
During the second voyage they were seen on the rocks at
low-water mark on Winter Island, in June. On the
third voyage they were seen at Port Bowen, and on the
fourth voyage they were seen abundant along the shores of
Hecla Cove. Captain James Clark Eoss, in reference to
the last long voyage, says they were seen in considerable
numbers near Fury Point. Dr. Richardson says, "this
bird breeds abundantly on Melville Peninsula and the
shores of Hudson's Bay. Its eggs are pyriform, sixteen
lines and a half long, and an inch across at their greatest
breadth. Their colour is yellowish grey, interspersed with
small irregular spots of pale hair brown, crowded at the
obtuse end, and rare at the other."

This species is well known to the Ornithologists of North
America, where it has an extensive range.

East of the British Islands, M. Temminck says, the
Purple Sandpiper is very common on the coast of Holland.

PURPLE SANDPIPER. 91

M. Vieillot says it is found in Normandy and Picardy, and
it is seen in spring and autumn in Provence, Switzerland,
and Italy.

The prevailing bluish lead colour of this species at once
distinguishes it from every other British Sandpiper. The
beak is dark reddish brown ; the irides hazel ; the adult
male bird, in its summer plumage, has the head and neck
all round dusky grey, streaked with darker grey ; back,
scapulars, and tertials, bluish black, some of the feathers
margined with white, others with reddish buff; wing-
coverts dove grey, with lighter coloured margins ; primaries
dusky black, the shafts white, the outer narrow web of
each feather darker than the broader inner web ; secondaries
tipped with white ; upper tail-coverts almost black ; mid-
dle tail-feathers brownish black, long and pointed, the
others ash brown with lighter coloured edges ; chin white ;
breast nearly white, spotted with grey : vent, and under
tail- co verts white, with an occasional streak of grey ; legs
and toes dark reddish brown, the hind toe directed in-
wards ; the claws black.

The whole length eight inches and a half. From the
carpal joint of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather,
which is the longest, five inches. The females are rather
larger than males.

A bird killed in November, has the head, neck, back,
and upper tail-coverts, uniform lead grey; the wing-coverts
and tertials only with greyish white edges ; the under
surface changing from bluish grey to white. In another
specimen killed later in the year, the breast and all the
under parts are nearly white, with a few spots of grey.

92

GRALLATORES.

RALLID^E.

HALLWAY.

THE LANDRAIL,

OR CORN CRAKE.

Crex pratensis.

Gallinula crex, Crake Gallinule, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 119.

Rallus,

Gallinula „ Corn Crake,
Ortygomctra „ „ „

Crex pratensis, Meadow n
„ „ Corn „

Gallinula cre,v, Landrail

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 138.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 98.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 176.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 217.

GOULD, Birds of "Europe, pt. i.

„ „ Poule d'eau de Genet, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 686.

CREX. Generic Characters. — Bill shorter than the head, thick at the base,
subcultrated, compressed ; the cuhnen gradually deflecting from the forehead to
the point of the bill ; lateral furrow of the upper mandible broad, and occupying
more than half its length ; angle of the under mandible bending upwards ; both
mandibles of an equal length. Nostrils concave, lateral, linear, ovoid, pierced in
a membrane occupying the mandibular furrow in the middle of the bill Wings

LANDRAIL. 93

armed with a spine, and having the second and third quill-feather the longest.
I . _- >trong, of mean length, with the lower part of the tibiae naked. Feet four-
toed, three before, one behind. Toes long, slender, and cleft to their base, with-
out any lateral membrane ; hind toe resting almost wholly on the ground. Claws
arcuate, compressed, and sharp-pointed. — Selby.

THE LANDRAIL is a summer visiter to this country, gene-
rally making its appearance in the southern counties
during the last ten days of April ; but in Yorkshire, and
still farther north, as mentioned by Mr. Selby and others,
it is seldom observed or heard till the second week in May.
It frequents the long grass of marshy water-meadows near
rivers, beds of osiers or reeds, and fields of green corn,
where its presence is indicated by its creaking note ; and
hence one of its names, that of Corn Crake, or Corn
Creak, by which latter term it is also known in Ireland.
This call-note may be imitated by passing the edge of the
thumb-nail, or a piece of wood, briskly along the line of
the points of the teeth of a small comb ; and so similar
is the sound, that the bird may be decoyed by it within
a very short distance. The male bird is the caller, and he
continues the note until a mate be found and incubation
commenced ; after which he is less frequently heard. A
Landrail, kept some time in confinement, uttered besides a
low guttural sound when alarmed or disturbed. Pennant
mentions, that Landrails were plentiful in Anglesey about
the third week in April, and the birds were supposed to
pass from thence to Ireland ; it was common to kill seven
or eight in a morning. Mr. Selby mentions, also, that he
has killed eight or ten in the course of an hour, in a single
field, in the rich meadows upon the banks of the Trent,
below Newark ; a favourite locality, which is annually
visited by great numbers of Crakes.

The food of the Landrail consists of worms, slugs, snails,
small lizards and insects, with portions of vegetable matter

94 RALLID^E.

and a few seeds. The nest is formed on the ground, of
dry plants ; and a field of thick grass, clover, or green
corn, is generally the situation chosen : the eggs, from
seven to ten in number, are produced in the middle of
June ; they are of a pale reddish white, spotted and
speckled with ash grey and pale red brown ; one inch six
lines in length, by one inch and one line in breadth.
Daniels says, that in 1808, as some men were mowing
grass upon a little island belonging to the fishing water
of Low Bells on Tweed, they cut the head from a Corn
Crake, that was sitting upon eleven eggs : about twenty
yards from this spot, they had nearly destroyed a Partridge
in a similar way, which was sitting upon eighteen eggs ;
but, observing her, the mowers took the eggs from the
nest of the Corn Crake, and put them into that of the
Partridge. Two days after she brought out the whole
brood, which were seen running about the island. The
Partridge catered for them all, and was observed to
gather her numerous family under her wings without any
distinction. Young Landrails are at first covered with
black down, but soon acquire their first feathers, and,
according to Mr. Selby's observation, are able to fly in
about six weeks.

During the early part of the Partridge shooting-season
in this country, many Landrails are killed by sportsmen,
who, after the barley is cut, find them most frequently
in seed clover. This bird does not take wing very
readily, and flies but slowly, with its legs hanging down,
seldom going farther than the nearest hedge, or other
covert, in which it can hide itself; and is rarely flushed
a second time. Landrails are considered most delicate as
articles of food, and in such high estimation, that two
Landrails are said to be a present for a queen. Drayton,

LANDRAIL. 95

of old, highly valued the Rayle, which, he says, " seldom
comes but upon rich men's spits." The usual weight of a
Landrail is about six ounces ; but I have seen one instance,
and heard of another, in which this bird weighed eight
ounces and a half. Pennant mentions one that weighed
eight ounces.

Mr, Jesse, in his remarks on this bird, says, " I have
met with an incident in the Natural History of the Corn
Crake which I believe is perfectly accurate, having been in-
formed that the bird will put on the semblance of death
when exposed to danger from which it is unable to escape.
The incident was this : — A gentleman had a Corn Crake
brought to him by his dog, to all appearance quite dead.
As it lay on the ground, he turned it over with his foot,
and felt convinced that it was dead. Standing by, how-
ever, in silence, he suddenly saw it open an eye. He then
took it up ; its head fell ; its legs hung loose, and it
appeared again quite dead. He then put it in his pocket,
and before long he felt it all alive, and struggling to
escape. He then took it out ; it was as lifeless as before.
Having laid it again upon the ground and retired to some
distance, the bird in about five minutes warily raised its
head, looked round, and decamped at full speed. I have
seen a similar circumstance take place with a Partridge,
and it is well-known that many insects will practise the
same deception. They probably congregate before they
migrate, as I am assured that a considerable number were,
on one occasion, seen together near the sea-shore in the
neighbourhood of Swansea, about the time they usually
take their departure from this country."

The Rev. Robert Holdsworth wrote me word that he
has been at the killing of thirteen couple in one day, in
Devonshire, in the month of September. Some years since,

96 RALLHLE.

two sportsmen while partridge-shooting during the third
week of September, in the neighbourhood of Battle, only a
few miles from the coast in Sussex, killed fifteen couple of
Landrails in one day, and seven couple the next day.

These birds usually leave this country early in October,
but one was killed near London in the month of December
1834; one near Yarmouth in January 1836: one is
recorded to have been killed in Ireland in January 1839.

The Landrail is common in valleys near rivers in Scot-
land, and abundant in Orkney and Shetland. It also
visits Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, going as far north
as the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It is abundant, as
might be expected, over the European Continent ; and Mr.
Strickland saw it at Smyrna in winter. Dr. Heineken
includes the Landrail among the birds of Madeira ; Mr.
Wild mentions having seen it at Algiers, and it visits
Malta and Sicily on its way northward in spring.

The beak is pale brown ; the irides hazel ; over the eye
and ear-coverts, and on the cheeks, ash grey ; the head
and neck all round, the back, scapulars, and tertials, pale
yellowish brown, each feather having an elongated central
streak of very dark brown ; tail-coverts and tail-feathers
the same ; wings and wing-coverts rich reddish chestnut ;
quills brown, tinged with red ; breast, belly, flanks, and
under tail-coverts pale buff, barred transversely on the
sides and flanks with darker reddish brown ; legs, toes,
and claws, pale yellowish brown. The whole length rather
less than ten inches. From the carpal joint to the end
of the longest feather in the wing, five inches four lines.
Females are rather smaller than males, and, as well as
young birds of the year, have the ash grey on the sides of
the head less distinct and pure, and the chestnut colour of
the wing mixed with darker reddish brown.

SPOTTED CRAKE. 97

GRALLA TORES. RALLID&.

THE SPOTTED CRAKE.

Crex porzana.

Gallinula porzana, Spotted Gallinule, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 117.

Rallus
Gallinula

n

Crex

n

Zapornia
Gallinula

„ Water Hen, MONTAGU, Omith. Diet.

„ Gallinule, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, voL ii. p. 140.

„ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 99.

„ Crake, SELB v, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 1 79.

„ „ JENYNS, Brit. An. p. 218.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvi.

Poule d'eau Marouette, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 688.

THIS prettily marked bird is, like the Landrail last
described, a summer visiter to this country, which Mon-
tagu mentions having seen as early as the 14th of March,
and as late as the 23rd of October. Mr. Blyth has re-
corded one instance in which a single specimen was seen
by himself in the London market in the month of January
1834, and I have notes of three that were killed in
November 1841, one of them at Dagenham. Compared

VOL. III.

98 RALLID^E.

with the Landrail, however, this Spotted Rail is much less
numerous as a species, and more aquatic in its habits ; fre-
quenting the sides of streams and lakes which are covered
with thick reeds or rushes, among which it conceals itself,
and from the security afforded by the dense and luxuriant
vegetation of marshy grounds it is seldom moved without
the assistance of a good dog, accustomed to them and
their haunts. In all these Rails the bodies of the birds are
compressed, by which they are enabled to make their way
through dense herbage with facility ; their toes are also
long in proportion to the size of the bird, affording them a
firm footing, over mud or weeds, from the extent of sur-
face they cover, and enabling them also to swim with ease.

In Ireland it is an occasional summer visiter. Mr. Dill-
wyn has mentioned three or four occurrences in Wales.
In England it is more frequently in the maritime counties
than in others ; and its appearance has been recorded in
Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and, in
fact, round the southern, and up the eastern coast, as
high as Durham and Northumberland. The Rev. Leonard
Jenyns mentions that this species has been met with in
the fens of Cambridgeshire by the middle of March ; and
Mr. Borrer, Jun. has noticed several occurrences in the
same county in autumn. The authors of the catalogue of
Norfolk and Suffolk Birds say, " there can be no doubt
that the Spotted Gallinule breeds in the marshes of Nor-
folk. We have seen a considerable number of its eggs
at Yarmouth, which, as well as its young, were found in
the neighbourhood of that place. We are also in posses-
sion of an egg taken from a female of this species which
was killed in the marshes below Norwich.""

These birds probably breed in several other parts of
England, where they can find suitable localities ; and are

SPOTTED CRAKE. 99

in consequence, more frequently obtained in autumn than
at any other season. Mr. Selby mentions, that, by the
aid of a dog accustomed to pursue these birds, he has, just
previous to their departure in autumn, sometimes flushed
as many as six in a large morass in his neighbourhood in
Northumberland, the majority of which were young birds
of the year.

Mr. Heysham has also recorded the occurrence of this
bird in autumn, on several occasions, on the western side
of Cumberland. Montagu mentions, that in his time the
Spotted Crake had not been noticed farther north than
Cumberland : Mr. Selby has since found it in various
parts of Scotland, and T. M. Grant, Esq. of Edinburgh,
sent me word that he has a specimen of the Spotted
Galliuule in his collection that was shot in Forfarshire, in
October 1832. The food of this species consists of worms,
aquatic insects, and slugs, with some soft vegetable sub-
stances. One bird, kept by Montagu in confinement, fed
on worms, and bread and milk.

These birds breed in marshes that are overgrown with
reeds and sedges ; their nest, built on the wet ground,
very frequently at the water's edge, is formed of coarse
aquatic plants, lined with finer materials within. Eight or
ten eggs are deposited, which are of a pale reddish white,
spotted and speckled with dark reddish brown ; they
measure one inch three lines in length, by eleven lines in
breadth. The young are at first covered with black down,
and are said to take to the water very soon after they are
hatched. In the autumn these birds are considered to
be in the best condition for the table, and as an article of
food are in great estimation, particularly in France. The
flesh is said to be of a fine and delicate flavour.

M. Nilsson says, the Spotted Rail occasionally visits

H 2

100 RALLIED.

Sweden in summer, but that it is rare. Pennant says it is
found in the southern parts of Russia. It is rare in the
north of Germany and in Holland ; more common in
France and Provence, and thence to the Mediterranean.
It is found in Corfu, Sicily, and Crete during summer, and
at Malta, on its passage in spring and autumn. Mr.
Drummond observed it at Tunis and Biserta. Mr. Strick-
land saw it at Smyrna in winter.

The beak yellowish brown, tinged with reddish brown at
the base ; the irides dark brown ; top of the head dark
brownish black ; cheeks, sides and back of the neck olive-
brown, spotted with white ; back dark olive-brown, each
feather black in the centre, and streaked longitudinally
with some narrow lines of white ; rump, upper tail-coverts,
and tail-feathers black in the middle, margined with clove-
brown, and spotted with white ; wing-coverts olive-brown,
spotted with white ; quill-feathers very dark brown ; ter-
tials transversely streaked with narrow lines of white ;
chin, neck, and breast dark brown, spotted with white ;
belly, vent, and under tail-coverts buify white ; sides and
flanks lead-grey, barred with white ; legs and toes greenish
yellow ; the claws brown.

Mr. Selby's description of the young is as follows : upper
parts of a deep oil-green, the white dispersed in the form
of small spots ; eyebrows deep grey, with numerous white
specks ; cheeks, chin, and throat greyish white, with a
few darker specks ; lower part of the neck and the breast
oil-green, tinged with grey, and with small spots of white ;
belly and abdomen greyish white ; quills deep hair-brown ;
legs deep oil-green, tinged with grey ; bill dirty saffron-
yellow at the base, the tip brown. The whole length of
an adult bird about nine inches. From the carpal joint to
the end of the longest quill-feather four inches and a half,

LITTLE CRAKE.

GRALLATORES.

101
RA LL1D/F..

^

THE LITTLE CRAKE,

OR OLIVACEOUS GALLINULE.

Crex pusilla.

Gallinula minuta, Little Gallinule, MONT. Supp. Ornith. Diet.

Crex

«

Zapornia
(iallinula

Foljamltci, Olivaceous „
minuta, Little „
Foljambei, Olivaceous „
pusilla, Little „
Foljambei, Olivaceous „
Little Crake,

„ Appendix to Supp.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 142.

» n w w P- 144'

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 99.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 185.
„ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 219.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. x.

Poule d'eau Poussin, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 690.

THE first example of this species made known in this
country, was shot near Ashburton in Devonshire, in 1809,
and Colonel Montagu received it from Mr. Tucker. This

102 RALLIDJl.

bird, figured and described in Montagu's Supplement to his
Ornithological Dictionary, under the name of Little Galli-
nule, appears to be a female, but the sex was not noted.

The next specimen, recorded by Montagu, is Mr. Fol-
jambe's bird, obtained in the shop of a London poulterer,
in May 1812 ; this is also figured and described in the
Appendix to his Supplement, and is considered to be an
old male. This example was received from Norfolk.
About the same time Mr. Plasted, of Chelsea, obtained
another which was shot on the banks of the Thames, near
that place. At the sale of Mr. Plasted's birds, this speci-
men passed into the possession of Mr. Leadbeater, and is
now, I believe, in the collection of Mr. Lombe, who re-
sides near Norwich. This bird, which I saw several times
while it belonged to Mr. Leadbeater, agreed with the
figure and description of Montagu's Olivaceous Gallinule,
and was believed to be an old male.

An extract from the Minute-book of the Linnean Society,
dated November 4th, 1823, is thus inserted in the four-
teenth volume of the Transactions of that Society, page 583.
" In a letter from W. Fothergill, Esq., of Carr-end, near
Arkrigg, in Yorkshire, it is stated that the Rallus pusillus
of Gmelin, Gallinula minuta of Montagu, and G. pusilla of
Temminck, was shot on the 6th of May 1807, by John
Humphrey, Esq., of Wensley, on the banks of the Yore,
near that place. It was alone, and suffered itself to be
approached very near, without betraying any sense of
danger. It ran with great rapidity, carrying its tail
erect."

In March 1826, a female of this species was caught at
Barnwell near Cambridge, which is now in the collection of
Dr. Thackeray, the Provost of King's College ; and the
figure of the bird in the front of the illustration here given,

LITTLE CRAKE. 103

as also the description, were taken from this bird, which
was most kindly lent me for my use in this work.

In the volume of the Magazine of Natural History for
the year 1829, page 275, it is mentioned that Mr. James
Hall caught a specimen of the Olivaceous Gallinule, G.
pusilla, alive in a drain in Ardwick meadows, near Man-
chester, in the autumn of 1807. In the same work, but
for the year 1834, page 53, the late Mr. Hoy has recorded
that a Little Gallinule was shot near Yarmouth. Mr. W.
Borrer, jun., sent me notice that a Little Crake, Crex
pusilla, was taken alive on the banks of the Adur, at
Breeding chalk-pit near Shoreham, in October 1835 ; and
in 1836 Mr. W. C. Williamson recorded, in the printed
Proceedings of the Zoological Society, that an Olivaceous
Gallinule had been killed near Scarborough.

Other examples have no doubt been killed in various
parts of England, but it must be considered a rare bird,
and, perhaps, is not always clearly distinguished from the
species next to be described. In its food and general habits
this Olivaceous Crake very closely resembles the Spotted
and other Crakes, but is occasionally seen on the higher and
more cultivated soils. Montagu truly observes, that the
habits of the smaller species of Gallinules are their principal
security ; they are not only equally capable of diving and
concealing their bodies under water, with only the bill
above the surface to secure respiration, but run with
celerity and hide themselves amongst the rushes and flags
of swampy places, and are with great difficulty roused even
with the assistance of dogs, depending more on conceal-
ment in thick cover, than upon their wings, to avoid
danger. From these circumstances it is, that they are so
rarely obtained. This bird forms a nest of aquatic plants
among rushes, laying seven or eight eggs of a light olive-

104 RALLID.E.

brown colour, spotted with darker brown ; the length one
inch two lines, by nine lines and a half in breadth ; the
form of the egg oval.

M. Teniminck says this species is only found accidentally
in Holland, but is more common in Germany and in
France, particularly in the central and southern parts. M.
Vieillot, in his History of the Birds of France, says it
is found in the rice-fields of Piedmont, and in the Pyre-
nees ; and was found also by M. Baillon in the marshes of
Picardy. It is common in Italy, and the eastern parts of
Europe. It is found at Corfu, Sicily and Crete, but not
in great numbers ; it is, however, abundant at Malta in
spring, when on its passage northward, but is rare in
autumn, as though returning by some other route, which is
not uncommon with some birds of passage. Messrs. Dick-
son and Ross, corresponding members of, and liberal donors
to, the Zoological Society, obtained two specimens at Erze-
room, in boggy ground near the river ; one in April, and
the second in May, of the year 1839.

B. Hodgson, Esq., includes it in his catalogue of the
Birds of Nepal.

M. Temminck says that specimens from Japan do not
differ from those killed in Europe.

In the adult male the beak is green, but red at the
base ; the irides red ; top of the head, back of the neck,
and upper surface of the body generally, olive brown ; the
centre of the back almost black, with a very few white
marks, but no white marks on the wing-coverts or quill-
feathers ; the primaries dark clove brown ; the tertials dark
brownish black in the centre, with broad olivaceous mar-
gins ; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers dark brown ; the
chin greyish white ; sides of the head, the neck in front,
the breast and belly, uniform slate grey ; the feathers of

LITTLE CRAKE. 105

the flanks dark brown ; those of the thighs, vent, and the
under tail-coverts slate-grey, spotted with white ; legs and
toes green.

The whole length about seven inches. From the carpal
joint to the end of the wing four inches and one eighth ;
the second and third quill-feathers nearly equal in length,
and longer than the first.

The female has the beak, irides, and legs, like the male ;
round the eye pearl-grey ; top of the head, sides and back
of the neck, pale brown ; middle of the back nearly black,
with only two or three small spots of white ; scapulars
brown, with one or two spots of white ; the wing-coverts
and tertials dark in the centre, with broad edges of pale
brown, the inner margins lighter in colour than the outer ;
primaries dusky brown ; no white spots on the wing-
coverts or quill-feathers ; rump, tail-feathers, and upper
tail-coverts, dark brown ; the chin white ; the neck in
front, breast and belly, delicate buff colour ; flanks and
under tail-coverts greyish brown, with white spots forming
bands.

The chicks are at first covered with black down; the
beak green ; afterwards the young of both sexes, for a
time, resemble the adult female.

106

RALLID.fi.

GRALLATORES.

RALLIDJE.

BAILLON'S CRAKE.

Crex Baillonii.

Crex Baillonii, Edition's Crake, SKLBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 182.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 219.

Zapornia „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.

Gallinula „ Poule cTeau Baillon, TEMM. Man. cTOrnith. vol. ii. p. 692.

ONE of the earliest notices of the occurrence of this bird
with which I am acquainted, is published in the second
volume of the Zoological Journal, page 279, on the exhi-
bition of a specimen at the Zoological Club of the Linriean
Society, which belonged to Dr. Thackeray, the Provost
of King^s College, Cambridge, and which was caught upon
some ice at Melbourne, about nine miles south of Cam-
bridge, in January 1823. " To this spot, originally fen
land, the poor bird had resorted, in an inclement season,
to obtain a meal ; but, having wandered far from its native

BAILLON'S CRAKE. 107

and more congenial latitude, was so exhausted by want
of food, or the low temperature of the season, or the com-
bined effects of both, as to allow itself to be taken alive by
the hand.11 In the third volume of the same Journal, page
493, G. T. Fox, Esq., of Durham, has recorded another
specimen of this bird, which was killed within three miles
of Derby, in November 1821. In the catalogue of the
Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk, published in the fifteenth
volume of the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, the
authors, in reference to BaiHon's Crake, say, " We have
met with a specimen of this bird in the collection of Mr.
Crickmore, of Beccles, which was shot near that town.
The throat, neck, and belly are ash colour ; the sides and
under tail-coverts barred and spotted with black and
white ; the back is like that of the Spotted Gallinule ;
but this bird is considerably smaller than that species.
An extremely small Gallinule, probably of this same kind,
was shot at Nacton in Suffolk, many years since, and was
in the possession of the late John Vernon, Esq.11

The Rev. Richard Lubbock wrote me from Norfolk as
follows :— " On the 2nd of April 1833, a fen-man of my
acquaintance killed an adult male of this species, upon
a marsh at Dilham in this county ; it is now in my pos-
session. Three years previously he had killed another at
Barton, the adjoining parish ; it was late in autumn, and
the bird was in immature plumage. This species is pro-
bably not so rare as it is supposed to be ; when shooting
in parts of France and Switzerland, where it is not un-
common, I could never manage to get more than one
specimen, its power of running, skulking, and general
concealment is so great.11 In September 1840, Francis
Edwards, Esq. of Brislington, near Bristol, sent me word
that an adult female of this species had been killed a short
time before, on some marshy ground near Weston-super-

108 RALLID^E.

mare, a small watering-place on the British Channel. This
specimen Mr. Edwards was kind enough to send up for
my use ; and the description and measurements, to be
hereafter given, were taken from that bird. In its habits,
food, and nesting, this species resembles that last described,
laying seven or eight oval-shaped eggs very similar in co-
lour, markings, size, and shape to that of Crex pusilla.

Mr. Selby says, it is well known in the neighbourhood
of Boulogne, on the opposite coast, where it annually
breeds in the marshes ; it is found besides in several
provinces of France. M. Baillon has found it in the
marshes of Picardy ; it is seen occasionally in Switzerland,
at Genoa, and throughout Italy. Mr. Joseph Clarke sent
me word he had seen specimens from Africa ; and Dr. A.
Smith brought examples in his collection formed at the
Cape, and in southern Africa. It is rare in Sicily, but
abundant in Algeria. It has been obtained in Nepal and
about Calcutta. M. Temminck says that skins sent from
Japan do not differ from those obtained in Europe.

In the adult male the beak is green, the base red ; irides
red ; top of the head, and back of the neck, clove-brown ;
centre of the back, and the scapulars, black, with nume-
rous spots and streaks of pure white ; wing-coverts and
tertials clove-brown, spotted and streaked with pure white ;
primaries dark brown, the outer web of the first quill-
feather edged with white ; upper tail-coverts and tail-
feathers clove-brown; throat, cheeks, sides, and front of
the neck, breast and belly, uniform lead-grey ; vent and
under tail-coverts the same, but tipped with white ; legs
and toes flesh colour.

The female has both mandibles green at the point, pale
reddish brown at the base ; irides crimson-red ; neither the
black colour on the centre of the back, or on the scapulars,
or the white spots upon the black, are so pure in colour as

BAILLON'S CRAKE. 109

the same parts in the males ; nor are the white spots so
numerous ; the chin white ; legs, toes, and claws, in the
preserved specimen pale brown ; all the other parts as in
the adult male.

The whole length six inches and a half. From the
carpal joint to the end of the wing four inches ; the first
and the sixth quill-feathers equal in length, and shorter
than the fourth or the fifth ; the second and third feathers
equal in length, and the longest in the wing : the length of
the tarsus one inch and one eighth; the length of the
middle toe and claw one inch and five-eighths.

The young male belonging to Dr. Thackeray, the use of
which has been allowed me for this work, and which was
killed in the month of January, is to all appearance a bird
of the previous season, not having quite attained the
mature plumage, the chin being still greyish white, and
the lead-grey colour of the front of the neck, breast, and
belly being varied with patches of pale buffy brown and
bars of greyish white. In still younger birds, before their
first autumn moult, the neck, breast, and under parts are
pale buffy white mixed with light brown.

There is reason to suspect that the Little Crake and
Baillon's Crake have been sometimes confounded. As
particular marks of distinction, it may be mentioned, that
the Little Crake exhibits but a few white marks on the
centre of the back, and sometimes on the scapulars, but
never on the wing-coverts ; in Baillon^s Crake, on the
contrary, these white marks are very numerous, occupying
several distinct situations, namely, the central space on the
back, the scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertial feathers on
both sides.

110

GRALLATORES.

RALLIED.

RALLIDJE.

THE WATER RAIL.

Rallus aquations.

Rallus aquaticuS) Water Rail^

Common „
Water „

5' »

Rale tfeau,

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 114.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 134.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 98.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 172.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 217.

GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 683.

RALLUS. Generic Characters. — Beak longer than the head, slender, slightly
curved downwards, compressed at the base, cylindrical at the point ; upper man-
dible grooved at the sides. Nostrils lateral, pierced longitudinally in the lateral
groove, partly covered by a membrane. Legs long and strong, with a small
naked space above the joint; three toes before, and one behind; the anterior toes
divided to their origin, the hind toe articulated upon the tarsus. Wings mode-
rate, rounded ; the first quill-feather much shorter than the second, the third and
fourth quill-feathers the longest in the wing.

THE WATER RAIL, though well known as a species, is
not very abundant here : while the habits of the bird, and

WATER RAIL. Ill

the nature of the localities it frequents, increase the diffi-
culty of observation. It is found in the marshy districts
of this country, and delights to dwell among the rank
vegetation of fens, shallow pools, and water-courses, from
which it can scarcely be driven to take wing. If obliged
to fly, to save itself from being caught by an eager dog
in close pursuit, its progress through the air is slow, with
the legs hanging down ; and it drops again in the nearest
bed of reeds, flags, or rushes, that is likely, from its size or
density, to afford sufficient security. The compressed
form of its body enables it to pass easily through the
thickest herbage ; while its lengthened toes assist it to
swim, and even to dive when necessary for its safety.

Dr. Fleming, in his paper on the Natural History of our
Water Rail, published in the Wernerian Memoirs, says,
u This species is a native of the Old World. It was first
noticed as an English bird by Merret ; and, as a native of
Scotland, by Pennant. Sibbald, indeed, in his Scotia Illus-
trata, enumerates the Rallus aquaticus among our northern
birds ; but the description which he subjoins obviously be-
longs to the Common Gallinule. On the continent of
Europe it is considered as a summer bird of passage, and
has been observed crossing the Mediterranean Sea in the
spring, going northwards, and in autumn retiring south-
wards."

Buifon says that a flight of Water Rails were seen at the
distance of fifty leagues from the coast of Portugal in the
middle of April, some of which were so fatigued that they
allowed themselves to be taken by the hand. The Rev.
Robert Holdsworth wrote me word that a bird of this
species alighted on the yard of a man-of-war, about five
hundred miles to the westward of Cape Clear, and at the
same distance from any known land. An officer of the
ship caught it, and took care of it, and carried it with him

112 RALLIED.

to Lisbon, feeding it with bits of raw meat. In a day or
two it became perfectly tame, and would eat out of his
hand.

The food of this species is worms, snails, slugs, with
some vegetables. Dr. Fleming mentions having seen the
stomach of one that was filled exclusively with the young
snails of Helix lucida. One of these birds, which Mr.
Selby kept for some time, was fed entirely with earth-
worms, upon which it continued to thrive, till an accident
put an end to its life. It refused bread and the larger
kinds of grain. In confinement this bird is observed to
jerk its tail up while walking, like the Common Moor-hen;
and I have heard of one that had so far conquered its
timidity as to have become pugnacious.

Mr. Paget says the Water Kail is common in the
marshes of Norfolk ; and Montagu observes, that " the
nest is rarely found ; it is made of sedge and coarse
grass, amongst the thickest aquatic plants; sometimes in
willow beds. In such a situation we found one with six
eggs, of a spotless white, and very smooth, rather larger
than those of a Blackbird ; the shape a short oval, with
both ends nearly alike.1' I have found the eggs of
the Water Bail very difficult to obtain, and never pos-
sessed but two, one from Norfolk, and one from Cam-
bridgeshire, and never saw more than three or four
others ; these were all very much alike, of a cream-coloured
white, with small specks of ash-grey and reddish brown ;
the length of the egg one inch four lines, by one inch in
breadth. The egg is very correctly figured by Mr. Hewit-
son in his work.

M. Nilsson says the Water Kail is rare in Sweden ; but
it annually visits also Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Ice-
land. In these countries, of course, it is only a summer
visiter, as in the winter all the usual places of resort for

WATER RAIL. 113

food would be frozen up. In our own country the greater
portion probably remain all the year ; in proof of which
it has been killed three times in winter in Scotland, and
several times in Sussex, Kent and Oxfordshire.

The Water Rail is abundant in Holland, Germany,
France, Switzerland, Provence, Spain, and Italy. At
Genoa it is said to be seen only when on its passage
in April and September. It is found at Corfu and in
Sicily, it visits Malta in spring, and has been seen at
Tunis and Biserta. Mr. Strickland saw it at Smyrna ;
and M. Menetries includes it among the birds seen by the
naturalists of the Russian expedition in the country of
the Caucasus.

The beak of the adult male is red, one inch and three-
quarters in length ; the irides hazel ; top of the head, neck,
back, wing-coverts, and upper surface of the body generally
olive-brown ; each feather nearly black in the centre, with
broad margins ; primaries dusky ; tail-feathers also dusky,
with olive-brown margins ; cheeks, chin, sides and front of
the neck, and the breast, lead-grey ; the sides and flanks
dark slate-grey barred with white ; vent buff colour ; under
tail- co verts dull white ; legs and toes brownish flesh
colour. The whole length eleven inches and a half.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing four inches
and three-quarters.

The sexes do not differ in plumage, but the beak of the
female is shorter than that of the male, and not so red.

Young birds have the feathers of the neck and breast
edged with pale brown, forming transverse bars; the
flanks and thighs not so dark in colour, and without the
white bands.

A variety of the Water Eail has been taken which was
pure white.

VOL. III. I

114

GRALLATORES.

RALLID^E.

RALL1D&.

THE MOOR-HEN.

Gallinula chloropus.

Gallinula chloropus > Common Gallinule, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 121.

Fulica „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

Gallinula „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 145.

„ „ „ ' „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 99.

« „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 188.

„ „ „ n JENYNS, Brit. Vert p. 220.

„ ,, M M GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiv.

„ „ Poule d'eau ordinaire, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 693.

GALLINULA. Generic Characters. — Bill thick at the base, compressed, slightly
swollen towards the tip, subconic, as short as the head. Upper mandible convex,
with the culmen extended and dilated, forming a naked frontal plate or shield ;
lateral furrow wide ; mandibles of nearly equal length ; angle of the lower one
ascending. Tomia of the under mandible slightly intracted, and covered oy the
upper. Nostrils lateral, pervious, pierced in the membrane of the furrow in the
middle of the bill ; longitudinal and linear. Legs strong, of mean length, naked
for a short space above the tarsal joint ; front of the tarsus scutellated ; hinder
part reticulated ; feet four-toed, three before and one behind ; toes long, divided,
and bordered through their whole length by a narrow entire membrane. Wings
armed with a small, sharp, recumbent spine. Plumage soft, and thick, but loose
in texture ; body compressed at the sides. — Selby.

MOOR-HEN. 115

THE MOOR-HEN is one of those well-known, half domes-
ticated species which afford interesting opportunities for ob-
servations on habits. Dr. William Turner, who wrote on
British Birds three hundred years ago, calls this bird a
Water-hen, or a Mot-hen ; and Pennant says, that in the
days of moated houses they were very frequent about the
moats. They are found also on ponds which are covered
with aquatic herbage, old water-courses grown up with
vegetation, and among the rushes, reeds, and willows of
slow rivers. They can swim and dive with great facility,
assisted by an expansion of the membrane along the sides
of their toes ; a structure by which they are connected to the
fin-toed aquatic birds, the descriptions of which will imme-
diately follow. Moor-hens are commonly to be seen on the
surface of the water, swimming along with a nodding
motion of the head, picking up vegetable substances, first
on one side, then on the other, and feeding generally on
aquatic plants, small fishes, insects, worms, and slugs, for
some of which they may be seen early in the morning, and
again in the evening, walking over meadows near their
haunts, diligently searching among the grass, particularly
after a shower of rain in summer; jerking up their tails
as they walk along, and showing the white under tail-
coverts. Mr. Selby mentions that he has several times
known this bird to have been taken on a line baited
with an earth-worm, intended for catching eels and
trout ; and infers, therefore, that it is by diving they ob-
tain the larger coleopterous water insects, aquatic worms,
and the larvae of dragon-flies, upon which they are
known to feed.

When suddenly disturbed, they will sometimes take a
short flight, with their legs hanging down, and will occa-
sionally perch in a tree ; they are, however, capable of

i2

116 RALLID^E.

more extended exertion on the wing, but appear to prefer
the security afforded by thick rushes.

Shenstone refers to the hidling habits of the Coot and
Moor-hen in the following lines : —

" to lurk the lake beside

Where Coots in rushy dingles hide,
And Moorcocks shun the day."

The nest is generally placed among reeds on the ground ;
sometimes among stumps, roots, or long grass, on a bank at
the edge of the water ; and the bird has been known to
fix its nest on a branch of a tree which rested upon the
surface of deep still water. The editor of the Naturalist
mentions an instance where, " the nest of a Moor-hen
floated on the water without having any attachment what-
ever with the islet which it adjoined ; but was enclosed on
all sides by sticks, Sec. Thus situated, the careful parents
hatched their eggs in perfect safety ; though, had the
water risen to an unusual height, the case might have been
otherwise.

Rusticus of Godalming, in the fifth volume of the Maga-
zine of Natural History, says, " The piece of water called
Old Pond, about one mile from Godalming, on the London
road, is a most attractive spot to waterfowl ; and an
island in its centre is the resort of some of them in the
breeding-season, and also a variety of other birds, which
find it a safe and unmolested place for the same purpose.
I have often delighted, in years that are gone, to visit this
island and its inmates : the owner, Robert Moline, Esq. used
to allow us free ingress to all and every part of the estate ;
a liberty any one with an incipient thirst for a knowledge of
natural history would be sure to avail himself of. One
day, having pushed off from the shore, and moored the
little shallop to some of the osiers which surrounded the

MOOR-HEN. 117

island, I began my accustomed examination. The first
object that attracted my attention was a lot of dry rushes,
flags, reeds, &c. enough to fill a couple of bushel baskets.
This mass was lodged about twenty feet from the ground,
in a spruce fir-tree, and looked for all the world as if it had
been pitched there with a hay- fork. I mounted instantly,
thinking of herons, eagles, and a variety of other wonders ;
just as my head reached the nest, flap, flap, out came a
Moor-hen, and, dropping to the water, made off in a direct
line along its surface, dip, dip, dip, dipping with its toes,
and was lost in the rushes of a distant bank, leaving an
evanescent track along the water, like that occasioned by a
stone which has been skilfully thrown to make ducks and
drakes. The nest contained seven eggs, warm as a toast.
The situation was a very odd one for a Moor-hen's nest ;
but there was a reason for it ; the rising of the water in
the pond frequently flooded the banks of the island, and,
as I had before witnessed, had destroyed several broods by
immersion."

The following notice is from the pen of Mr. Waterton :
— " In 1826 I was helping a man to stub some large
willows near the water's edge. There was a Water-hen's
nest at the root of one of them. It had seven eggs in it.
I broke two of them, and saw that they contained embryo
chicks. The labourer took up part of the nest, with the
remaining five1 eggs in it, and placed it on the ground about
three yards from the spot where we had found it. We
continued in the same place for some hours afterwards,
working at the willows. In the evening, when we went
away, the old Water-hen came back to the nest. Having
no more occasion for the labourer in that place, I took
the boat myself the next morning, and saw the Water-hen
sitting on the nest. On approaching the place, I observed

118 RALLID.E.

that she had collected a considerable quantity of grass and
weeds, and that she had put them all around the nest.
A week after this I went to watch her, and saw she had
hatched ; and, as I drew nearer to her, she went into the
water with the five little ones along with her." An inter-
esting account of Moor-hens moving their eggs to make
an addition to their nest, is thus related by Mr. Selby in
the printed Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists1
Club : — " During the early part of the summer of 1835,
a pair of Water-hens built their nest by the margin of the
ornamental pond at Bell's Hill, a piece of water of consi-
derable extent, and ordinarily fed by a spring from the
height above, but into which the contents of another large
pond can occasionally be admitted. This was done while
the female was sitting ; and as the nest had been built
when the water level stood low, the sudden influx of this
large body of water from the second pond caused a rise
of several inches, so as to threaten the speedy immersion
and consequent destruction of the eggs. This the birds
seem to have been aware of, and immediately took precau-
tions against so imminent a danger ; for when the gar-
dener, upon whose veracity I can safely rely, seeing the
sudden rise of the water, went to look after the nest, ex-
pecting to find it covered and the eggs destroyed, or at
least forsaken by the hen, he observed, while at a distance,
both birds busily engaged about the brink where the nest
was placed ; and, when near enough, he clearly perceived
that they were adding, with all possible dispatch, fresh
materials to raise the fabric beyond the level of the in-
creased contents of the pond, and that the eggs had, by
some means, been removed from the nest by the birds,
and were then deposited upon the grass, about a foot or
more from the margin of the water. He watched them

MOOR-HEN. 119

for some time, and saw the nest rapidly increase in height ;
but I regret to add, that he did not remain long enough,
fearing he might create alarm, to witness the interesting
act of the replacing of the eggs, which must have been
effected shortly afterwards ; for upon his return, in less
than an hour, he found the hen quietly sitting upon them
in the newly raised nest. In a few days afterwards the
young were hatched, and, as usual, soon quitted the nest
and took to the water with their parents. The nest was
shown to me in situ very soon afterwards, and I could
then plainly discern the formation of the new with the
older part of the fabric."

The eggs are usually seven or eight in number, of a red-
dish white colour, thinly spotted and speckled with orange-
brown ; the length one inch eight lines, by one inch three
lines and a half in breadth. Incubation lasts three weeks,
and they produce two, if not three broods in a season,
the first of which is generally hatched by the end of May.
J. M. Boultbee, Esq., in a letter to the Rev. W. T. Bree,
says, " At the bottom of the walk between the house and
our garden, in winter, runs a brook, but in summer there
is only still water, which is inhabited by Water-hens, &c.
The Water-hens have become quite tame, from persons
constantly passing and repassing. This year, 1833, in the
spring, a pair of them hatched some young ones ; and,
as soon as they were feathered, made another nest and
hatched some more. The young ones of the second hatch
left the old birds, and have been adopted by the young
ones of the first hatch, who have each taken one, and seem
to take as much care of them as the old ones could have
done : they feed them, and never leave them. Only one
young one has remained with the old hen." The authors
of the Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds say, that

120 RALLID.E.

two young Moor-hens, which were hatched under a Hen,
used to take their food from the bill of their foster-mother ;
and it was not till they were several weeks old that they
would pick their food from the ground. We have, not-
withstanding, observed this bird in its natural state, when
it had only been hatched a few days, running about upon
the tops of the weeds and picking insects from them.
Pennant says Moor-hens might possibly be domesticated,
for a pair in his grounds never failed appearing when he
called his ducks to feed, and partook before him of the corn.
Among the many aquatic birds with which the Ornitho-
logical Society have stocked the canal and the islands in
St. James's Park, are several Moor-hens : in the course
of the present summer, 1841, two broods have been pro-
duced, the young of which are so tame, that they leave
the water and come up close to your feet on the path to
receive crumbs of bread, I may also remark that in this
instance, as in that referred to by Mr. Boultbee, the young
of the second brood were brought up by the young of the
first brood. In winter, during hard frost, when ponds are
frozen over, Moor-hens resort to running streams, and
harbour in plantations, hedgerows, and thick bushes;
roosting in firs, thorn-trees, and others that are covered
with ivy, feeding probably on the berries. Mr. Jesse
mentions that, during the frost of the winter of 1832, a
pair of Water-hens kept almost entirely in a large arbutus
tree, on the lawn of a house belonging to a lady at Hamp-
ton Wick, which was enclosed by a high paling, and no
pond was near it. Here they probably fed on the berries
of the tree, and other produce of the garden. The tree,
however, was always their place of refuge if they happened
to be disturbed when feeding in the garden.

When the ice disappears, Moor-hens return to the

!

MOOR-HEN. 121

ponds. When the bird is in good condition, the flesh is
well flavoured.

The Moor-hen is rare in Denmark and Sweden, but is
said by Pennant to inhabit Russia and part of Siberia.
It is very common in Germany, Holland, France, Spain,
Provence, and Italy. Dr. Heineken includes it among
the Birds of Madeira ; Mr. Joseph Clarke mentioned to
me having seen skins from Africa ; this species was seen
by H. M. Drummond Esq., at Biserta in the spring of the
present year, 1845, and Dr. Andrew Smith brought speci-
mens from so far south as the vicinity of the Cape. It is
found at Corfu, Malta, and Crete from May till Sep-
tember. Mr. Strickland saw this bird at Smyrna in
winter : it has been found at Trebizond, and in the coun-
tries between the Black and the Caspian Seas.

It is found at the Mauritius, in Nepal, Calcutta, and
China.

The male has the beak yellowish green ; the base of it,
and the naked patch on the forehead, red ; irides reddish
hazel ; the back, wings, rump, and tail, rich dark olive-
brown ; head, neck, breast, and sides, uniform dark slate-
grey ; outside of the thighs and the flanks streaked with
white ; belly and vent greyish white ; under tail-coverts
white ; above the tarsal joint a garter of red ; legs and
toes green ; the claws dark brown.

Mr. Gould mentions that he has seen females that were
more vividly coloured than males.

The length of the Moor-hen is about thirteen inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing six inches
and three-quarters.

The young are at first covered with black hairy down.
Their after-plumage is described by Mr. Selby as white
on the throat ; front and cheeks a mixture of brown and

122

RALLID^l.

white ; breast and sides ash-grey, tinged with brown ;
the belly paler ; the flanks streaked with yellowish brown ;
under tail-coverts cream-yellow ; upper parts dark grey,
tinged with oil-green ; beak and legs dull green ; the
frontal patch small, and partly concealed by feathers.

The Rev. Mr. Lubbock mentions a curious variety of
the Moor-hen, in which the back and wings were mottled
with white.

The vignette represents the breast-bone of the Moor-hen
of the natural size, in two points of view, one from the
side, the other as seen from below ; the latter serves to
illustrate the flattened form of the body which belongs
to the Crakes, Gallinules, and Bails.

COMMON COOT.

GRALLATORES.

123

LOBIPEDIDJR.

THE COMMON COOT.

Fulica atra, Common Coot,

11 11 11 11

The
„ „ Common „

Fulica atra.

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 127.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 149.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 100.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 193.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 221.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xii.
„ „ Foulque macroule, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 706.

FULICA. Generic CJiaracters. — Beak of medium size, shorter than the head,
strong, conical, straight, compressed at the base, higher than broad, superior
basal portion extending up the forehead, and dilated, forming a naked patch ;
points of both mandibles compressed, of equal length ; the upper one slightly
curved the inferior mandible with an angle underneath at the symphysis.
Nostrils lateral, pierced longitudinally about the middle of the beak, partly

11
The

124 LOBIPEDIDvE.

closed by a membrane. Legs long, slender, naked above the tarsal joint ; three
toes in front, one behind ; all the toes long, united at the base, furnished late-
rally with an extension of the membrane, forming rounded lobes. Wings of
moderate size ; the first feather shorter than the second or third, which are the
longest in the wing. Tail short.

THE COOT is a common bird upon large ponds, lakes, and
slow rivers ; it also frequents the level shores of some parts
of the coast, where extensive mud-flats are laid bare at
each retiring tide, preferring, however, open waters, and
does not, except in the breeding-season, so much seek the
sheltered reed-grown situations frequented by the Moor-
hen ; the extreme watchfulness of the Coot enabling it to
avoid danger. Colonel Hawker, in his Instructions to
Young Sportsmen, says, " If a gentleman wishes to have
plenty of wild-fowl on his pond, let him preserve the Coots,
and keep no tame Swans. The reason that all wild-fowl
seek the company of the Coots, is because these birds are
such good sentries, to give the alarm by day, when the
fowl generally sleep."

The Coot is seldom seen on dry land, and its power of
active progression on shore has been doubted ; but Mr.
Youell observes that those authors could have had but
few opportunities of noticing the habits of this bird, for,
instead of being awkward on land, it is fully as lively on
land as in the water, standing firmly and steadily, and
without any tottering or waddling in its gait. It picks up
grain with surprising alacrity, even much quicker than any
of our domestic poultry. If deprived of water, on which
to pass the night, it will roost, as other land birds, upon
any elevated situation, and it will ascend a tree with the
activity of a Wren. In reference to the power of its
claws, the sportsman's book already referred to contains
the following caution : — " Beware of a winged Coot, or he
will scratch you like a cat."

COMMON COOT. 125

The authors of the Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk
Birds notice the breeding of the Coots on those large
pieces of water in the marshes of Norfolk called Broads,
and on some of them in considerable numbers. " In
autumn and winter these birds make their appearance on
the rivers in vast flocks ; and upon an appointed day all
the boats and guns are put in requisition, and a general
attack is made upon them. On the banks of the Stour the
fowlers approach them, while sitting upon the ooze, by
concealing themselves behind a skreen made of bushes,
which is placed upon a sledge and driven before them. On
crossing the Stour in the month of January, in a dead
calm, we observed the Coots floating upon the water in a
semicircle. On our approach within about two hundred
yards, the whole body, amounting at the least calculation
to several thousands, partly rose and flapped along the
surface of the water, making a tremendous rushing noise.
Had there been any wind, they would have risen into the
air without difficulty ; but, there being none, they could
scarcely disentangle their feet. We killed two wounded
birds ; one of them afforded excellent sport, not suffering
the boat to approach it without diving, and coming up
oftentimes a hundred yards off: it had the action and
alertness of a Dobchick." Sir William Jardine says,
Coots have a very powerful flight when once on the wing,
and fly with their legs stretched out behind, acting the
part of a tail, in the manner of a Heron. In Scotland and
the north of England they arrive in the marshes and lakes
to breed, and retire again at the commencement of winter
to the more southern coasts. Here, in the south, these
birds are very numerous at several different places, par-
ticularly on the shores and inland waters of the Isle of
Sheppy, at the mouth of the Thames ; in the Southampton

126 LOBIPEDID.E.

water in Hampshire, at Poole, and other parts of Dorset-
shire ; they are also carefully protected, and accordingly
breed in great quantities, at Slapton Ley, in Start Bay, on
the coast of Devon. They feed on small fishes, aquatic in-
sects, and various portions of vegetable matter. Coots
breed in many parts of England, forming a nest of flags,
among reeds, upon the margins of lakes, ponds, and rivers.
Mr. Hewitson says, that " he has had opportunities of
examining many of their nests. They are large, and
apparently clumsy at first sight, but are amazingly strong
and compact ; they are sometimes built on a tuft of rushes,
but more commonly amongst reeds ; some are supported by
those that lie prostrate on the water, whilst others have
their foundations at its bottom, and are raised till they
become from six to twelve inches above its surface, some-
times in a depth of one and a half or two feet. So firm
are some of them, that, whilst up to the knees in water,
they afforded me a seat sufficiently strong to support my
weight. They are composed of flags and broken reeds,
finer towards the inside, and contain from seven to ten
eggs." These are stone colour, speckled over with nut-
meg-brown, two inches one line in length by one inch six
lines in breadth. Bewick mentions that a Bald Coot
built her nest in Sir W. Middleton's lake, at Belsay,
Northumberland, among the rushes, which were after-
wards loosened by the wind, and, of course, the nest was
driven about, and floated upon the surface of the water,
in every direction ; notwithstanding which, the female
continued to sit as usual, and brought out her young upon
her moveable habitation. Some broods appear towards the
end of May, others in June. The young quit the nest
soon after they are hatched, and leave it entirely after
three or four days, to follow their parents, who are very
careful of them.

COMMON COOT. 127

Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, when writing of British
Birds about 1635, says, " Coots are in very great flocks on
the broad waters. Upon the appearance of a Kite or
Buzzard, I have seen them unite from all parts of the
shore in strange numbers ; when, if the Kite stoop near
them, they will fling up, and spread such a flash of water
with their wings, that they will endanger the Kite, and so
keep him off again and again in open opposition ; " and
this habit they practise to the present time to defend them-
selves or their young from the frequent attacks of large
and predaceous Gulls.

Of their habits in autumn and winter, when pursued by
the sportsman or the fowler, Colonel Hawker says, u Coots
found in rivers are scarcely thought worth firing at ; yet
they are in great requisition when they arrive for the
winter on the coast, from the immense number that may
be killed at a shot, as they roost on the mud-banks. Coots,
when on the coast, usually travel to windward, so that a
west wind brings them to the west, and an easterly wind
to the east, instead of the contrary, as with other fowl.
The plan that I have found best for slaughtering the Coots
by wholesale is, either to listen for them before daylight,
and rake them down at the grey of a white frosty morning,
or watch them at some distance in the afternoon, and set
into them as late in the evening as you can see to level
your gun, taking care, if possible, to keep them under the
western light. Coots, instead of drawing together before
they fly, like geese and many other fowl, always disperse
on being alarmed ; and, as they generally fly to windward,
the gentleman's system of wild-fowl shooting answers well,
which is, to embark with a party, sail down on them, and,
as they cross, luff up and fire all your barrels. When a
beginner at wild sport, I used to be mightily pleased with

128 LOBIPEDID^E.

this diversion. When on the coast, you may easily distin-
guish Coots from wild-fowl by the scattered extent of their
line, their high rumps, their rapid swimming, and their
heads being poked more forward.

" They are generally sold for eighteen pence a couple,
previously to which they are what is call cleaned. The
recipe for this is, after picking them, to take off all the
black down, by means of powdered resin and boiling
water, and then to let them soak all night in cold spring
water ; by which they are made to look as white and
as delicate as a chicken, and to eat tolerably well ; but,
without this process, the skin in roasting produces a sort of
oil, with a fishy taste and smell ; and if the skin be taken
off, the bird becomes dry, and good for nothing. A Coot
shot in the morning, just after roosting, is worth three
killed in the day when full of grass, because he will then
be whiter, and milder in flavour. A Poole man is very
particular about this, as the sale of his Coots much
depends on it."

The Coot, as observed by Sir William Jardine and Mr.
Selby, is a summer visiter to Scotland. Dr. Neill and Mr.
Dunn mention it as visiting occasionally the lochs of some
of the islands of Orkney. It is found during summer on
the coasts of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, going as far
as the Faroe Islands, and even to Iceland, as noticed by
Faber and other authorities, but not farther to the west ;
the Coot of North America and the United States is
now known to be a different species. Our Coot is found in
Russia and the eastern parts of Siberia, according to Pen-
nant. It is very abundant in Holland, and on the lakes
and rivers of Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Pro-
vence, and Italy. Dr. Heineken includes the Coot among
the Birds of Madeira. It is found in Sicily, at Malta,

COMMON COOT. 129

and Tunis. Mr. Strickland saw it at Smyrna ; the Zoolo-
gical Society have received specimens from Trebizond ;
and the Coot of India, China, Japan, and the island
of Sunda, is said to be identical with the Coot of Europe.

The beak is of a pale rose-red, or flesh-colour ; the patch
on the forehead naked, and pure white ; hence the name of
Bald Coot : the irides crimson ; below the eye a small half--
circular streak of white ; the whole of the plumage above
and below sooty black, tinged with dark slate-grey ; the
head rather darker than the body ; primaries nearly pure
black ; secondaries tipped with white, forming a line or
narrow bar across the wing; legs, toes, and membranes
dark green, the garter above the tarsal joint orange.

The whole length sixteen inches. From the carpal
joint to the end of the wing about eight inches.

Adult birds from their more decided dark colour have
been by some authors considered distinct, and called F.
aterrima ; but we have only one species. The young
birds of the year are smaller than the parent, the naked
frontal patch is also smaller, and the under parts of the
plumage are of a lighter grey. Young chicks on emerging
from the egg-shell are covered with black down, with some
lighter- coloured down hanging loosely about them.

Varieties entirely white, and others only partially white,
have been seen both in Norfolk and Lincolnshire.

The decidedly aquatic habits, with the attendant pecu-
liarity of the feet of this and the remaining members of this
order of birds, entitle them to some distinction from the
Gallinules, as more nearly approaching the true swimmers,
Natatores.

VOL. III.

130

GRALLATORES.

LOBIPEDID^E.

LOBIPEDIDJE.

THE GREY PHALAROPE.

Phalaropm lobatus.

Phalaropus lobatus, Grey PJta/aropc, PENT*. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 202.

Tringa lobata, „

Phalaropus lobatus, „

„ hyperboreus, Red
„ lobatus, Grey

platyrhinchus,

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol ii. p. 1 55.
„ p. 154.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 100.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 162.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 215.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

„ „ Plialarope platyrUnque^ TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 712.

PHALAROPUS. Generic Characters. — Beak rather long, slender, weak, straight,
depressed and blunt ; both mandibles grooved throughout their whole length ; the
upper mandible slightly curved at the point. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, promi-
nent, encircled by a membrane. Legs moderate, slender, tarsus compressed ;
three toes in front, one behind ; the anterior toes united as far as the first articu-
lation, the other parts furnished with an extension of the membrane laterally,
forming lobes slightly serrated at the edges, the hind toe without membrane, and
articulated on the inner side of the tarsus. Wings moderate ; the first and second
quill- feathers the longest.

GREY PHALAROPE. 131

THIS pretty species, remarkable for the great difference
of its red appearance when in the plumage of summer,
compared to its delicate grey colour in winter, and from
which latter prevailing tint it derives its name, received
an early notice from onr countryman and naturalist George
Edwards, who figured this bird in its winter plumage in
his plate, No. 308, from a specimen killed in Yorkshire,
in January, 1757, and another in its summer plumage,
plate 142, from a specimen received from Hudson's Bay.
Edwards, in his Gleanings in Natural History, called them
Coot-footed, from the dilated and lobed membranes of the
toes, resembling in structure the same part in the Coot ;
and in Papa Westra, according to Dr. Neill, in his Tour
through Orkney, the Phalaropes are called Half-webs.

Such decided swimmers are these Phalaropes, that
Major Sabine, in his Memoir on the birds of Greenland,
mentions having shot one out of a flock of four, on the
west coast of Greenland in latitude 68°, while they were
swimming in the sea amongst icebergs, three or four miles
from the shore ; and Dr. Richardson, in his Natural
History, Appendix to Sir Edward Parry's Second Arctic
Voyage, says, they were observed upon the sea, out of
sight of land, preferring to swim out of danger rather than
take wing. Their under plumage is also thick and com-
pact, and the bones of the legs flattened like those of the
true swimming birds.

Though formerly a rare bird in this country, since Pen-
nant says that he only knew of two instances in which it
had occurred in his time, they are now more common, and
generally appear in the autumn, when on their way to
their southern winter quarters. They are also, for the
most part, young birds of the year, in various stages of
change towards the pure and delicate grey colour of the

K 2

132 LOBIPEDID.E.

plumage of winter. Some years since, A. B. Lambert,
Esq. presented to the Zoological Society a beautifully
marked adult bird ; this was killed in Wiltshire in the
month of August, and retained at that time a great por-
tion of the true red colours of the breeding-season, or
summer plumage ; and I have occasionally seen specimens
obtained in December and January, and then exhibiting,
of course, the perfect grey plumage of winter.

They feed on the smaller thin-skinned Crustacea and
aquatic insects, which they search for and pick up from the
surface of the water while swimming ; and their attitude
resembles that of the Teal, with the head drawn back-
wards. A specimen in my own collection, killed in No-
vember 1824, while swimming on the Thames near Bat-
tersea, was seen there by a gardener, who went home, a
distance of a mile and a half, to fetch his gun, and on his
return found the bird still swimming and feeding near the
same spot.

This species breeds in Iceland, Greenland, on the North
Georgian and Melville Islands. The eggs are usually four
in number, of a stone colour tinged with olive ; spotted
and speckled over with dark brown ; measuring one inch
two lines in length, by ten lines and a half in breadth.
The egg here described, which is in my own collection, and
is figured in Mr. Hewitson's work, was brought from
Melville Island, and also the female bird in summer
plumage, from which the figure in the back-ground of the
illustration was drawn and engraved.

This species has now been obtained in so many different
counties in England, as to render the particular enumera-
tion of them unnecessary ; in some instances they were
found to be so tame as to allow of very close approach^and
in one instance that came to my own knowledge, the bird .

GREY PHALAROrE. 133

was struck down by a labouring man with a spade. The
Grey Phalarope has also been killed in Ireland and in
Scotland. In Denmark, Sweden, and Norway it is ob-
served in spring and autumn, when on its passage to and
from its breeding stations in higher northern latitudes.
It visits Iceland and Greenland. On Sir Edward Parry's
first and second Arctic voyages, it was observed to be
abundant during the summer months on the North
Georgian Islands, and found breeding at Iglookik and
Melville Island on the third voyage. This species is well
known to the ornithologists of the United States, where it
performs periodical migrations north and south, similar to
those observed in Europe ; the Grey Phalarope is also
included in the volume devoted to the Zoology of Captain
Beechy^s voyage to the Pacific in the Blossom, but the
locality in which the bird was obtained is not named.

According to Pennant, this species is found in the
eastern parts of the north of Europe ; is abundant in
Siberia, and about the large lakes of Asia to the Caspian
Sea. It is occasionally found in Holland and Germany ;
but is considered a rare bird in France, Switzerland,
and Italy. Mr. Blyth has obtained it in the vicinity of
Calcutta.

The females of this species appear to assume more
perfect colours, in the breeding- season, and to retain them
longer than the males. A female in fine summer plumage
has the beak yellow, the point dark brown ; around the
base of the beak, and on the top of the head, dark brown-
ish black ; irides dark brown ; around the eye a patch of
white ; a narrow stripe down the back of the neck ; all
the back and rump nearly black, with pale yellow
margins ; lesser wing-coverts lead-grey, edged with white ;
greater wing-coverts and secondaries lead-grey, with broad

134 LOBIPEDID^E.

ends of white; tertials also lead-grey margined with
orange-yellow ; quill and tail-feathers almost black ; the
front and sides of the neck, the breast, and all the under
surface of the body uniform reddish chestnut, or bay ;
under surface of tail-feathers ash-grey; legs, toes, and
their lobed membranes yellow ; the claws black.

When changing in autumn to the plumage of winter,
the bay under-colour is lost by degrees ; the first grey
feathers that appear are the scapulars, and from thence
down the sides of the back ; afterwards those of the inter-
scapular space, and the centre of the back below; the
orange-coloured margins of the tertials becoming paler.

In winter the beak is black ; around its base, and on
the top of the head, white ; irides dark brown ; around
the eye dusky black ; a patch of the same colour on the
ear-coverts and on the occiput ; back of the neck, sca-
pulars, upper wing-coverts, and all the back, uniform
pearl-grey ; greater coverts, secondaries, and tertials, lead-
grey, margined with white ; primaries as in summer ; tail-
feathers ash-grey, margined with white; chin, neck in
front, breast, and all the under surface of the body pure
white, except a small patch of pearl-grey before the point
of the wings, but not extending round the front; legs,
toes, and membranes yellowish brown ; the claws black.

Specimens vary considerably in size ; the females are
the largest, and measure about eight inches and a quarter
in their whole length ; the males usually half an inch
less ; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing four
inches and three-quarters.

RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. 135

<Y HA L LA TORES. LOD1PEDIDM.

THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE.

Phalaropus hyperboreus.

Phalaropus hyperboreus, lied Phalarope, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 125.

„ fulicaria, „ „ MONT. App. to Sup. Ornith. Diet.

„ fuscusj Red-necked „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 157.

Lobipes hyperborcus, „ Coot-foot, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 100.

„ fiyperborea, „ Lobe-foot, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 166.

„ hyperborcus, „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 214.

Phalaropus „ Red-necked Phalarope, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

„ „ PJtalarope hyperbore, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 709.

THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE is at once distinguished
from the Grey Phalarope last described, by its smaller
size, yet with a longer and more slender beak, and it pre-
sents also much less seasonal variation in its plumage.
Edwards has also, in this instance, engraved two repre-
sentations of the bird, plates 46 and 143, from examples,
both of which were brought from Hudson's Bay.

In its habits the Red-necked Phalarope very closely
agrees with the Grey Phalarope, but is comparatively much

136

more rare in England, and more common on the northern
islands of Scotland. Pennant refers to a specimen shot
on the banks of a fresh- water pool on the Isle of Stronsay,
one of the Orkneys, in May 1760. Mr. Simmonds, in a
paper published in the eighth volume of the Transactions
of the Linnean Society, refers to six females and two
males, found in 1803 about fresh- water lakes in Sanda
and North Eonaldsha, the two most northern of the Ork-
ney islands. Mr. Bullock, in a letter to Colonel Mon-
tagu, says, " I found this Phalarope common in the marshes
of Sanda and Westra in the breeding season, but which it
leaves in the autumn. This bird is so extremely tame
that I killed nine without moving out of the same spot,
being not the least alarmed at the report of a gun. It
lays four eggs, of the shape of that of a Snipe, but much
less, of an olive colour, blotched with dusky. It swims
with the greatest ease, and when on the water looks like
a beautiful miniature of a Duck, carrying its head close to
the back, in the manner of a Teal." Mr. Salmon, who
visited Orkney in the summer of 1831, says of the Red-
necked Phalarope, " this beautiful little bird appeared to
be very tame ; although we shot two pairs, those that
were swimming about did not take the least notice of the
report of the gun ; and they seemed to be much attached
to each other, for when one of them flew to a short dis-
tance, the other directly followed ; and while I held a
female that was wounded in my hand, its mate came and
fluttered before my face. We were much gratified in
watching the motions of these elegant little creatures, as
they kept swimming about, and were for ever dipping
their bills into the water ; and so intent were they upon
their occupation, that they did not take the least notice of
us, although within a few yards of them. The female has

RED-NECKED PIIALAROrE. 137

not that brilliant bay colour upon the sides of the neck
and breast, so conspicuous in the male. After some little
difficulty, we were fortunate in finding their nests, which
were placed in small tufts of grass growing close to the
edge of the loch ; they were formed of dried grass, and
were about the size of that of a Titlark, but much deeper.
The eggs are considerably smaller than those of the Dunlin,
and beautifully spotted all over with brown. They had
but just commenced laying, June 13, as we found only from
one to two eggs in each nest ; but we were informed by a
boy whom we engaged in our service, that they always
lay four, and are called by the name of Half- web. Mr.
Dunn, who visited Orkney and Shetland in 1831, 1833,
and 1835, says, " I never saw this bird in Shetland, but
I got several in Orkney ; it sometimes builds its nest on
small green islands in the middle of the lakes. The
places where I procured their eggs, and found the birds
most numerous, were in a small sheet of water three or
four miles from the lighthouse of Sanda, a lake near
Nunse Castle in Westra, and at Sandwick, near Strom-
ness."

This species has been obtained in Norfolk, Yorkshire,
and Northumberland. Passing over the Scottish localities
already named, M. Nilsson mentions that the Red-necked
Phalarope visits Sweden and Norway, where a few remain
to breed on the margins of fresh-water lakes, but the
greater part going still further north, are known to visit
Lapland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. Mr. W. Proc-
tor, Subcurator of the Durham University Museum, visited
Iceland in the summer of 1837, and in some notes on the
habits of birds seen there, which were published in the Na-
turalist, mentions, that " The Red-necked Phalarope, or
Lobefoot, breeds on little hillocks among the marshes. The

138 LOBIPEDID^E.

young birds leave the nest as soon as hatched. On the
approach of danger the old bird runs among the aquatic
herbage, spreading her wings, and counterfeiting lameness,
for the purpose of deluding the intruder ; and after leading
the enemy from her young, she takes wing and flies to a
great height, at the same time displaying a peculiar action of
the wings; then descending with great velocity, and making
simultaneously a noise with her wings. On her return to
her young, she uses a particular cry for the purpose of
gathering the young together. As soon as she has col-
lected them, she covers them with her wings like the do-
mestic hen." A small flock of these birds was seen on
the west coast of Greenland, in latitude 71°, in June, on
Sir Edward Parry's first Arctic voyage ; and Captain James
Ross, in the Natural History Appendix to the third voy-
age, mentions that a small flock of these birds alighted
under the lee of the ship, during a strong breeze of wind,
and were so fearless of danger as to approach within a few
yards of her, feeding on small shrimps, which were seen
in great numbers. At this time, it is observed, " we were
sixty miles from the nearest land. (Disco.) We found
them breeding at whale fish islands, but saw no more of
them after leaving the coast of Greenland." Dr. Richard-
son says this species breeds on all the Arctic coast of
America, and it is well-known to the naturalists of the
United States ; but Mr. Audubon remarks that few indi-
viduals are ever seen to the south of New York.

M. Temminck, and other authorities on the continent
of Europe, mention that this bird is obtained occasionally
in Holland and Germany, but is rare in France, Switzer-
land, Provence, and Italy.

The food, as may be inferred from what has been al-
ready stated, consists of small Crustacea, marine insects,

RED-NECKED HIALAROrE. 139

worms, &c. An egg in my own collection measures one
inch two lines in length, by ten lines in breadth, the
ground colour olive, blotched and streaked over with dark
red brown. From the denuded state of the breast of males
obtained during the breeding season, there is reason to
believe they take a considerable share in the process of
incubation.

In summer the beak is black, more slender and longer
than that of the Grey Phalarope ; irides dark brown ;
around the base of the beak and the eyes, on the top of
the head, back of the neck, all the back and the wing-
coverts, nearly uniform dark lead-colour ; the scapulars
and tertials margined with reddish yellow ; primaries al-
most black ; secondaries rather lighter in colour and tipped
with white ; upper tail-coverts dusky and white ; tail-
feathers brownish grey, the middle pair the darkest in co-
lour ; chin pure white ; sides and front of the neck rich
yellowish red ; feathers of the lower part of the neck in
front dark grey, edged with white ; breast, belly, vent,
and under tail-coverts, pure white ; in front of the wing
a patch of dark grey, which extends backwards, mixed
with white over the sides and flanks. Legs, toes, and
their membranes green, the claws black.

Adult birds in winter have little or no red on the neck
or back, and young birds of the year resemble old birds in
winter.

Females measure about seven inches in length, and are
larger than males ; from the carpal joint to the end of the
longest quill-feather four inches and one quarter. The
length of the beak, from the feathers on the forehead, ten
lines and a half.

140

NAT A TORES.

A NATION.

ANAT1DJE.

THE GREY-LAG GOOSE.

Anser ferus.

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 228.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 299 ;
but not the figure.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 126.

„ Lag Wild Goose, &ELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 261.
Wild Goose, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 222.

„ „ Grey Lag Wild Goose, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xviii.

Anas anser ferus, Oie cendree ou premiere, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 818.
Anser ferus, „ „ „ ,, „ „ pt. iv. p. 517-

Anas anser,
„ „ ferus,

Anser palustris,
„ „
„ ferus,

Grey Lag Goose,
Grey Lag Goose,

Goose,

ANSER. Generic Characters. — Beak not longer than the head, conical,
elevated at the base, which is covered with a cere, or skin ; under mandible
smaller than the upper. Nostrils lateral, placed towards the middle of the beak,
pierced anteriorly. Legs under the centre of the body ; the tarsi long, the hind
toe free, articulated upon the tarsus.

THE fifth and last Order of Birds, the Natatores, or
Swimmers, remains now to be considered. A large por-

GREY-LAG GOOSE. 141

tion of these are remarkable for their powers of swimming
and diving ; they are commonly called Water Fowl, and
as an Order have frequently been designated Palmipedes,
in reference to their webbed feet. From the geographical
position, extent, and varied character of the British Is-
lands, the species of this Order are very numerous, com-
prehending nearly one-third of the whole numbers of our
British Birds. The first family of this Order, the Ana-
tidse, is also extensive, including the Geese, Swans, Ducks
and Mergansers. The first three portions were formerly
considered as belonging but to one genus, Anas ; and hence
the family name Anatidae : modern systematic authors
have found it more convenient, as well as desirable, to di-
vide them into smaller groups, which are known to be dis-
tinct in their characters and habits, and these will be here-
after referred to. Many of the species are of great interest
and value.

Under the term, Wild Goose, four or five species are
frequently included, and the Grey Lag Goose, the first on
our list, has not always been so well defined or repre-
sented as to exhibit the true specific characters, that dis-
tinguish it from the Bean Goose and White-fronted
Goose, with which the Grey-lag Goose is the most fre-
quently confounded. The present species is considered to
be the origin from which our valuable domestic race is
derived ; and to show the aptitude of the wild bird to
this purpose, I may mention, that the Zoological Society
of London, possessing a pinioned wild Grey-lag Gander,
which had never associated with either Bean Goose or
White-fronted Goose, though both were kept on the same
water with him, a domestic goose selected in the London
market, from the circumstance of her exhibiting in her
plumage the marks which belong to, and distinguish the

142 ANATID.E.

true Grey-lag species, was this season, 1841, brought and
put down to him. The pair were confined together by
themselves for a few days, became immediately very good
friends, and a sitting of eight eggs was the consequence.
The offspring were prolific.

At the first exhibition of domestic poultry and water-
fowl at the Gardens of the Zoological Society, in the Re-
gent's Park, at the end of May 1845, there was a fine
specimen of the wild Grey-lag Goose, sent from India by
Mr. Blyth to Mr. Bartlett, who exhibited the bird. The
next coop contained the finest and the heaviest pair
of domestic Geese, sent by Mr. Nolan, from Dublin. It
was most obvious that these domestic birds were derived
from the Grey-lag Goose. The pinky flesh colour of the
beak and the white nail ; the distribution of the markings
of the plumage generally ; the large blue grey space on
the anterior portion of the wing ; the flesh colour of the
legs and feet ; and the voice, were alike in both. The
half bred geese, previously referred to as bred by the so-
ciety, were also exactly similar. It will be observed that
I have resumed the old name of Grey-lag Goose, be-
lieving that the term lag, as applied to this goose, is either
a modification of the English word, lake, the Latin, focus,
or perhaps an abbreviation of the Italian, lago ; from
which latter country it is even probable that we might
originally have obtained this our domesticated race. The
candidus anser of Lucretius,* which by its cackling ex-
cited the attention of the guard, and saved the Roman
Capitol, was perhaps, of the same race as those we pos-
sess at the present time ; as it must be admitted to be
very likely, that after the Romans had established them-
selves in this country, they would introduce many of their

* Horace mentions as a dainty, the liver of a white goose fed on rich figs.

GREY-LAG GOOSE. 143

own domesticated animals. How it happens that the
domestic Goose derived from a wild grey species, should
become white^ I am unable to answer ;* but some of those
persons who keep Geese, state, that all ganders after a cer-
tain age become white. This colour once obtained, there
is little or no difficulty in perpetuating it by restriction,
and there is a motive for perseverance, as white feathers
produce a better price than grey ones. Domestic Geese
are said to be very long lived; one is recorded to have
lived sixty-four years, and was then killed by mistake.

There is, however, some reason to believe that one
other species, at least, has had some share in establishing
our present domestic race. Almost all the species of Geese,
Swans, Ducks, and Mergansers, are remarkable for the
peculiar form of their organ of voice, or windpipe, and so
peculiar as well as permanent is this anatomical character,
that the males of the British species of this family, con-
sisting of about forty, almost all of them, but more parti-
cularly the Swans, Ducks, and Mergansers, can be imme-
diately identified by the examination of this organ alone.
Figures of these will be hereafter introduced as vignettes
to the species to which they belong. In the Wild Grey-
lag Goose the tube of the windpipe is nearly cylindrical,
and this form of trachea I have frequently found on ex-
amination of domestic Geese intended for the table,
but I have also frequently found the tube flattened at the
lower portion, a character which is constant in the Anser
albifrons, or White-fronted Goose ; and there are few
persons well acquainted with the appearance of our
domestic Geese who have not observed in many of them
the white ring of feathers round the base of the beak

* There arc two white varieties of domestic Ducks derived from the Wild
Duck, namely, the English Aylesbuiy Duck and the French Cull Duck.

144 ANATHLE.

extending a little upwards on the forehead, from which
the Anser alUfrons derives one of its names : the figure
of the White-fronted Goose, the fourth species here given,
will exhibit this mark. The legs of many of our do-
mestic Geese are orange coloured, like those of the white-
fronted ; the legs of the Wild Grey-lag Geese are of a
pale flesh colour. The white colour of the horny termina-
tion of the beak, called the nail, is common to both. The
occasional deviation from the natural colour of the plumage
of the wild birds to a pure white, which is probably caused
by domestication and selection, has been referred to.

The Grey-lag Wild Goose is said to have been for-
merly very common in the fens of this country, residing
there the whole year, breeding there, and bringing out
eight or nine young ; but that the general system of drain-
ing pursued in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire,
has been the means of driving them away. Certain it is
that now the Grey-lag Goose is comparatively a rare bird
at any season, and whole winters pass away without a
single example occurring in the London market, though
the bird is well known to some who are constantly upon
the look-out for it. A few specimens appeared in October
1837, and in January 1838, and I considered myself for-
tunate in obtaining two specimens in March 1840, at the
common wild goose price, of a poulterer who did not know
them as distinct from the Bean Goose. Montagu says
they have been killed in open countries when feeding upon
young green wheat ; they feed also on the grasses, aquatic
plants, and any sort of grain.

The Grey-lag Goose is considered to have bred formerly
in Ireland, but is now a rare visiter there, even in winter.
A specimen is occasionally obtained in Devonshire,* and

* Montagu's collection of birds, as left by him, did not contain this species.

GREY-LAG GOOSE. 145

the same may be said of it in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk,
Durham, and Northumberland. This species visits both
Orkney and Shetland in winter, but does not remain to
breed there. Richard Dann, Esq. who has supplied me
with interesting notes referring to many of the species of
this extensive family of birds, more particularly as to their
breeding ground and habits in Scandinavia, says, " On
the inlets and islands from Bergen northwards, this Goose
is not uncommon during the summer, particularly about
Hitteren, where they are tolerably numerous early in
August, and one of our party shot one there, which proved
to be a very large gander. Their migration so far north,
however, seems to be confined to the coast, never having
met with them in Lapland, or in the northern parts of
Sweden or Norway. They make their appearance in the
Elbe at the latter end of August or the beginning of Sep-
tember, remaining there until October, and then go further
south."

Professor Nilsson, who resides in the south-eastern part
of Sweden, says, that a few pairs make their appearance
there towards the end of April. The males leave the fens
when the females begin to sit, and collect in flocks near or
on the sea ; the females conduct their young when they
are ready to go. The eggs of this species are of a dull
yellowish ivory white, smooth and shining, measuring
three inches one line in length, by two inches and one line
in breadth.

This species is said to go as far as Iceland in summer,
and to most of the countries still farther north, but late ob-
servers do not include them among the birds of the Arctic
regions, or of North America. The Grey-lag Goose is not
common in Holland or France, but is said to be more
abundant in Germany, and the central portions of Europe ;

VOL. III. L

146 ANATID.E.

in Italy and Corfti. Said to be found in Northern Asia,
China, and Japan.

The beak is of a pink flesh colour, the horny nail at the
extremity of each mandible white ; the irides brown ; the
head, nape, back of the neck, and the upper part of the
back, ash-brown, the latter named part with lighter co-
loured edges; inner portion of the wings, scapulars, and
tertials lead-grey, with broad and lighter grey coloured
margins ; the point of the wing, both sets of upper wing-
coverts, and all the feathers on the primary portion of the
wing, except the quill-feathers beyond the first three, very
light bluish-grey ; the three outer quill-feathers also light
grey ; the rest dark lead grey, all with white shafts ; the
lower part of the back and the rump uniform light bluish-
grey ; upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers lead-grey,
tipped with white ; chin, neck in front, and the breast, of
a lighter grey colour than the back of the neck ; the belly,
and all the under surface of the body, white ; sides, flanks,
and thighs, barred with ash colour and greyish white ;
under tail-coverts, and the under surface of the tail-fea-
thers, white ; legs, toes, and membranes, dull flesh colour ;
the claws black.

The whole length of an adult male thirty-five inches ;
the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the second
quill-feather, which is the longest, seventeen inches and a
half; the wings when closed scarcely reaching to the end
of the tail. Both males and females have a hard callous
knob at the point of the wing, which varies in size in the
different species of Geese. The males in this genus are
larger than the females. An adult female measured thirty
inches in the whole length, and sixteen inches in the wing.
Mr. Bartlett, who has paid great attention to the plumage
of these birds, says, the young of this species are darker

GREY-LAG GOOSE. 147

than the adults, but the grey colour of the shoulders and
rump, the form of the bill, and the colour of the legs and
feet, will always distinguish them from the young of any
of the other species.

I have ventured to make an exception to the figure
placed over the name of the Grey-lag Goose in Bewick^
admirable work on our British Birds, believing it to have
been taken from a specimen of the Bean Goose, as the
black nail at the end of the beak, and the uniform colour
of the wing, seem to indicate. His excellent figure of
the tame Goose, at page 304, exhibits the characters of
the true Grey-lag Goose, from which the stock is derived,
in the conspicuous white nail to the beak, and the light
coloured cinereous blue outer portion of the wing.

The Grey-lag Goose has bred with the Hooper Swan at
the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, for a knowledge of which,
and also of some other hybrid productions among the
species of this extensive family of Water-fowl, I am in-
debted to M. Edin. de Selys-Lonchamps, of Liege, com-
municated during his recent visit to England. The Grey-
lag Goose in a domestic state has also produced young in
two instances by union with the Knobbed, or Swan Goose,
A . cygnoides ; twice also with the Canada Goose, and once
with the Bernicle Goose. It has been stated that when a
union takes place between two different species of the
genus Anser, both having light coloured legs, or both
having black legs, the young are prolific ; but when pro-
duced between two birds, one of which has light coloured
legs, the other black legs, the young are not prolific.

L 2

148

ANATIDJE.

NATATORES.

ANATIDJE.

THE BEAN GOOSE.

Anas segetwn.

Anas segetum, Bean Goose, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 233.

., „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 303, fig. p. 299.

Anserferus, Wild „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 126.

„ „ Bean „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 263.

„ segetum, „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 222.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiv.

Anas „ Oie vulgare, TEMM. Man d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 820.

Anser ,, „ „ „ „ „ pt. iv. p. 517.

THE BEAN GOOSE is principally a winter visiter to the
British Islands, and from the numbers that are seen in that
season of the year, is the most common, and the most nu-

BEAN GOOSE. 149

merous as a species among our wild geese, with the excep-
tion of the Brent Goose, to be hereafter noticed.

It has been ascertained that a few Bean Geese breed in
some parts of this country, but the greater portion make
their appearance in September and October, coming from
Scandinavia, and from still higher northern latitudes.
From the greater security against surprise, which an un-
inclosed country affords, these birds appear to prefer very
large open fields. The Kev. Richard Lubbock sent me word
that immense flocks are seen in the western parts of Nor-
folk. I remember to have seen flocks containing, appa-
rently, several hundreds in that county, some years ago,
in the month of September, where they feed on the exten-
sive stubbles ; I have been told lately, that these birds and
the Pink-footed Goose visit Gloucestershire, and other parts
in the vicinity of the Severn, as early as August.

During an excursion made by a party of naturalists in
Sutherlandshire, in the summer of 1834, Mr. Selby says,
" we were agreeably surprised to find that the Bean Goose
annually breeds upon several of the Sutherland lakes.
The first intimation we received of this interesting fact
was at Lairg, where we were informed that a few pairs
bred upon some islands about twelve miles up Loch Shin.
We accordingly took boat the following morning, and,
upon arriving at the place, discovered a single pair, at-
tended by four or five young goslings. None were ob-
tained, as the old birds being wild, escaped, seemingly un-
injured, although repeatedly fired at, and the goslings im-
mediately dived, and escaped into the reeds and other
herbage. Upon Loch Naver we also found several pairs
attended by their young, seemingly about a fortnight or
three weeks old, one of which, after a severe chase, we
procured. Upon the islands of Loch Laighal, from thirty

150 ANATIDyE.

to forty pairs, we were informed, annually had their nests.
We saw several old birds, and the nests that had been
used, which are concealed in heath upwards of three feet
in height, that covers the islands. The eggs were all
hatched, and most of the young had betaken themselves
to the neighbouring moors, where they continue till able
to fly, secreting themselves when disturbed, in the highest
heather. At Tongue we saw some goslings about a month
old (following a hen), which 'had been hatched from eggs
taken at Loch Laighal. We were told they became
nearly as tame as common geese, but refuse to intermix
or breed with them. The eggs, from five to seven in
number, are smaller than those of the common Goose, but
of a similar shape and colour.

A few pairs, it is said, breed annually in Sunbiggin Tarn,
near Orton, in Westmoreland, and the islands of Lewis and
Harris, among the Hebrides, are also named as places re-
gularly visited by Bean Geese in summer, where, according
to Pennant, they feed on green corn to an injurious ex-
tent. A pair of Bean Geese belonging to the Ornitho-
logical Society of London, have this season produced a
brood of five, in St. James's Park : the young were ob-
served to grow very rapidly. The egg of a Bean Goose
brought from Norway, and given me by Mr. Hewitson, is
of a dull white ; three inches five lines long, by two inches
five lines in breadth. The eggs produced by the Bean
Goose in the park were a little smaller. The Bean Goose
is common during winter in Ireland, and in North Wales,
but is more rare in the southern counties of England, in-
creasing in frequency on going northward. Mr. Dann's
note on this species is as follows : — " This Goose is said to
be very numerous on the north-west coast of Norway.
I have seen it in vast numbers on the Tornea river in Sep-

BEAN GOOSE. 1 •> 1

tember; and the young ones are often caught on the islands
at the head of the Bothnian Gulph, and tamed. They
arrive in the south of Sweden the latter end of March or
the beginning of April, and remain about a month previous
to their departure north. During their stay they keep
amongst the dead reeds and rushes, feeding upon the roots
and young shoots. I have never seen this Goose upon the
coast in winter ; but, as before stated, it is reported to
breed in great numbers on the Norwegian coast."

Professor Nilsson says the Bean Goose is the most com-
mon species in Sweden, and is also spread over Finland,
breeding upon the islands, and committing great ravages
upon the green corn. Mr. Hewitson says the Bean Goose
was rather numerous upon one of the large islands on the
west coast of Norway, near the Arctic circle, where it had
been breeding during the previous month. This species is
said to visit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. It
breeds also in great numbers at Nova Zembla.

M. Temminck says the Bean Goose is abundant in Hol-
land, Germany, and France, but is more rare in the central
portions of Europe. It is found also in Spain, Provence,
and Italy. It is found also in winter in Sicily, and at
Malta. M. Vieillot mentions that one of the names of this
bird in France is, Harvest Goose, Oie des moissons, from
its frequenting corn-fields, and the destructive effects of
large flocks when feeding upon green corn. Our name of
Bean Goose Mr. Selby thinks has been suggested by the
decided partiality of the bird to pulse and grain.

The bill is two inches and one quarter in length, nearly
as long as the head ; rather slender towards the end and
pointed ; the nail, edges, and base, black, the middle por-
tion orange; irides dark brown; the head and neck, brown,
tinged with grey; back and scapulars darker brown,

152 ANATID.E.

slightly tinged with grey, each feather margined with
greyish white; wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertials, grey-
ish brown, edged and tipped with white ; primaries dark
brown tinged with grey ; rump dark brown ; upper tail-
coverts white ; tail-feathers dark brown, broadly edged
with greyish white; neck in front, breast, and belly,
dirty white ; abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts, pure
white ; legs, toes, and membranes, orange ; the claws
black.

The whole length of an adult male thirty-four inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing nearly nine-
teen inches ; the second quill-feather the longest in the
wing; the wings when closed reaching considerably beyond
the end of the tail ; point of the wing with a prominent
callous knob hidden by the plumage.

Young birds of the year darker in the general colour of
their plumage, and the markings less distinct, but with a
tinge of orange colour about the neck.

Two or three young ones were produced in St. Jameses
Park by the union of a Bean Goose with a Pink-footed
Goose, next to be described.

Wild Geese, when on the wing together for any distance,
are frequently observed to assume some particular figure.
If there are only three or four birds, they mostly fly in a
straight line one after the other; when more numerous,
they assume a wedge-shaped form like the letter •< placed
horizontally, the angle in advance. The interval between
the side lines sometimes occupied. Practice seems to have
taught them that angular forms diminish atmospheric
resistance.

PINK-FOOTED GOOSE.

NATATORES.

153
ANATIDJE.

THE PINK-FOOTED GOOSE.

Anser Irachyrhynclius.

Anser plioenicopus., Pink-footed Goose, BARTLETT, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 3.
„ brachyrliynchus, BAILLON, „ „ „ „ p. 124.

„ „ Oie a bee court, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. pt. iv. p. 520.

ON the 8th of January, 1839, at the first evening meet-
ing of the Zoological Society in that year, Mr. Bartlett ex-
hibited several species of Geese in order to illustrate a
paper which he communicated to the meeting on a new
British species of the genus Anser for which he proposed
the name of plioenicopus^ on account of the pink colour of
the feet, with remarks on the nearly allied species.

On the 10th of September, in the same year, a communi-
cation was received by the Zoological Society from M.
Baillon, of Abbeville, stating that he had described in

154 ANATID^E.

1833, in the Memoirs of the Society of Emulation of
Abbeville, a new species of Goose, to which he had given
the name of ImcJiyrynchus, because it appeared to him
that one of its most striking characters consisted in the
shortness of its beak. This bird proved to be of the same
species as the one described by Mr. Bartlett ; but I believe
I am correct in stating that at the time Mr. Bartlett pro-
posed his name for this new Goose in 1839, no one here
was aware that M. Baillon had described and named the
same species in the Memoirs of the Society of Emulation
of Abbeville, in 1833. M. Baillon's name, of course, has
the precedence, and will be adopted by others, as it has
been by M. Temminck.

This new species, for the first notice of which, in this
country, we are indebted to the discrimination of Mr.
Bartlett, is considerably smaller in size than the Bean
Goose last described, but otherwise so like it in general
appearance, that there is little doubt it has frequently been
mistaken for the young bird of that species ; but on com-
parative examination it is at once distinguished by the
smaller and shorter beak, and the pink colour of the legs
and feet. Little is known of the particular habits of this
new species in a wild state, but M. Temminck mentions
that three specimens kept in a domestic state with others
of the Grey, the Bean, and White-fronted species, did not
associate with either of them, but kept together by them-
selves.

The same habit has been observed of this species in two
instances in this country. The Zoological Society have
had a male for several years which has never associated
with any of those of the various other species with which
it has been confined. The Ornithological Society has a
female which, during the summer of 1840, would not

PINK-FOOTED GOOSE. 155

associate with any of the various species kept with her in
St. James's Park, yet she laid eight eggs, and began to sit,
but from which of course there were no proceeds. The
eggs were rather less than those of the Bean Goose, of a
pure white colour, and measuring three inches and one
eighth in length, by two inches and a quarter in breadth.

This season the Zoological Society have allowed their
male to be transferred to St. James's Park ; but though
the pair were soon good friends, there is as yet no produce.
Young birds have been produced since.

The voice of the Pink-footed Goose differs from that of
the Bean Goose in being sharper in tone, and the note is
also repeated more rapidly. These Geese were not uncom-
mon in the London market during the winters of 1838, 39,
and 40.

In January of the present year, 1841, I was favoured
with a letter from the Hon. and Rev. Thomas Keppel, of
Warham Rectory, near Holkam, informing me that a Pink-
footed Goose had been killed by his nephew, Lord Coke,
at Holkam. This bird was shot out of a flock of about
twenty, but nothing particular was observed in their
flight or habits.

There is little or no doubt that this species will be
found breeding in some of the localities frequented by the
Bean Goose. At a meeting of the Wernerian Natural
History Society, held in Edinburgh on the 28th November
1840, Dr. Neill, the secretary, read a communication from
Mr. Macgillivray, stating that the Pink-footed, or Short-
billed Goose, Anser IrachyrhynchuS) occurs occasionally on
the stalls of the poultry market there. — Edin. New. Phil.
Journ. No. 59, p. 213.

The bill is but one inch and five eighths in length, consi-
derably shorter than the head, narrow, and much con-

156 ANATID^E.

tracted towards the tip ; the nail, and the space from the
nostrils to the base black, the intermediate space pink ;
the irides dark brown ; head and neck dark ash-brown,
the colour becoming lighter towards the lower part of the
neck ; back, wing-coverts and tertials, brownish-grey,
edged and tipped with dull white ; primary quill-feathers
lead-grey, with white shafts ; the secondaries still darker,
almost bluish-black ; rump greyish ash colour ; upper tail-
coverts white; tail-feathers grey, edged and tipped with
white ; neck in front, breast, and belly, pale ash-brown,
with lighter coloured edges ; sides, flanks, and thighs,
grey, broadly tipped with pale brown ; vent, under tail-
coverts, and under surface of the tail-feathers white ; legs,
toes, and membranes pink, tinged with vermilion, in colour
like those of the Egyptian Goose ; the claws black ; the
hind toe short ; the membranes of the feet thick and
fleshy,

The whole length of an adult male twenty-eight inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the second quill-feather,
which is rather the longest in the wing, seventeen inches
and a half; the carpal joint of the wing furnished with
the usual hard knob ; the wings when closed reach an inch
or more beyond the end of the tail.

In the recently published September number of the
Annals and Magazine of Natural History, it is stated in a
paper on the Zoology of the outer Hebrides by Mr. J.
Macgillivray, " that the Pink-footed or Short-billed Goose
breeds in great numbers in the small islands of the Sound
of Harris, as well as those of the interior of North Uist.
This bird was seen in flocks so late as the beginning of
May, was observed in pairs among the islands in the Sound
about the middle of the month, and had the young fully
fledged and strong upon the wing about the end of July."

WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE.

NATATORES.

157
ANAT1DJE.

THE WHITE-FKONTED GOOSE,

OR LAUGHING GOOSE.

Anser albifrons.

Anas albifrons, White-fronted Goose, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 235.

„ „ „ „ MONT. Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ Wild Goose, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 811.

Anser erythropus, Laughing Goose, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 127.

„ „ White-fronted Wild Goose, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 266.

„ albifrons, „ Goose, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 223.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xii.

Anas „ Oie rieuse, ou a front blanc, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 821.
Anser „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ pt. iv. p. 518.

THE WHITE-FRONTED, or Laughing Goose, may be con-
sidered a regular winter visiter to this country, not usually

1 58 ANATID^E.

so numerous as the Bean Goose, but occasionally appearing
in very large flocks, and in some proportion to the severity
of the weather. This species frequents marshes and mo-
rasses, rather than corn fields ; and birds examined by Mr.
Selby were found to have their stomachs filled with the
tender shoots and leaves of the common clover. These
birds are not uncommon in the shops of the London poul-
terers from November till March, and are in some request
for the table as one of the best among the different sorts of
wild Geese. They are not known to remain to breed in
any part of this country in their natural wild state, that I
am aware of; but a pair in the Gardens of the Zoological
Society have this season brought forth their brood from
one of the islands in the pond to which they are restricted,
and show great anxiety for the safety of their young. The
egg is white, tinged with buff, and measures two inches
ten lines in length, by one inch and eleven lines in breadth.
This Goose has also produced a brood by union with a
Bernicle Goose.

This species is a regular winter visiter to Ireland, and is
occasionally killed in Wales. Large flocks were seen in
Cornwall and Devonshire, during the winter of 1829-30,
which frequented turnip-fields. It has been frequently
killed in Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Suf-
folk, Norfolk, Durham, and Northumberland Sir William
Jardine killed two in Dumfriesshire with his rifle in Feb-
ruary 1845. I can find no records of its appearance in
Orkney or Shetland. Mr. Richard Dann's note to me on
this species is as follows : —

" This is the Common Goose in Lapland, and by the
Laps called the Mountain Goose from its frequenting more
elevated districts than the Bean Goose. It breeds in small
numbers south of Juckasiervi, in Tornea Lapland, but not

WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 159

further west than Killingsuvanda. It appears in great
numbers in the spring at Quickiock, but does not breed
there. None of the western parts of Swedish Lapland are
adapted either for Sandpipers or the Duck tribe, the lakes
being generally rocky, and the swamps not of sufficient
extent. The young ones are easily tamed, and are caught
in great numbers by the Laps, with the old ones in a
moulting state and unable to fly, in July. In Sweden
Professor Nilsson says this Goose is seen from spring to
autumn, becoming gregarious in September and October, in
the marshes near the sea. Acerbi, in his Travels through
Finland and Lapland, mentions having shot some White-
fronted Geese near Kautokeino in Lapland, and it is re-
corded as visiting the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The
White-fronted, or Laughing Goose, described long ago, as
well as figured by Edwards, plate 153, was from a speci-
men brought from Hudson's Bay, where, however, it is not
common. Of its habits in North America, Dr. Richardson
observes, that " the Laughing Goose travels in great flocks
through the fur-countries, eight or ten days later than the
Canada Goose, and breeds on the coasts and islands of the
Arctic Sea, north of the 67th parallel of latitude. The
autumn migration southwards commences early in Sep-
tember ; and its return at that season to the fur districts is
often the first indication of winter having begun within the
Arctic Circle. The Indians imitate the call of this Goose
by patting the mouth with their hand while they repeat
the syllable wall. The resemblance of this note to the
laugh of a man has given one of the trivial names to
this species. It passes on towards the United States,
in advance of the Canada Goose; and Mr. Audubon
says that it arrives before the latter in Kentucky, where
many of the species winter ; but many also, he is con-

160 ANATID^E.

vinced, go entirely to the southward of the United States'
boundary.

East of our own country the White-fronted Goose visits
Holland, Germany, and France, and is included by M.
Savi among the Birds of Italy. M. Menetries, the Russian
naturalist, mentions that in autumn this species makes its
appearance in considerable flocks near the Caspian Sea,
particularly at Bakou, and the lakes in that vicinity, where
they pass the winter. Towards the end of February they
commence their emigration. It is found in China; and
M. Temminck says this species is found in Japan.

The bill is of a reddish flesh colour, the nail white ; at
the base of the upper mandible, and on the forehead, the
feathers are white; the irides very dark brown; head,
neck, back, rump, and wings, brownish ash colour ; wing-
coverts grey, edged with white; tertials margined with
dull white ; wing-primaries and secondaries bluish black ;
upper tail-coverts white; tail-feathers dark grey tipped
with white ; breast and belly pale brownish white, both
sexes with patches and broad bars of black ; sides and
flanks ash-brown, edged with dull white ; vent and under
tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and membranes orange ;
claws whitish horn colour.

The whole length of an adult male twenty-seven inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing seventeen
inches ; the second quill-feather the longest in the wing.

The plumage of young birds of the year is more uniform
in colour and rather dark, the feathers at the base of the
upper mandible are of a darker brown than those of the
other parts of the head ; the nail and point of the beak
light brown. The pale brown feathers on the breast are
uniform in colour without any dark patches or bars.

BERNICLE GOOSE.

NATATORES.

161
ANATID/K.

THE BERNICLE GOOSE.

Anser leucopsis.

Anas erythropus, Bernade Goose, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 237.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 319.

Anser Iwnicla, „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 127.

„ „ Berniclc „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 268.

„ leucopsis, Common Bernick Goose, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 224.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xii.

Anas „ Oie bernache, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 823.

Anser „ „ „ „ „ „ pt. iv. p. 520.

THE BERNICLE GOOSE is another winter visiter to the
British Islands, appearing in considerable flocks, particu-
larly when the weather is severe, and is considered to be
more abundant on the western coasts than on those of the
east; they are naturally wild and shy, but when made

VOL. III.

M

1 62 ANATID^E.

captive they very soon become as familiar as our domestic
Geese, and have lived a very long time in confinement, in
one instance as much as thirty-two years. In a communi-
cation to the Zoological Society, from the Earl of Derby,
the President, dated Prescot, in May 1840, it was stated
that on the " Great Water of his lordship's park, a Ber-
nicle Goose paired with a White-fronted Goose, and a
brood were hatched out." A small flock of Bernicles,
consisting of one gander and four geese, have been kept
for several seasons on the canal in St. James's Park by
the Ornithological Society, and young ones produced in
the years 1844 and 45. This species is a regular winter
visiter to Ireland, and has been taken there in the north,
north-east, at Dublin, and in the south. Mr. Selby says
it is sometimes abundant on the Lancashire coast, and in
the Sol way Firth. It has occasionally been taken in
Wales, in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Sussex, Cam-
bridgeshire, Norfolk, and in Northumberland. They are
observed to frequent marshes on the coast, where they feed
on the grasses, and the tender parts of aquatic plants. The
flesh is of good flavour, and the birds are not uncommon in
the shops of our London poulterers, from November to
February, about which time they take their departure for
more northern latitudes, in which they produce their young.
Their nesting habits are little known ; but the eggs laid
by the birds in the park were white ; two inches and
three-quarters long, by one inch and seven eighths in
breadth. Mr. Dann's note in reference to this species,
says, " A skin of this Goose was shown me by some Laps
near Gillivara, who were ignorant of the bird, never having
seen it before. It was shot at Killingsuvanda. It migrates
in vast numbers along the western coast of Norway, from
the Naze of Norway northwards, where it generally seems

BERNICLE GOOSE. 163

to make the land after leaving the Danish coast. I suspect
the shores of the White Sea, to the eastward, are the great
breeding places of this bird. They appear in vast numbers
on the coast of Scona in October and November, but their
flight is generally along the coast of the Baltic. This
Goose is said to visit the Faroe Islands in summer : Faber
includes it as a bird of Iceland ; and it is sometimes found
at Hudson^s Bay. It is said to breed in Russia. M. Tem-
minck mentions it as abundant in Holland, but less com-
mon in Germany and France. Polydore Roux includes it
among his birds of Provence. M. Temminck says that
this species inhabits Japan and northern Asia.

This very prettily marked Goose has the beak, and a
stripe from the beak to the eye, black ; the length of the
beak one inch and three-eighths ; the irides dark brown ;
the forehead, cheeks, and chin, white ; top of the head,
nape, all the neck and interscapulars, black ; scapulars,
point of the wing, both sets of wing-coverts, and tertials,
French grey, tipped with a crescent of bluish-black, and an
extreme edge of white ; primaries almost black ; rump
bluish-black ; upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers almost
black ; breast and belly greyish- white ; vent and under
tail-coverts pure white ; flanks and thighs tinged with grey
in bars ; legs, toes, membranes, and claws black.

The whole length of an adult male twenty-five inches.
From the blunt spur at the carpal joint to the end of the
first quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing, sixteen
inches.

Young birds have the white of the cheeks varied with
black feathers ; the ends of the feathers on the back and
wing- co verts tinged with red ; the flanks barred with
darker grey, and the legs less decidedly black.

M2

164

NATATORES.

ANATIDJ).

AN ATI DTE.

THE BRENT GOOSE.
Anser torquatus.

Anas bernicla, Brent Goose, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 239.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 317.

Anser brenta, „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 127-

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 271.

„ torquatus, „ „ JKNYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 224.

„ brenta, „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

Anas bernicla, Oie cravant, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 824.
Anser „ „ „ „ „ „ pt. iv. p. 522.

OF the various species of Geese that visit the British Is-
lands, this is the smallest as well as the most numerous,
and possesses also for us the agreeable advantage of being
a good bird for the table. It is a regular winter visiter
to the shores of most of our maritime counties, and remains

BRENT GOOSE. 165

with us through all the cold months of the year, particu-
larly on the east and south coast. It is seldom seen on
fresh water in the interior, unless wounded ; hut is truly
a marine species, passing a great portion of the day and
night out at sea, at other times frequenting extensive
muddy flats and sand hars on the sea-shore, which are
exposed at every ehh tide, and the birds make their ap-
pearance at these their feeding places, as soon as, or even
a short time before the water leaves the ground exposed,
remaining there, if undisturbed, till the tide flows over
the ground again. In such situations the large flocks that
frequent certain favourite localities are quite extraordinary.
The author of Wild Sports in the West of Ireland says,
" they come here in immense multitudes ; I saw from the
window a considerable extent of sand literally black with
this migratory tribe ;" and they are equally numerous on
other parts of the Irish coast.

Colonel Hawker, in his very amusing Instructions to
young sportsmen, referring to Wild Fowl shooting on the
coasts of Dorsetshire and Hampshire, observes, " towards
November or December, we have the Brent Geese, which
are always wild, unless in very hard weather. In calm
weather these Geese have the cunning in general to leave
the mud as soon as the tide flows high enough to bear
an enemy ; and then they go off to sea, and feed on the
drifting weeds. To kill Brent Geese by day, get out of
sight in a small punt, at low water, and keep as near as
possible to the edge of the sea. You will then hear them
coming like a pack of hounds in full cry, and they will
repeatedly pass within fair shot, provided you are well
concealed, and the weather is windy to make them fly
low. Before you fire at them, spring suddenly up, and
these awkward birds will be in such a fright as to hover

166 ANATID^.

together, and present a mark like a barn door. The Brent
Geese, when fat, are excellent eating birds."

The London markets are abundantly supplied with these
Geese, and a few may be seen in almost every poulterer's
shop in the winter. The authors of the Catalogue of Nor-
folk and Suffolk Birds also mention, that the cry of a flock
of these birds much resembles the noise of a pack of
hounds, and they had twice been deceived by it.

Upon the Northumbrian coast, Mr. Selby observes, " a
very large body of these birds annually resorts to the
extensive muddy and sandy flats that lie between the
mainland and Holy Island, and which are covered by every
flow of the tide. This part of the coast appears to have
been a favourite resort of these birds from time imme-
morial, where they have always received the name of
Ware Geese., given to them, without doubt, in consequence
of their food consisting entirely of marine vegetables. This
I have frequently verified by dissection ; finding the giz-
zard filled with the leaves and stems of a species of grass
that grows abundantly in the shallow pools left by the
tide, and with the remains of the fronds of different algse,
particularly of one, which seems to be the Lawer (Ulva
latissima). In this haunt they remain till the end of
February, when they migrate in successive flocks, as the
individuals happen to be influenced by the season, and be-
fore April the whole have disappeared. When they de-
part, the same procedure as that mentioned by Wilson, in
his American Ornithology, takes place ; the flock about to
migrate rises high into the air by an extensive spiral
course, and then moves off seaward in a northerly direc-
tion."

This species is included by Mr. Macgillivray among the
Birds of the Hebrides, and in Shetland it is called Horra

BRENT GOOSE. „ 167

Goose, from the numbers that frequent Horra Sound, but
none remain during summer. Mr. DamVs note on this
species is as follows. " I could get no information re-
specting the Brent Goose in Lapland, it being unknown to
the colonists and Laps. I have seen and shot them in the
neighbourhood of Gottenburgh in the autumn, but they
are not known to pitch often except on the coast. This
Goose is more of a sea bird than the rest of the tribe,
keeping much in narrow tide ways, and feeding on the
drift weed. They are very abundant among the Danish
islands in November and December."

The Brent Goose is found during summer at the Faroe
Islands, and at Iceland. Dr. Richardson says, this neat
small Goose is very numerous on the coast of Hudson's
Bay, in its passage to and from the north. Captain James
Ross states that it did not remain near Felix Harbour,
Boothia, to breed, but went still farther north ; and that
it is found during the summer months in the highest north-
ern latitudes that have been visited. It was found breed-
ing on Parry's Islands, in latitude 74°, 75°.

Eggs brought home by some of our northern voyagers
were of a greyish white colour, and measured two inches
and three-quarters in length, by one inch and three-quarters
in breadth. The bird is well known to the ornithologists
of the United States : and Mr. Audubon says they have
produced their young in captivity, but the birds kept in
St. James's Park, and at the Zoological Gardens, do not
breed.

Captain Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic Regions,
reports that the Brent Goose occurs in considerable num-
bers near the coast of Greenland; but is not seen in any
quantity at Spitzbergen. In K. E. Von Baer's descrip-
tion of Animal life in Nova Zembla, a translation of which

168 ANATHLE.

appeared in the fourth volume of the Annals of Natural
History, it is observed, " Among the web-footed birds
which pass the season here, the Bean Geese are so com-
mon, at least in the southern island, that the collecting
their fallen wing-feathers is an object of profit ; according
to the assertions of the Walrus-catchers, only one species
of Goose comes to Nova Zembla, and we in fact got sight
of no other than the Bean Goose, and the Brent Goose,
which latter, however, does not pass for a Goose among the
Russians. The web-footed herbivorous birds, however,
collect in much greater numbers upon the island of Kol-
gujew, which is described as covered with Swans and Geese,
than in Nova Zembla, where the vegetation is too scanty.
On this account expeditions are sometimes sent hither to
kill and salt these birds. A merchant of Archangel told
me that once fifteen thousand Geese were killed here in
two hunts.

In the adult male the bill is black, and only one inch and
a half in length ; the irides very dark brown, almost black ;
the forehead low, the head small and black ; the neck all
round black, except a small patch on each side, which is
white, but mixed with a few regularly placed black fea-
thers ; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials, dark
brownish black, the edges a little lighter in colour; pri-
mary and secondary quill -feathers black ; the rump black ;
upper tail- co verts white ; tail-feathers black ; upper part
of the breast black ; lower portion of the breast and the
belly slate-grey, with lighter coloured margins ; vent and
under tail -coverts white ; legs, toes, membranes, and claws
black.

The whole length twenty-one inches. From the carpal
joint to the end of the wing thirteen inches ; the first quill-
feather the longest in the wing.

BRENT GOOSE.

169

Females are a little smaller than males, and have their
plumage tinged with brown.

Young birds of the year have little or no white patch
on the sides of the neck ; head and neck dusky lead-grey ;
the feathers of the body edged with brown ; belly and
flanks light grey.

170

NATATORES.

ANATID.E.

AN ATI DM.

•>

THE RED-BREASTED GOOSE.

Anser ruficollis.

Anas ruficollis, Red-breasted Goose, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 241.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii p. 297.

Anser „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 128.

,, „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 275.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 225.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvi.

Anas „ Oie a cou rouse, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 826.

Anser „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ pt. iv. p. 522.

BUT little is known of the habits of this beautiful species,
which appears to be very rare, except in the extreme
northern parts of Asia and Siberia, its migrations in sum-
mer extending to the shores of the Frozen Ocean, where it

RED-BREASTED GOOSE. 171

is said to breed and rear its young. According to M.
Temminck it is found about the estuaries of the rivers Ob
and Lena. Professor Nilsson mentions two instances only
in which this bird has been obtained in Scandinavia, once
in 1793, and once in 1830. Its migrations are said to
have been more regularly observed in Denmark ; and
Faber includes it in his Prodromus of the Ornithology of
Iceland. It appears to have been obtained more frequently
in England than in any of the countries around it. The
first example was taken near London during the severe
frost of 1766. This specimen passed into the possession
of Mr. Tunstall, and is now preserved in the Museum of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Another was captured alive in
Yorkshire about the same time, soon became tame, and
was kept with some ducks in a pond. A third was killed
near Berwick-upon-Tweed, and formed part of Mr. Bul-
lock's celebrated collection. This specimen is now pre-
served in the British Museum. The authors of the cata-
logue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds state, that Mr. Wigg
had a specimen of this rare Goose, which was killed at
Halvergate in Norfolk, in the year 1805. He says its flesh
was well-flavoured. It has been elsewhere noticed that the
flesh was free from any fishy taste, and in great esteem for
the table. Other specimens are stated to have been
killed in Cambridgeshire during the severe winter of 1813 :
and Dr. Edward Moore, in his Catalogue of the Birds of
Devonshire, has recorded two instances of this Goose
having been obtained in that county. One was shot on
Kenton Warren in 1828, and is now in the possession of
Mr. W. Russell, at Dawlish : the second was killed on
Teign marshes, February 1st, 1837, by Rendell of Buck-
land, and was prepared and preserved by Mr. Drew. But
one example is mentioned by M. Temminck as having
been killed in Holland ; but one in France, recorded by

172 ANATID^E.

M. Vieillot as having been killed near Strasbourg ; and one
in Germany, included in the Histories of the Birds of that
country by Wolfe and Meyer, and by Mr Brehm.

M. Menetries, in his Catalogue Raisonne of objects in
Zoology observed by the naturalists attached to the Rus-
sian expedition to the vicinity of the Caucasus and the
frontiers of Persia, says, that in 1 828 a considerable flock of
this species appeared at Leukoran, probably driven there by
strong winds ; they were so exhausted by fatigue that they
were caught by hand, and many were preserved in capti-
vity, to which they were easily reconciled. They always
kept together, and uttered a gentle call-note when any
one of their party separated from the others, or when a
bird of prey hovered over them : this was the only sound
that was heard. Of the food placed before them they
preferred green vegetables to grain, and drank often.

In the adult bird the beak and the nail are almost
black : the irides hazel ; between the beak and the eye a
white patch ; round the eye, the top of the head, and
down the back of the neck, dark brownish-black ; on the
ear-coverts an angular patch of chestnut surrounded with
white, ending in a white streak passing downwards ; upper
surface of the body and wings very dark brown, almost
black ; wing-coverts edged with greyish- white ; upper
tail- co verts white ; primaries and tail-feathers black ;
throat dark brown ; neck and upper part of the breast
rich chestnut red, ending with a collar of white : lower
part of the breast black ; belly, vent, and under tail-
coverts white ; the flanks barred with dark brown ; legs,
toes, and their membranes, dark-brown, almost black.

The whole length twenty-one or twenty-two inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing fourteen
inches.

EGYPTIAN GOOSE.

173

XATATORES.

THE EGYPTIAN GOOSE.

^Iws^/* Egyptiacus.

Anas Egyptiaca, Egyptian Goose, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 315.

Anser Egyptiacus, „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 225.

CJicnalopex Egyptiaca, „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxi.

Anser Egyptiacus^ Oie Egyptienne^ TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. pt. iv. p. 523.

IT is only lately that the Egyptian Goose has been ad-
mitted into the histories and catalogues of our British
Birds, and even now exceptions are occasionally made to
it, on the ground that the specimens, though killed at
large, or apparently in a wild state, had probably escaped
from the waters of parks or pleasure grounds, where they
had been bred and fostered on account of the beauty of
their plumage. Their appearance, however, thus at large,

174 ANATID^E.

the feathers exhibiting no marks of confinement, occurs so
frequently, in so many different localities, and more par-
ticularly in such numbers, a flock of about eighty having
been seen together on one occasion in Hampshire ; these
facts, in conjunction with the statement of M. Temminck,
that he had not admitted it among the Birds of Europe in
his Manual, till he had ascertained to a certainty the
appearance of individuals in a wild state in several parts of
southern Europe, seem to justify recording it also among
the occasional visiters to this country. M. Temminck says
this species inhabits the whole of Africa from the north to
the middle ; it is found also in Turkey, visits the mouths of
the Danube, and occasionally the islands of the Grecian
Archipelago ; has been killed in Sicily, and it is said, also,
in several parts of Germany. M. De Selys-Lonchamps
sent him word that a specimen had been killed upon the
Meuse, and another at Liege. Three have also been
killed near Metz.

The breeding habits of this bird, in a wild state, are, I
believe, but little known : they hatch and rear their young
without difficulty in confinement, and have bred several
seasons in succession in the gardens of the Zoological
Society. The eggs are of a dull white, tinged with buff
colour, two inches nine lines in length, by two inches in
breadth. The editor of the Naturalist says, " the Egyptian
Goose quacks in a manner somewhat similar to the Mallard
Duck, but the note is more like barking." Vol. ii. p. 385.

In the summer of 1838, an Egyptian Goose, in the
garden of the Zoological Society, paired with a Penguin
Drake,* and the eggs were productive. The same two
birds were kept together in the following season, and the

* The Penguin Duck, so called from its walking nearly upright, is only a
variety of the Common Domestic Duck.

EGYPTIAN GOOSE. 175

result was, more productive eggs. The young birds were
preserved, and kept by themselves experimentally. In
the following season many eggs were produced between these
hybrid brothers and sisters, the females sat steadily but the
eggs were not productive, and those examined exhibited no
appearance of embryotic formation. An Egyptian Goose
has bred with the Knobbed or Swan Gander (A. cyg-
noides), and with the Spur- winged Gander (A. gambensis),
with the Dublin Zoological Society in the Phrenix Park.

Besides various instances of single specimens of the
Egyptian Goose having been obtained in this country,
a flock of five were seen on the Fern islands in April
1830. A small flock visited the Tweed in February 1832.
Three were shot at Campsie, near Glasgow, in November
1832. Mr. Wallace, of Douglas, sent me word that a
flock of nine were seen in the Isle of Man, in September
1838. This species has been killed in Ireland. Four
were shot on the Severn, near Bridgewater, in February
1840; two were shot in Dorsetshire, in 1836; and
Colonel Hawker mentions " two killed in Norfolk, and
three at Longparish in Hampshire, in the winter of 1 823 ;
and the next year again, during some tremendous gales
from the west, a flock of about eighty appeared near the
same place, when two more were killed."

The beak in the centre is pale brown ; the nail, the
margins, arid the base dark brown ; the irides wax yellow ;
round the eye a patch of chestnut brown ; cheeks and
sides of the neck pale rufous white; forehead, crown of
the head, back of the neck, the back, scapulars and tertials,
rich reddish-brown ; the carpal portion of the wing, the
smaller and the larger wing-coverts white ; the smaller
coverts tipped with black ; the wing-primaries almost
black, tinged with green ; the secondaries tinged with

176 ANATID.E.

reddish-bay, and edged with chestnut : the lower part
of the back, the rump and tail, nearly black ; front of the
neck, the breast, and upper part of the belly, pale rufous
brown, a patch on the breast chestnut brown ; lower part
of the belly and the vent pale brown ; the legs and feet
pink.

The whole length of an adult male about twenty-six
inches. The distribution of colours are the same in
females as in males, but the tints are less bright and
pure. The wing is furnished with a short blunt spur at
the wrist.

The tube of the windpipe is about twelve inches long,
nearly cylindrical in form throughout ; but unlike those of
the other Geese, the male has a hollow bony enlargement,
half as thick as it is wide ; at the bottom of the tube on
the left side, as shown in the vignette below, where the
lower portion of the windpipe, the bony enlargement,
and the short depending bronchial tubes, the last slightly
connected by a thin slip of membrane, are figured of the
natural size. The view is taken with the tube and its
enlargement in the natural position, the breast-bone being
removed, as in the case of the view of the windpipe of the
Spoonbill figured in the second volume, page 570.

SPUR-WINGED GOOSE.

NATATORES.

177
ANA TIDJE.

THE SPUR- WINGED GOOSE,

OR GAMBO GOOSE.

A nas Gambensis, Spur- winged Goose, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 313.
Anser „ Gambo Goose, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 128.

„ „ Spur-winged Goose, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 226.

A SPECIMEN of this African Goose, killed in Cornwall in
June 1821, was presented to Mr. Bewick by Mr. Henry
Mewburn of St. Germain^s, near which place it was shot.
The figure in Bewick's work on our British Birds was
taken from this specimen, which is now deposited in the
Museum at Newcastle.

G. T. Fox, Esq. in his Synopsis of the contents of the
Newcastle Museum, gives the following particulars of the
capture of this British killed specimen, which were supplied
by Mr. Mewburn. " When first seen, it was in a field

VOL. III. N

178 ANATHLE.

adjoining the cliffs, at Port Wrinkle, a small fishing place,
about four miles from St. Germain's, near which it re-
mained for two or three days. Being several times dis-
turbed by attempts to shoot it, it came more inland, to a
low situated farm, called Pool, and there associated with
the Common Geese ; but was wild, and immediately took
wing upon being approached. Here it kept to and fro for
a day or two, but being much disturbed, left, and came
down upon the shore of the St. Germain's river, or estuary,
when the following day, the 20th of June 1821, it was
shot by John Brickford in a wheat field at Sconner, about
a mile from St. Germain's. When killed, it was in the
most perfect state, having only one shot in the head.
Some gentlemen who saw it the following day, requested
him to let me have it, which he promised ; but though he
knew I was a bird stuffer, he had a wife, who, from
some strange infatuation, thought she could stuff it ; but
being soon convinced of her inability, she cut off the wings
for dusters, and threw the skin away ; and it was not till
three weeks afterwards that I heard of the circumstance,
when I sent a servant, who brought it covered with mud,
the head torn off, but luckily preserved, as also one wing,
when I had it washed, and put it together as well as I
was able. The skin, in this state, was obligingly forward-
ed to Newcastle by Mr. Mewburn, for Mr. Bewick's use,
from whence it passed into Mr. R. Wingate's hands, who
has most ably reset it, and thus preserved one of the
most uncommon ornithological rarities ever known in
England."

The bad management of the skin in the first instance
explains Mr. Couch's remark on this bird in his Cornish
Fauna ; namely, " one specimen only is on record, and
that was mutilated when ascertained."

SPUR-WINGED GOOSE. 179

Mr. Bewick^s description of the specimen at Newcastle
is as follows : — " The bill is reddish-yellow, with a jointed
protuberance on the base of the upper mandible. The
upper part of the head and neck are dingy brown ; the
auriculars and sides of the throat are white, spotted with
brown ; the lower part of the neck, sides of the breast, and
all the upper plumage appear black, but this colour is
lost, particularly in the scapulars and tertials, which are
most resplendently bronzed and glossed with brilliant
green, and most of the outer webs of the other feathers
partake of the same hue ; on the bend of the wing or
wrist, is placed a strong white horny spur, about five-
eighths of an inch in length, turning upwards, and rather
inwards; the whole of the edges of the wing from the
alula spuria to the elbow and shoulder are white, all the
under parts the same. This beautiful bird is nearly of the
bulk of the Wild Goose, but its legs and toes are somewhat
longer, and of a red or orange yellow.""

To give the actual appearance of the British killed
specimen our figure is taken from Mr. Bewick's work.

This species is a native of northern and western Africa,
but its habits are unknown. A male in the collection of
the Dublin Zoological Society paired with an Egyptian
Goose as already mentioned.

A male specimen died lately in the gardens of the
Zoological Society, after living there in confinement nearly
twelve years. Advantage was taken of this opportunity to
examine the organ of voice, generally found to possess
some remarkable variety in form and structure throughout
most of the species of this extensive family ; and the
expectation was fully realised. By permission of the
council of the Zoological Society, I am enabled to publish
the following description and figures.

N2

180

ANATID^E.

The windpipe of the Spur- winged Goose is about sixteen
inches long, the tube flattened throughout the greater part
of its length, but cylindrical at the bottom. The vignette
below represents the lower portion of the windpipe in
three points of view. The figure on the right hand shows
the tube with its bony enlargement on the left side, being
its position in the body of the bird ; the other figures are
added to exhibit the various circular and oval apertures
which pervade different parts of this bony enlargement, the
opposite sides not being exactly alike, either in the number,
form, or situation of these apertures in the bone, which in
a natural state are closed by delicate transparent mem-
brane. The bronchial tubes are divided higher at the
back than in front, as seen in the figure on the left, to
allow free passage for the oesophagus between them from
behind forwards.

CANADA GOOSE. 181

NA TA TORES. A NA TIDM.

THE CANADA GOOSE,

OR CRAVAT GOOSE.

Anser Canadensis.

Anas Canadensis, Canada Goose, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 293.
Anser „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 128.

Cygnus „ „ Swan, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 227.

So frequently are specimens of the Canadian Goose shot
which do not exhibit either in their actions or plumage any
signs of having escaped from confinement, and so often
are flocks seen in different parts of the country, apparently
in a naturally wild state, some pairs of which in the
season produce and rear their young in places selected by

182 ANATHLE.

themselves for this purpose, without requiring or receiving
either care or food from man, that the Canada Goose
seems to be entitled to a place in this work. The bird
from which Mr. Bewick drew his figure of this species was
shot at St. Germain's in Cornwall, where two or three
other examples have also been shot ; and Mr. E. H. Rodd,
of Penzance, sent me word some time ago, that the Canada
Goose had been shot on the Scilly Islands. I have known
several shot at different times in Hampshire. The Rev.
Leonard Jenyns observes that large flocks have been ob-
served in the fens of Cambridgeshire in a state of liberty
and independence, and some of them have been killed in
more than one instance. A writer in the Magazine of
Natural History, vol. viii. p. 255, says, " in this neigh-
bourhood (near Derby) we are frequently visited by small
flocks of the Canada Goose, Anser Canadensis, Willughby,
which is a bird, I believe, of very local distribution. They
always announce their approach by a loud noise, and, after
wheeling two or three times round the piece of water near
the house, they alight and commence grazing. They are
very ornamental objects stalking about the lawn, tossing
their heads and making curious contortions with their long
necks. It frequently happens that two remain when all
the rest are flown. After reconnoitering the place for a
few days, they usually fix on the corner of an island as
their nesting place. This favourite nook of theirs is not
far from where a pair of Moorhens, year after year, pro-
duce their young ; yet, neither Goose nor Moorhen ever
interfere with each other, but keep on very good terms ;
nevertheless, the former does not permit her sooty com-
panion to make too close an approach. After the female
Goose has fully made up her mind as to the locality of
her nursery, she begins plucking feathers, straws, and other
soft materials, until she has at last constructed a perfect

CANADA GOOSE. 183

feather bed. Having laid her eggs, generally six, she sits
with most exemplary patience, and, notwithstanding the
proximity of the water, which offers a great temptation,
it is rare to find her off her nest. During the period of
incubation the male is, through the greater part of the
day, sailing in measured time and slow over the water,
never approaching his mate very near, nor straying very
far. On the approach of any intruder he displays great
uneasiness, and his tranquillity does not return till the
danger is over. Shortly after the goslings have extricated
themselves from their brittle covering, they are conducted
to the water by the female, when they are joined by the
male, who brings up the rear. The little family remain
together till the return of the flock, when all mix pro-
miscuously, recruit themselves for a few days, and then
depart. A pinioned female was joined by a male. When
they were approached, the male did not fly away until he
was pursued so closely as to be in danger of being caught ;
he remained with his mate as long as was consistent with
his liberty ; when that was in danger, and not till then,
he deserted the female. Several of the wild goslings were
obtained in the season of 1832, two of them passed into
the hands of a neighbouring farmer, in whose possession
they have remained ever since. They associate with his
domesticated Grey-lag Geese, and are very peaceable.1'*
Montagu had observed that the Canada Goose will breed
with the common species, and it has bred also with the
Knobbed Goose, and the Bernicle Goose. Bewick says
" great numbers of these Canadian Geese were driven from
their haunts during the severe snow storms of January
and February, 1814 ; they were taken upon the sea-shore,
near Hartlepool, and divided among the farmers in the
neighbourhood, no pains having been taken to keep the
breed pure."

184 ANATID.E.

Sir W. Jardine observes, in a note in his edition of
Wilson's American Ornithology, "On the beautiful piece
of water at Gosford House, the seat of the Earl of We-
myss, Haddingtonshire, the Canadian Goose and many
other water birds rear their young freely. I have never
seen any artificial piece of water so beautifully adapted for
the domestication and introduction of every kind of water
fowl which will bear the climate of Great Britain. Of
very large extent, it is embossed in beautiful shrubbery,
perfectly recluse, and, even in the nearly constant ob-
servance of a resident family, several exotic species seem
to look on it as their own. The Canada and Egyptian
Geese both had young when I visited it, and the lovely
Anas (Dendronessa) sponsa * seemed as healthy as if in
her native waters."

Canada Geese produced and reared their young in the
gardens of the Zoological Society in 1835, and a pair be-
longing to the Ornithological Society have been productive
in St. James's Park, during the present season, 1841.
The egg is of a dull white colour, measuring three inches
four lines in length, and two inches four lines in breadth.
The young were observed to grow very rapidly. Wil-
lughby, whose Ornithology was published in 1678, says
of the Canada Goose, " the name shows the place whence
it comes. We saw and described both this and the Spur-
winged Goose among the King's wild-fowl in St. James's
Park."

The Canada Goose goes to very high northern latitudes
in summer. Captain Phipps mentions having seen Wild
Geese feeding at the water's edge, on the dreary coast of
Spitzbergen, in latitude 80° 27' ; but these might be Bean
Geese, which are known to go there. Fabricius suspects
that they are found during summer in Greenland. They

* The Summer Duck, or Wood Duck of America.

CANADA GOOSE. 185

inhabit the northern parts of North America. Immense
flocks appear annually in the spring in Hudson's Bay, and
pass far to the north to breed, and return southward in
autumn. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says, numbers
also breed about Hudson's Bay, laying six or seven eggs
each ; the young are easily made tame. They proceed in
their southern migration as far as South Carolina, where
they winter in the rice grounds. Dr. Richardson, in his
Fauna Boreali-Americana, says, the arrival of this well
known bird in the fur-countries is anxiously looked for,
and hailed with great joy by the natives of the woody and
swampy districts, who depend principally upon it for sub-
sistence during the summer. It makes its first appearance
in flocks of twenty or thirty, which are readily decoyed
within gun-shot by the hunters, who set up stuffed skins, and
imitate its call. Two or three, or more, are so frequently
killed at a shot, that the usual price of a Goose is a single
charge of ammunition. One Goose, which, when fat, weighs
about nine pounds, is the daily ration for one of the Com-
pany's servants during the season, and is reckoned equi-
valent to two Snow Geese,* or three ducks, or eight
pounds of buffalo and moose meat, or two pounds of pem-
mican, or a pint of maize and four ounces of suet. About
three weeks after their first appearance, the Canada Geese
disperse in pairs throughout the country, between the 50th
and 67th parallels, to breed, retiring at the same time
from the shores of Hudson's Bay. They are seldom or
never seen on the coasts of the Arctic Sea. In July, after
the young birds are hatched, the parents moult, and vast
numbers are killed in the rivers and small lakes, when
they are unable to fly. When chased by a canoe and

* There is an old saying, that a Goose is too much for one, and not enough
for two: Hearne, in his Journal, says, " the flesh of the Snow Goose is delicate,
but the bird is so small that I ate two one night for supper.'1''

186 ANATIDJ5.

obliged to dive frequently, they soon become fatigued and
make for the shore, with the intention of hiding themselves,
but as they are not fleet, they fall an easy prey to their
pursuers. In the autumn they again assemble in flocks
on the shores of Hudson's Bay for three weeks or a month
previous to their departure southwards. It has been ob-
served, that in their migrations, the Geese annually resort
to certain passes and resting-places, some of which are
frequented both in the spring and autumn, and others only
in spring. The Canada Goose generally builds its nest on
the ground, but some pairs occasionally breed on the banks
of the Saskatchewan in trees, depositing their eggs in the
deserted nests of ravens or fishing eagles. Its call is
imitated by a prolonged nasal pronunciation of the sylla-
ble wook frequently repeated."

The beak is black ; the irides very dark brown ; head,
and nearly all the neck, black ; chin and throat white,
extending upwards, and ending in a point behind the ear-
coverts. This white patch, from its similarity in colour
and position to a neckcloth, has given origin to one of the
names of this species, the Cravat Goose. The back and
the wing-coverts, the secondaries and tertials, brown, the
feathers of all these except the first, with lighter coloured
edges ; primaries and tail-feathers black ; the rump also
black ; the upper tail-coverts white ; lower part of the
neck almost white ; breast and belly pale brown ; vent
and under tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and interdigital
membranes dark lead colour, almost black. The whole
length, according to Dr. Richardson, forty-one or forty-
two inches ; the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of
the longest quill-feather, nineteen inches and a half.

NATATORES.

HOOPER.

187

ANATIDJE.

THE HOOPER,

ELK, OR WHISTLING SWAN.

A nas cygnus^ Wild Swan,

„ „ ferus, „ „

Cygnus ferus,

A nas cygnus,
Cygnus musicus,

Cygnus ferus.

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 218.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 281.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 126.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 278.
„ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 227.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xv.

Cygne sauvage, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. t. ii. p. 828.

» » » r> n pt. IV. p. 526.

Whistling

CYGNUS. Generic Characters. — Beak of equal breadth throughout its length ;
higher than wide at the base ; depressed at the point ; both mandibles furnished
along the sides with transverse serrated lamellae. Nostrils oblong, lateral, near

188 ANATID.E.

the middle of the beak. Neck slender and very long. Legs short, the hind toe
small and free.

THE HOOPER, so called on account of the peculiar note
uttered by this bird, is a winter visiter to the British Is-
lands, even to the southern parts, arriving in flocks, some-
times as late as Christmas, and are generally more nume-
rous as the weather becomes more severe. The Rev. Mr.
Low, in his natural history of Orkney and Shetland, says,
4< The Wild Swan is found at all seasons in Orkney ; a
few pairs build in the holms of the loch of Stenness. These,
however, are nothing to the flocks that visit us in October
from the more northern climates, their summer retreats.
Part of these continue with us all the winter, and the rest
go to Caithness and the other northern shires of Scotland ;
in April they go off again to the northward, except the
few which remain here for the summer. Like the wild
geese, these birds fly in the fashion of a wedge, making
a fine melodious clang, which has, perhaps, furnished one
occasion to give a musical voice to this bird." Mr. Bonn,
the botanist, says a few visit the lakes of Forfarshire.
In December various flocks are seen flying in compact
bodies, directing their course southward, particularly along
the coast lines, and many specimens are to be seen in the
London markets, which are sometimes supplied to pro-
fusion. Many reach the sea on our southern coast. The
late lamented Earl of Malmesbury sent me, in the spring
of the year 1838, a list of four hundred and sixteen wild
fowl, killed at Heron Court during the frost of the pre-
vious January and February, namely, from January the
9th to February the 24th. This list included thirty-three
Hoopers. And Colonel Hawker describes with his usual
skill the many successful shots he had made at Swans,
when wild-fowl shooting between Lymington and Poole

HOOPER. 189

harbour; "the Hoopers, before they have been shot at,
are easier of access than many other wild birds ; and if,
when flying, they are fired at directly under the hollow
of the wing, or, when swimming, through the head, they
may be stopped at a reasonable distance, with a common
double gun and small shot; perhaps even farther than
other wild-fowl, as, when struck in the body, they become
helpless from their weight, and their heads are less likely
to escape between the shot than those of smaller fowl.
No birds vary more in weight than Hoopers. In the last
winter, 1838, I killed them from thirteen to twenty-one
pounds. On one occasion I knocked down eight at a shot,
seven old ones and a brown one, and they averaged nine-
teen pounds each. The old gander was only winged ; and
when he found himself overtaken by my man, Read, he
turned round and made a regular charge at him."

These birds visit Holland, France, Provence, and Italy;
and Mr. Bennett says they sometimes go as far south as
Egypt and Barbary. They visit Corfu and Sicily in very
severe winters, and Mr. Drummond saw a few on the lakes
of Biserta, and one in the lake of Tunis at the end of
April 1845.

Linnoeus saw Wild Swans several times during his tour
in Lapland, and mentions that at the residence of the
governor of the Province at Calix, he saw three, which
having been taken when young, were as tame as domestic
Geese.

Mr. Dann, in his note to me of this bird, says : — " The
Wild Swan appears in Lapland with the first breaking up
of the ice, and is the earliest of all the Anatidse in its
return north. They frequent the most secluded and unin-
habited swamps and lakes in the wooded districts, and are
found only in scattered pairs south of Juckasierva ; thence

190 ANATHLE.

in a north-eastern direction they are reported to be very
numerous, but I did not fall in with any during my stay in
Lapland."

Bechstein says that in Russia the Hooper is more fre-
quently domesticated than the Mute Swan. A pinioned
female, in the possession of Montagu, laid an egg. Several
years ago I had an opportunity of seeing ten or twelve
Hoopers in a stable in London. These fine birds had
been procured by Mr. Castang, the well known dealer in
birds for the late Earl of Egremont, and the Swans were
shortly afterwards sent to Petworth, where, it was said,
they produced their young. At the time I saw these
birds, I also heard the voice of one of them, a very old and
large male. His note resembled the sound of the word
" hoop," repeating it loudly ten or twelve times in succes-
sion. At the Gardens of the Zoological Society a pair of
Hoopers bred on one of the islands in the summer of 1839,
and again during this last season. A curious occurrence
took place in reference to the brood of 1839. The cygnets,
when only a few days old, were sunning themselves
on the margin of one of the islands, close to the deep
water. The parent birds were swimming near. A Carrion
Crow made a descent and struck at one of the cygnets ; the
old male Hooper came to the rescue in an instant, seized
the Crow with his beak, pulled him into the water, and in
spite of all his buffettings and resistance, held him there
till he was dead. They make a large nest of rushes and
coarse herbage ; the egg is of a uniform pale brownish-
white, and measures four inches one line in length, by two
inches eight lines in breadth : incubation lasts forty-two
days ; the birds feed on grasses, weeds, roots, and seeds of
plants. In the eastern part of Europe the Hooper ranges
from the lakes of Siberia and Tartary in summer, to the

HOOPER.

191

Caspian Sea in winter. M. Menetries says that it is seen
at Bakou in January and February.

The Hooper may be immediately distinguished from
other species among the Swans, by the characters to be
observed about the head. Willughby, besides giving a
figure of the whole bird, introduced in addition the head
only, of larger size, to show the specific peculiarity.
Edwards gave the head of our Mute Swan on the same
plate with his figure of the Hooper, to show the distinc-
tion. This plan of engraving the heads only has been
adopted with excellent effect by Col. Hawker, in his
very popular work, and I have profited by his example of
giving the head only, of large size, rather than give repeti-
tions of similar white bodies. The first here introduced is
the head of the adult Hooper. The anterior part of the
beak is depressed and black ; the posterior or basal part

192 ANATID^E.

quadrangular and yellow : this latter colour extending con-
siderably forward along each lateral margin of the upper
mandible, beyond the openings of the nostrils, which are
black; the lore, or bare space between the base of the
upper mandible and the eye, is also yellow; the irides
dark ; the head, neck, and the whole of the plumage of
the body and wings in adult birds, pure white ; some
specimens, occasionally only, exhibiting a rufous or ochre-
ous tint at the tips of the feathers on the head ; the legs,
toes, and their membranes black.

The whole length from the point of the beak to the end
of the tail five feet. From the carpal joint of the wing to
the end of the longest primary quill -feather, twenty-five
inches and a half; weight twenty-four pounds.

Of those produced at the Gardens of the Zoological So-
ciety, the young birds in the middle of last August, when
about ten weeks old, the beak was of a dull flesh colour,
the tip and lateral margins black ; the head, neck, and all
the upper surface of the body pale ash-brown ; the under
surface before the legs of a paler brown ; the portion
behind the legs dull white ; the legs, like the beak, of a
dingy flesh colour.

The same young birds, in the middle of October, have
the beak black at the end ; a reddish orange band across
the nostrils, the base and lore pale greenish white ; the
general colour pale greyish-brown ; a few of the smaller
wing-coverts white, mixed with others of a pale buffy
brown ; the legs black.

The young Hoopers bred in 1839, had lost almost all
their brown feathers at the autumn moult of 1840, and
before their second winter was over they were entirely
white ; the base of the beak lemon yellow.

The internal distinctions of the Hooper are more con-

HOOPER.

193

spicuous than those which have been referred to as external,
and of the former, the organ of voice furnishes the most
valuable and decisive characters. This peculiarity was
known to Willughby, but it was previously noticed by Sir
Thomas Browne, who mentions " that strange recurvation
of the windpipe through the sternum."

The cylindrical tube of the trachea or windpipe passes
down the whole length of the long neck of the bird, in the
usual manner, but descends between the two branches
of the forked bone, called the merrythought, to a level
with the keel of the breast-bone or sternum. The keel of
the breast-bone is double, and receives between its two
plates or sides, the tube of the trachea, which, after
traversing nearly the whole length of the keel, turns sud-
denly upon itself, passing forwards, upwards, and again
backwards, till it ends in the vertical bone of divarication,
from whence the two long bronchial tubes go off, one
to each lobe of the lungs. This singular structure will be
further understood by a reference to the vignette below,
where a portion of one side of the keel is removed to show
the convoluted tube within.

The depth of the insertion is not, however, so consi-
derable in females or young males.

VOL. III.

194

NATATORES.

ANATIDJS.

ANATWJE.

BEWICKS SWAN.

Cygnus Bewickii, Bewick's Swan, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 290.
„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 284.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 228.

„ „ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 86.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xix.

„ „ Cygne de Bewick, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. pt. iv. p.^527.

IN the winter of 1 823-24, I prepared and preserved the
trachea and part of the bones of a young Wild Swan, shot
in this country, which, possessing peculiarities I had never
observed in the bones of the Hooper at any age, induced
me to believe it would prove to belong to a distinct species.

At the sale of part of the valuable collection of the late
Joshua Brookes, Esq. in July 1828, I purchased the

BEWICK'S SWAN. 195

sternum and trachea of a Swan which had been prepared
by Dr. Leach, and presented by that distinguished na-
turalist to Mr. Brookes ; this, also, from its anatomical
structure, appeared to be distinct from the Hooper, and
belonged to an adult bird of the same species, as the bones
of the young one just mentioned. These materials I
exhibited at the evening meeting of the Zoological Club of
the Linn can Society, on the 24th of November 1829, and
contrasting them with analogous parts of the Hooper,
pointed out by comparison the anatomical distinctions
between them, upon which I proposed to consider the new
one as a distinct species.

Early in the following month of December I was pre-
sented by J. B. Baker, Esq. with the sternum and trachea
of a third example of this new species, shot at Yarmouth
during the winter of 1827-28, the skin of which had been
prepared for that gentleman's collection at Hardwicke
Court. During the severe weather of the same month,
Wild Swans were unusually numerous ; more than fifty
were counted in one flock at Wittlesey Mere. Among a
considerable number which had been forwarded to the
London markets for sale, I was fortunate enough to select
five examples of this new species, of different ages ; and,
possessing thus a series of gradations in structure, I de-
scribed them in a paper read before the Linnean Society,
and proposed to call it Bewick's Swan, thus devoting it to
the memory of one whose beautiful and animated delinea-
tions of subjects in natural history entitle him to this
tribute. These Swans being plentiful from the severity of
the winter, others were procured in different parts of the
country. Mr. Richard Wingate, of Newcastle, had ob-
tained specimens, and observing the difference between
them and the Hooper, read a notice upon the subject, at
the Natural History Society at Newcastle, and as he was

o 2

196 ANATID^E.

one of the oldest as well as one of the warmest friends of
Thomas Bewick, immediately adopted the name I had
proposed. It is gratifying to observe that M. Temminck,
who is acquainted with the merits of Bewick^s works, has
set the example on the Continent, and adopted this name
also.

This species is one third smaller than the Hooper at the
same age, and appears to go through the same changes
of plumage. It is first greyish-brown ; afterwards white,
tinged with rust colour on the head, and on the under
surface of the belly, and ultimately pure white. Their
habits, as far as they are known here, have been observed
by Mr. Blackwall and Mr. Thompson. These birds have
appeared in flocks on various occasions during winter ;
they have probably visited this country for many years,
but had not been distinguished from the Hooper. When
the external characters were made known, several museums
and collections in different parts of the country were found
to contain specimens.

Some birds that were but slightly wounded in the
wing have been retained, like our Mute Swan, upon orna-
mental waters, but I have not heard that any one has
succeeded with them so far as to induce them to produce
their young. I have one egg which I believe to belong to
this species ; it is very like that of the Hooper but smaller,
of a pale brownish- white ; three inches seven lines long,
by two inches six lines in breadth.

Mr. John Blackwall, in his researches in Zoology, after
referring to a specimen of Bewick's Swan in the Man-
chester Museum, says, " About half-past eight, on the
morning of the 10th of December 1829, a flock of twenty-
nine Swans, mistaken by many persons who saw them, for
Wild Geese, was observed flying over the township of
Crumpsal, at an elevation not exceeding fifty yards above

BEWICK'S SWAN. 197

the surface of the earth. They flew in a line, taking a
northerly direction, and their loud calls, for they were very
clamorous, when on the wing, might be heard to a con-
siderable distance. I afterwards learned that they alight-
ed on an extensive reservoir near Middleton, belonging to
Messrs. Burton and Sons, calico-printers, where they were
shot at, and an individual had one of its wings so severely
injured that it was disabled from accompanying its com-
panions in their retreat. A short time since, I had an
opportunity of seeing this bird, which resembled the rest of
the flock with which it had been associated, and found, as
I had anticipated, that it was precisely similar to the small
Swan preserved in the museum at Manchester, which, I
should state, was purchased in the fish market in that
town, about five or six years ago."

u Twenty-nine of these birds congregated together, with-
out a single Whistling Swan among them, is a fact so
decisive of the distinctness of the species, especially when
taken in connexion with those external characters and in-
ternal structure in which it differs from the Hooper, that
I should no longer have deferred to describe it as a new
bird to ornithologists, had I not been anticipated by Mr.
Yarrell."

" Of the habits and manners of this species, little could
be ascertained from a brief inspection of a wounded indi-
vidual ; I may remark, however, that when on the water,
it had somewhat the air and appearance of a Goose, being
almost wholly devoid of that grace and majesty by which
the Mute Swan is so advantageously distinguished. It
appeared to be a shy and timid bird, and could only be
approached near by stratagem, when it intimated its ap-
prehension by uttering its call. It carefully avoided the
society of a Mute Swan which was on the same piece of
water."

1 98 ANATID^E.

" On the 28th of February 1830, at half-past ten in
the morning, seventy- three Swans, of the new species,
were observed flying over Crumpsall in a south-easterly
direction, at a considerable elevation. They flew abreast,
forming an extensive line, like those seen on the 10th of
December, 1829 ; like them, too, they were mistaken for
Wild Geese by most persons who saw them with whom
I had an opportunity of conversing on the subject ; but
their superior dimensions, the whiteness of their plumage,
their black feet, easily distinguished as they passed over-
head, and their reiterated calls, which first directed my
attention to them, were so strikingly characteristic, that
skilful ornithologists could not be deceived with regard to
the genus to which they belonged. That these birds were
not Hoopers may be safely inferred from their great in-
feriority in point of size."

" I was informed, that when the Wild Swans were shot
at, near Middleton on the 10th of December, 1829, one
of them was so reluctant to abandon the bird which was
wounded on that occasion, that it continued to fly about
the spot for several hours after the rest of the flock had
departed, and that, during the whole of this period, its
mournful cry was heard almost incessantly. In conse-
quence of the protracted disturbance caused by the per-
severing efforts of Messrs. Burton's workmen to secure its
unfortunate companion, it was at last, however, compelled
to withdraw, and was not seen again till the 23rd of
March, when a Swan, supposed to be the same individual,
made its appearance in the neighbourhood, flew several
times round the reservoir in lofty circles, and ultimately
descended to the wounded bird, with which, after a cordial
meeting, it immediately paired. The newly arrived Swan,
which proved to be a male bird, soon became accustomed
to the presence of strangers ; and, when I saw it on the

BEWICK'S SWAN. 199

4th of April, was even more familiar than its captive mate.
As these birds were strongly attached to each other,
and seemed to be perfectly reconciled to their situation,
which, in many respects was an exceedingly favourable
one, there was every reason to believe that a brood would
be obtained from them. This expectation, however, was
not destined to be realized. On the 13th of April, the
male Swan, alarmed by some strange dogs which found
their way to the reservoir, took flight and did not return ;
and on the 5th of September, in the same year, the female
bird, whose injured wing had recovered its original vigour,
quitted the scene of its misfortunes and was seen no
more."

Specimens of Bewick's Swan have been obtained in se-
veral parts of Scotland ; and Mr. Thompson, of Belfast,
has recorded that this species is certainly more common in
Ireland than the Hooper. Several strings of them, as
they are there called from the form in which they fly, were
seen in January 1836 ; single individuals were brought to
market occasionally, by which museums and collectors
were supplied ; and Mr. Thompson particularly mentions
that in February, 1830, a flock containing seven of these
Swans alighted in a flooded meadow near Belfast, when
they were shot at, and two of them so disabled by the
one discharge, as to be, after some difficulty secured. They
were bought by "William Sinclaire, Esq., and on their
wounds being found so trivial as merely to incapacitate
them from flight, were placed in his aquatic menagerie,
where, in company with many other species of wild-fowl,
chiefly Anatida, they have ever since remained. Mr. Sin-
claire also mentions, that every spring and autumn since he
has had these Swans, they have regularly, about the months
of March and September, become very restless, and for
the period of at least three weeks have wandered from the

200 ANATID^E.

enclosure within which they are contented to remain all
the rest of the year. In disposition they are timid and
extremely gentle, and never attempt to molest any of the
wild-fowl confined in the same pond with them, though
all of these are their inferiors in strength and size. Their
call, chiefly uttered at the migratory period, is a low deep-
toned whistle, once repeated. On the water, the carriage
of the Cygnus BewicUi is intermediate in its character be-
tween that of the Mute Swan and Common Goose ; but if
these birds exhibit not the grace and majesty of the former on
this element, they appear to much more advantage on the
land, where, by choice, they spend the greater portion of
their time. The stomach of a specimen examined by
Mr. Thompson contained only minute seeds and gravel.

Young birds as they appear here in the plumage of their
first winter are greyish-brown. At their second winter,
when they have acquired the white plumage, the irides are
orange ; the head and breast strongly marked with rusty
red ; base of the beak lemon yellow ; when older some
continue to exhibit a tinge of rust colour on the head, after
that on the breast has passed off. The adult bird is of a
pure unsullied white ; the base of the beak orange yellow ;
the irides dark ; the legs, toes, and membranes black ; the
figure at the commencement of this subject shows the dis-
tribution of black and yellow on the beak, which is liable
to a little variation.

The whole length three feet ten inches, to four feet two
inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest
primary twenty-one inches ; the second and third quill-
feathers longer than the first and fourth ; tail-feathers
twenty ; in young birds I have found but eighteen, and in
one instance nineteen.

M. Temminck says this species breeds in Iceland in
May, and has been taken in the winter in Picardy.

BEWICKS SWAN.

201

In anatomical structure this new species differs much
more decidedly from the Hooper than in its external cha-
racters. The principal and most obvious difference is in
the trachea, which forms one of the best distinctions in the
separation of nearly allied species throughout this nume-
rous family. The tube of the windpipe is of equal dia-
meter throughout, and descending in front of the neck
enters the keel of the sternum, which is hollow, as in the
Hooper, traversing its whole length. Having arrived at
the end of the keel, the tube then gradually inclining up-
wards and outwards passes into a cavity in the sternum
destined to receive it, caused by a separation of the parallel
horizontal plates of bone, forming the posterior flattened
portion of the breast-bone, and producing a convex pro-
tuberance on the* inner surface. Ther tube also changing
its direction from vertical to horizontal, and reaching with-
in half an inch of the posterior edge, is reflected back after
making a considerable curve, till it once more reaches the
keel, again traversing which, in a line immediately over
the first portion of the tube, it passes out under the arch
of the merrythought ; where, turning upwards, and after-
wards backwards, it enters the body of the bird to be at-
tached to the lungs in the usual manner. This is the state

202

ANATIDJE.

of developement in the oldest bird I have met with. The
degree next in order, or younger, differs in having the
horizontal loop of the trachea confined to one side only of
the cavity in the sternum, both sides of which cavity are
at this time formed, but the loop of the tube is not yet
sufficiently elongated to occupy the whole space ; and the
third in order, that on the right of the three representa-
tions shown below, from a still younger bird, possesses only
the vertical insertion of the fold of the trachea ; yet
in this specimen the cavity in the posterior portion of the
sternum already exists to a considerable extent.

These are the peculiarities of structure which belong to
the tube and the sternum. The bronchise are very short ;
but the flexible part intervening between the bone of di-
varication and the bronchial rings is considerable, pro-
ducing an effect to be hereafter noticed. This elongated,
flexible, and delicate portion being defended on each outer
side by a distinct membrane, attached to the whole edge

BEWICK'S SWAN. 203

of the bone of divarication, and to a slender semicircular
bone on each side, by which it is supported.

The muscles of voice with which this bird is provided
pass down, as usual, one on each side of the trachea, till
the tube is about to enter the cavity in the keel, they then
quit that part of the tube to be attached to the ascending
portion of the curve, which they follow, ultimately di-
viding into two slips, one of which inserted upon the sur-
face of the bone of divarication governs the length of the
preceding flexible portion of the tube ; the other slip
passes off downwards to be attached to the inner surface
of the breast-bone, anterior to the first rib. The course
of the muscle on one side may be traced in the first ana-
tomical figure.

The vignette at the end of this subject represents a front
view of a portion of the body of this species of Swan, with
the anterior part of the descending windpipe turned aside
to show the inner ascending part of it, the muscles of
voice, and the tendinous fascia stretched across from one
branch of the forked bone or merrythought over to the
other, by which both portions are supported.

Dissection, which proved the distinction between the
Hooper and Bewick's Swan, has also proved that the two
Wild Swans of North America are peculiar to that country,
and distinct from the two European Swans. The largest
of the North American Swans, still larger than our Hoo-
per, is called Cygnus buccinator, or the Hunter's Swan,
by Dr. Richardson, in his Fauna Boreali- Americana, where
the measurements and other particulars of its history will
be found ; and I am indebted to the liberality of Dr.
Richardson for a specimen of the very singular organs of
voice and the sternum of this species, which will be found
described and figured in the seventeenth volume of the
Transactions of the Linnean Society.

204 ANATID^E.

The second species of North American Swan was de-
scribed by Dr. Sharpless, in the fifth volume of the Ame-
rican Journal of Science and Arts, under the name of
Cygnus Americanus ; it has also been described more re-
cently by Mr. Audubon, in the fifth volume of his Orni-
thological Biography. I have been presented by both
these gentlemen with the organ of voice and the sternum
from several examples of this second species of American
Swan, which, however, in some respects, internally as well
as externally, resembling our Bewick's Swan, is said to
attain a size and weight almost equal to those of our Hoo-
per ; the whole length is recorded as reaching four feet
six inches, and the weight twenty-one pounds.

The anatomical representations of Bewick's Swan, ne-
cessarily very much reduced in size here, will be found
of much larger dimensions in the sixteenth volume of the
Linnean Transactions.

MUTE SWAN.

NATATORES

205
ANATID^E.

THE MUTE SWAN.
Cygnus olor.

Tame
Mute

Sivan,
Swan,

Anas o/o r,

M »

Cygnus „

„ mansuetuS) Domestic „

Anas olor, Cygne tubercule,

Cygnus „ „ „

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 221.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 286.
JENVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 228.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. vii.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. t. ii. p. 830.
„ „ „ pt. iv. p. 529.

OUR Mute Swan is one of the most graceful as well as
the largest of British Birds, and at the same time so well
known and appreciated, that minute details of its cha-
racters, or its value, are unnecessary, beyond pointing out
those external differences by which it may be readily dis-
tinguished from either of the species already described.

The most obvious difference, and that which will imme-
diately strike the observer on comparing the representation

206 ANATID^E.

of our Mute, half-domesticated Swan, with those of the
Hooper and Bewick's Swans is, that the two most con-
spicuous colours on the beak occupy opposite situations in
these species. In the Hooper and Bewick's Swans, the
anterior portion of the beak is black, the base and the lore
to the eye, orange-yellow ; but in our Mute Swan it is the
anterior portion of the beak which is of a rich reddish
orange, the base and the lore to the eye black, with a pro-
minent black tubercle or knob, on the upper part in front of
the forehead, which in old males attains considerable size.

The Swan is, perhaps, of all others the most beautiful
living ornament of our rivers and lakes. Poets of all ages
and countries have made this bird the theme of their praise,
and by none with more characteristic truth of expression
than by our own Milton, who, in his Paradise Lost, says —

" The Swan with arched neck

Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows
Her state with oary feet."

The male has frequently been styled " the peaceful mo-
narch of the lake ;" but this is his character during part of
the year only ; pending the season of incubation, and rear-
ing the young, there is scarcely any bird more pugnacious,
and from his great size and power he is in reality a
monarch to be feared and avoided by all that inhabit his
watery domain, for he drives his weaker subjects in all
directions.

The nest, consisting of a large mass of reeds, rushes, and
other coarse herbage, is formed on the ground near the
edge of the water, and an island is generally chosen rather
than the bank. The female produces six or seven eggs ;
these are of a dull greenish white, four inches in length, by
two inches nine lines in breadth. Incubation lasts six
weeks, during which time the male is in constant attend-

MUTE SWAN. 207

ance upon the female, occasionally taking her place upon
the eggs, or guarding her with jealous care, giving chase
and battle, if necessary, to every intruder. So fierce and
determined are they at this time that two instances have
occurred in which Black Swans, though but little inferior
to themselves in size, have been killed by White Swans ;
one of these occurrences which took place in the Regent's
Park, is thus related. " The two White Swans pursued
the Black one with the greatest ferocity, and one of them
succeeded in grasping the black one's neck between its
mandibles, and then shook it violently. The Black Swan
with difficulty extricated itself from this murderous grasp,
hurried on shore, tottered from the water's edge a few
paces, and fell, to die. Its death appeared to be attended
with great agony ; it stretched its neck in the air, fluttered
its wings, and attempted to rise from the ground : after
about five minutes of suffering it made a last effort to rise,
and fell dead with outstretched neck and wings. Its foes
never left the water in pursuit, but continued sailing with
every feather on end, up and down towards the spot where
their victim fell, and seemingly proud of their conquest."

The triumph, however, is not always on the side of the
White Swan. At Castle Martyr, the seat of Lord Shan-
non, near the Cove of Cork, a male Black Swan, as I
learned from Admiral Bowles, attacked and killed the male
of a pair of Mute Swans, took possession of the female in
right of conquest, and one cygnet was produced. The
Mute Swan has also bred with the Polish Swan, (C. immu-
tabilis,) on the waters of the Dublin Zoological Society in
the Phoenix Park.

I am indebted to the kindness of Lord Braybrooke for
the following account of a female Swan, on the river at
Bishop's Stortford. This Swan was eighteen or nineteen

208 ANATID^E.

years old, had brought up many broods, and was highly
valued by the neighbours. She exhibited, some eight or
nine years past, one of the most remarkable instances of
the powers of instinct that was ever recorded. She was
sitting on four or five eggs, and was observed to be very
busy in collecting weeds, grasses, &c. to raise her nest ; a
farming man was ordered to take down half a load of
haulm, with which she most industriously raised her nest
and the eggs two feet and a half; that very night there
came down a tremendous fall of rain, which flooded all the
malt shops and did great damage. Man made no pre-
paration, the Bird* did. Instinct prevailed over reason ;
her eggs were above, and only just above the water.

The young, when hatched, which is generally about the
end of May, are conducted to the water by the parent
birds, and are even said to be carried there : it is certain
that the cygnets are frequently carried on the back of the
female when she is sailing about in the water. This I
have witnessed on the Thames, and have seen the female,
by raising her leg, assist the cygnets in getting upon her
back. I thought it probable that carrying the young
might only be resorted to when the brood inhabited a
river, to save the young the labour of following the parent
against the stream ; but during the present summer, 1841,
a female Swan was frequently seen carrying her young on
the canal in St. Jameses Park, where there is no current
to impede their course. A short quotation from the first
volume of " Gleanings in Natural History," by Mr. Jesse,
corroborates several points in the habits of this bird.
" Living on the banks of the Thames, I have often been

* In the account of the Green Woodpecker, I have referred at vol. ii. page
142, to the probable means by which birds and some other animals become cogni-
zant of approaching changes in the weather.

MUTE SWAN. 209

pleased with seeing the care taken of the young Swans by
the parent birds. Where the stream is strong the old
Swan will sink herself sufficiently low to bring her back on
a level with the water, when the cygnets will get upon it,
and in this manner are conveyed to the other side of the
river, or into stiller water. Each family of Swans on the
river has its own district ; and if the limits of that district
are encroached upon by other Swans, a pursuit immediate-
ly takes place, and the intruders are driven away. Except
in this instance, they appear to live in a state of the most
perfect harmony. The male is very attentive to the female,
assists in making the nest, and when a sudden rise of the
river takes place, joins her with great assiduity in raising
the nest sufficiently high to prevent the eggs being chilled
by the action of the water, though sometimes its rise is so
rapid, that the whole nest is washed away and destroyed.11

The family continue to associate through the winter, but
under the influence of returning spring the parent birds
drive away from them the young brood of the previous
year and oblige them to shift for themselves. Their food
consists of the softer parts of water plants, roots, aquatic
insects, and occasionally small fish : a Swan has been seen
to eat a small roach ; they also eat grain and bread.

The Swan being identified with Orpheus, and called also
the Bird of Apollo, the god of music, powers of song have
been often attributed to it, and as often denied. It is,
however, perfectly true that this bird has a soft low voice,
rather plaintive and with little variety, but not disagree-
able. I have heard it often in the spring, and sometimes
later in the season, when moving slowly about with its
young. Colonel Hawker, in his sporting work, at page
261, has printed a few bars of the " Swan's melody, formed
with two notes, C and the minor third (E flat), and the

VOL. in. p

210 ANATID.E.

musician, it is said, kept working his head as if delighted
with his own performance."

These birds are found wild in Russia and Siberia ; and
Mr. Bennett observes that it is found in a wild state in
almost every country in Europe. Bechstein particularly
mentions Lithuania, Poland, and eastern Prussia. In
Germany, young birds that have not been pinioned migrate
in autumn. M. Temminck says it is abundant in Holland,
and is found in France, Provence, and Italy. Mr. Strick-
land says this species visits Smyrna Bay in winter ; and
the Russian naturalists include it among the birds found in
the countries between the Black and the Caspian Seas.

In England, Dr. Turner notices the Swan with the black
tubercle on the beak, in his book on Birds, published in
1544, and Sibbald includes it in his Fauna of Scotland, in
1684. They were more abundant formerly than at the
present time, though still existing in a comparatively wild
state on many rivers. The author of the Journal of a
Naturalist mentions having seen more than forty at one
time, on the great swan-pool that some years ago existed
near the city of Lincoln, but has been since drained ; and
the great swannery of the Earl of Ilchester, at Abbotsbury,
near the coast in Dorsetshire, is well known. About
eighty Swans are there preserved, and as the cygnets are
not caught to be marked or pinioned, the interesting sight
of several of these fine large birds on the wing together is
often witnessed. The water is strictly watched and
guarded, and in the season is used as a decoy.

The adult bird has the nail at the point of the beak, the
edge of the mandible on each side, the base, the lore to the
eye, the orifice of the nostrils and the tubercle, black ; the
rest of the beak reddish orange ; the irides brown ; the
head, neck, and all the plumage pure white ; the legs, toes,
and interdigital membranes black.

MUTE SWAN.

211

The whole length of an old male is from four feet eight
inches, to five feet ; the weight about thirty pounds ; and
marked Swans have been known to live fifty years. The
male is distinguished from the female by being larger ; the
black tubercle at the base of the beak is also larger ; the
neck is thicker, and the bird swims higher out of the
water. The body of the female is smaller ; the neck more
slender, and she appears to swim deeper in the water.
This latter point is referrible to a well known anatomical
law, that females have less capacious lungs than males, and
her body therefore is less buoyant.

The young Mute Swan, in July, has plumage of a
dark bluish-grey, almost a sooty grey ; the neck, and the
under surface of the body rather lighter in colour ; the
beak lead colour ; the nostrils and the basal marginal line
black. The same birds, at the end of October, have the
beak of a light slate grey, tinged with green ; the irides
dark ; head, neck, and all the upper surface of the body,
nearly uniform sooty-greyish brown ; the under surface
also uniform, but of a lighter shade of greyish-brown.
Young birds at the end of October nearly as large as the
old birds. After the second autumn moult but little of the
grey plumage remains. When two years old they are
quite white, and breed in their third year.

The figure here inserted represents the windpipe and

212 ANATID.E.

breast-bone of the Mute Swan. The keel is single, unpro-
vided with any cavity ; the windpipe descends between
the branches of the forked bone, and curving in the form of
part of a circle, passes upwards and backwards to the bone
of divarication, and from thence by short tubes to the
lungs.

One subject having reference to this species of Swan
appears to be so closely connected with its history, that I
am induced to take a short notice of it, and the more so
because it has hitherto been passed over in other histories
of the birds of this country. I allude to the privileges
granted to individuals or companies to keep and preserve
Swans on different streams ; and the many various swan
marks adopted, by which each party might know their
own birds. The subject, in all its details, is so extensive
that I can afford space for little more than an outline, but
this will be sufficient to shew the degree of value and
importance attached to the possession of the bird, and the
authorized power to protect it.

In England the Swan is said to be a bird royal, in which
no subject can have property, when at large in a public
river or creek, except by grant from the crown. In
creating this privilege the crown grants a swan-mark.

A silver swan was the principal device on the badge of
Henry the Fourth : derived from the Bohuns, Earls of Here-
ford, of which family his first wife was the daughter and co-
heiress. Another of his badges was a white antelope.
Henry the Fifth before his accession to the throne used the
silver swan; afterwards the fire-beacon appears to have
been his cognizance. Over his tomb in Westminster Abbey
is a representation of an antelope and a swan, chained to a
beacon. — Montagu's Heraldry.

In the twenty-second year of the reign of Edward the

MUTE SWAN. 213

Fourth, 1483, it was ordered that no person, other than
the king's sons, should have a swan-mark, or game of
swans, who did not possess a freehold of the clear yearly
value of five marks.

Sometimes, though rarely, the crown, instead of granting
a swan-mark, confers the still greater privilege of enjoying
the prerogative right (within a certain district) of seizing
White Swans not marked. Thus the Abbot of Abbotsbury,
in Dorsetshire, had a game of Swans in the estuary formed
by the the Isle of Portland and the Chesil Bank. The
swannery at Abbotsbury is the largest in the kingdom, and
is an object of considerable attraction and interest to those
who visit that part of the south coast, and has been before
referred to : it is now vested in the Earl of Ilchester, to
whose ancestor it was granted on the dissolution of the
monasteries.

In the eleventh year of the reign of Henry the Seventh,
1496, it was ordered that stealing, or taking a Swan's egg
should have a year's imprisonment, and make fine at the
king's will. Stealing, setting nets or snares for, or driving
Grey or White Swans, was punished still more severely.

The king had formerly a swanherd, (Magister deductus
cygnorum,) not only on the Thames, but in several other
parts of the kingdom. We find persons exercising the
office of " Master of the King's Swans," sometimes called
the swanship, within the counties of Huntingdon, Cam-
bridge, Northampton, and Lincoln. Richard Cecil, the
father of Lord Burleigh, was bailiff of Whittlesey Mere,
and had the custody of the Swans in the time of Henry
the Eighth. Anciently the crown had an extensive swan-
nery annexed to the royal palace or manor of Clarendon
in Wiltshire. It had also a swannery in the Isle of
Purbeck.

214 ANATID^.

In Archseologia, or miscellaneous tracts relating to anti-
quity, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London,
vol. 16, 1812, Ordinances respecting Swans on the river
Witham, in the county of Lincoln ; together with an
original roll of ninety-seven swan-marks, appertaining to
the proprietors on the said stream, were communicated
by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B. P.R.S.
and F.S.A.

" These are the ordinances made the 24th day of May,
1 524, in the fifteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign
Lord King Henry the Eighth, by the Lord Sir Christopher
Willuby, Sir Edward Dimock, and others, Justices of
Peace and Commissioners, appointed by our Sovereign
Lord the King, for the confirmation and preservation of
His Highness Game of Swans, and Signets, of his stream
of Witham, within his county of Lincoln, &c. from a
Breges, called Boston Breges, unto the head of the said
stream."

A true copy of the Parchment Roll being too long, a
few only of the particulars are here inserted.

No persons having Swans could appoint a new swanherd
without the king's swanherd's licence.

Every swanherd on the stream was bound to attend
upon the king's swanherd upon warning, or suffer fine.

The king's swanherd was bound to keep a book of swan-
marks, and no new marks were permitted to interfere with
old ones.

Owners of Swans and their swanherds were registered
in the king's swanherd's book.

The marking of the cygnets was generally performed in
the presence of all the swanherds on that stream, and on
a particular day or days, of which all had notice. Cygnets
received the mark found on the parent birds, but if the old

MUTE SWAN. 215

Swans bore no mark, the whole were seized for the king,
and marked accordingly. No swanherd to affix a mark
but in the presence of the king's swanherd or his deputy.

Formerly, when a Swan made her nest on the banks of
the river, rather than on the islands, one young bird was
given to the owner of the soil, who protected the nest, and
this was called ' the ground bird.' A money consideration,
instead of a young bird, is still given.

When, as it sometimes happened, the male bird of one
owner mated with a female bird belonging to another, the
brood were divided between the owners of the parent birds :
the odd cygnet, when there was one, being allotted to the
owner of the male bird.

The swan-mark, called by Sir Edward Coke, cigninota,
was cut in the skin on the beak of the Swan with a sharp
knife or other instrument. These marks consisted of an-
nulets, chevrons, crescents, crosses, initial letters, and other
devices, some of which had reference to the heraldic arms
of, or the office borne by, the swan owner.

The representations inserted overleaf are swan-marks
supposed to be cut on the upper surface of the upper man-
dible.

Nos. 1 and 2 were the royal swan-marks of Henry the
Eighth, and Edward the Sixth. No. 3 was the swan-
mark of the Abbey of Swinstede, on the Witham in Lin-
colnshire ; and I may notice that the crosier, or crook, is
borne by the divine, the cowherd, the shepherd, the goat-
herd, the swanherd, and the gooseherd, as emblematic of
a pastoral life and the care of a flock.

No. 4 was the swan-mark of Sir Edward Dimock of
Lincolnshire. The king's champion, it will be recollected,
is of this family, who hold " the mannour at Scrivelsby in
Lincolnshire by that tenure, to come armed on horsebacke

216

ANATIDJ2.

(or one in his stead) on the king's coronation day, and in
the presence of the king to proclaime and challenge any

K^D>]=L)

that shall affirm the king not lawfull heire to the crowne
and kingdome, to fight with him bodie for bodie," &c. —
Camden.

These last four swan-marks are from Archseologia.

No. 5, the swan-mark of Sir Thomas Fro wick, of Gun-
nersbury, Middlesex, who was born at Baling, bred in the
study of our municipal law ; wherein he attained to such
eminency that he was made Lord Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas. Four years he sate in his place, ac-
counted the oracle of law in his age, though one of the
youngest men that ever enjoyed that office. — Abridged from
Fuller's Worthies. The swan-mark is from Harleian M.S.

MUTE SWAN. 217

No. 541. A volume of papers collected by Stow the An-
tiquary. Monuments to the memory of the Frowicks will
be found in the churches of Baling, South Mimms, and
Finchley. Ecclesiastical Topography.

The next three swan-marks are from an interesting
volume, Mr. A. J. Kempe's Losely Manuscripts, and refer
to the time of Elizabeth.

No. 6, the swan-mark of Lord William Howard, after-
wards Earl of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England,
in the reign of Queen Mary.

No. 7, the swan-mark of Lord Buckhurst. The keys
here adopted have reference to his office of Chamberlain
of the Household. At the present day the appointment
of the royal swanherd's man is vested in the Lord Cham-
berlain for the time being.

No. 8, the mark of Sir William More, who was ap-
pointed by Lord Buckhurst to the office of Master of the
Swans for Surrey, " in such sorte as all the rest of the
sheres were graunted." One of the conditions recorded in
the grant is as follows : " But this order must be kept,
that the upping * of all those Swans, near or within the
said branches of the Terns, may be upped all in one day
with the upping of the Terns, which is referred to Mr.
Maylard, of Hampton Courte, who hath the ordering of
the Terns. So if it pleas you from time to time to send
and confer with him." The following is a copy of a letter
from E. Maylard, the Master of the Swans on the Thames,
to Sir William More, as Master of the Swans for Surrey,
extracted from Mr. Kempe's book : —

" May it please you, Sir, this morning I received a
Fre affirmed to come from you, but no name thereunto.

* Upping, or taking up the young Swans to mark them, now sometimes called
swan-hopping.

218 ANATID^E.

Wherein ycT request me to come to Perford to conferr wt
yo' touching the upping of Swanes, w'ch I wold most gladly
pforme, yf I were not throughe very ernest busynes letted
of my purpose, ffor to morrowe being Tuysdaie I take my
jorney along the river of Thames at Gravesend.* And
then uphon the first Mondaie in August, I come westward
towards Wyndsor. Wherefore if it may please you to send
to my howse to Hampton Court what dais you meane to ap-
pointe for driving the river of Weybridge and Molsey, it
shall suffice, to th' end the gamesters maie have knowledge
thereof, that they may attend accordingly. I do thinke
it wold greatly satisffie them yf yo' did appointe the same
upon Tuesday the viith of August, for upon that day they
wil be at the entrance of these rivers. And so praing you
to p'don me for my absence at this tyme, I humbly take
my leave. Hampton Court, this Mondaie, xxxth of July
1593. " Yor poore frend to comaunde,

" R. Maylard."

"To the R. W. Sir W. Moore, Kn't,
at Pirforde."

Since the publication of the first edition of this work, I
have been so fortunate as to obtain a very rare tract on
Swans and swan-marks, printed by Aujust Matthewes, in
1632, and containing, besides some other illustrations, the
swan-mark of the unfortunate Charles the First, and his
Queen. It is a small quarto of eight leaves only, of the
' Orders, Lawes and ancient Customes of Swannes, taken
forth of a Book, which the Lord Buckhurst delivered to
Edward Clerk, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., to peruse,' on the
back of which book it was thus entitled, " Taken out of
an ancient Book remaining with Master Hambden, some-

* Many Swans were formerly kept below bridge. In ancient views of the port
of London, they are usually represented as swimming in that part of the river.

MUTE SWAN. 219

times Master of the Swannes," caused to be printed by
John Witherings, Esq., Master and Governour of the Royal
Game of Swans throughout England, to whom it is de-
dicated by John D'Oyly, from Alborn, in Wiltshire, with
the plates of the marks used to distinguish the Swans.

The marks distinguished by the letters, #, and 5, are
those of Charles the First and his Queen. The next, £,
and «?, are those of Oxford and Cambridge. The city of
Oxford has a game of Swans by prescription, though none
are now kept. In the sixteenth century, when a state
dinner was not complete unless a Swan were included in
the bill of fare, this game of Swans was rented upon an
engagement to deliver yearly four fat Swans, and to leave
six old ones at the end of the term. By the corporation
books it also appears that in 1557, barley was provided for
the young birds at fourteen pence a bushel, and that tithes
were then paid of Swans. I learn also from the Rev. Dr.
Thackeray, Provost of King^s College, Cambridge, that the
old Munden books of that College contain entries of pay-
ments made for feeding Swans.

But the most curious books on swan-marks that I have
as yet seen, were two in the library at Strawberry Hill,

220 ANATID^E.

which were sold in April 1842. They appeared in the
catalogue on the 6th day, and 8th lot, as, " Two books of
swan-marks, 8vo. on vellum, very rare." One of them
contained 810 marks, the other 80 marks: both books
commenced with a royal mark. There was no explanation
or description of the different marks, only the name of the
party to whom the mark had been appropriated, in the
characters of the time of Elizabeth.

No. 9, the first swan-mark of the representations forming
the final vignette, is that of the corporation of Norwich,
now used to mark the Swans belonging to the corporation
on the river Yare.

No. 10, is the swan-mark of the present Bishop of Nor-
wich, the President of the Linnean Society of London, to
whose kindness I am indebted for the following particu-
lars as now practised at Norwich, in reference to the feed-
ing the young Swans of the year for the table. The
town-clerk sends a note from the Town-hall to the pub-
lic swanherd, the corporation and others, who have Swans
and Swan rights. On the second Monday in August,
when collected in a small stew or pond, the number an-
nually varying from fifty to seventy, and many of them
belonging to private individuals,* they begin to feed
immediately, being provided with as much barley as they
can eat, and are usually ready for killing early in No-
vember. They vary in weight, some reaching to twenty-
eight pounds. They are all cygnets. If kept beyond
November they begin to fall off, losing both flesh and fat,
and the meat becomes darker in colour and stronger in
flavour. A printed copy of the following lines is usually
sent with each bird.

* Bloomfield's History of Norfolk contains representations of numerous swan-
marks.

MUTE SWAN. 221

TO ROAST A SWAN.

Take three pounds of beef, beat fine in a mortar,

Put it into the Swan — that is, when you "ve caught her.

Some pepper, salt, mace, some nutmeg, an onion,

Will heighten the flavour in Gourmand's opinion.

Then tie it up tight with a small piece of tape,

That the gravy and other things may not escape.

A meal paste, rather stiff, should be laid on the breast,

And some whited brown paper should cover the rest.

Fifteen minutes at least ere the Swan you take down,

Pull the paste off the bird, that the breast may get brown.

THE GRAVY.

To a gravy of beef, good and strong, I opine,
You '11 be right if you add half a pint of port wine ;
Pour this through the Swan, yes, quite through the belly,
Then serve the whole up with some hot currant jelly.
N.B. The Swan must not be skinned.

In former times the Swan was served up at every
great feast ; and I have occasionally seen a cygnet exposed
for sale in the poulterers' shops of London, but not very
lately.

No. 11. Eton College has the privilege of keeping
Swans on the Thames, and this is the College swan-mark.
It is intended to represent the armed point, and the fea-
thered end of an arrow, and is here represented as cut
on the door of one of the inner rooms in the College.

Nos. 12 and 13 are derived from Mr. Kempe^s interest-
ing publication of the Losely Manuscripts, and represent
the swan-marks of the Dyers1 and Vintners1 Companies
of the City of London, as used in the reign of Elizabeth.
These two companies have long enjoyed the privilege of
preserving Swans on the Thames, from London to a con-
siderable distance, some miles above Windsor, and they
continue the ancient custom of proceeding with their friends
and visiters, with the royal swanherd's man, and their

222 ANATID^E.

own swanherds and assistants, on the first Monday of
August in every year, from Lambeth, on their Swan
voyage, for the purpose of catching and marking all the
cygnets of the year, and renewing any marks in old birds
that may by time have become partially obliterated. Mr.
Kempe says, " the struggles of the Swans when caught
by their pursuers, and the duckings which the latter re-
ceived in the contest, made this a diversion with our an-
cestors of no ordinary interest."

The forming circles or annulets on the beak, as observed
in these two ancient marks, being considered as inflicting
more severe pain upon the bird than straight lines, these
rings are now omitted, and the lines doubled, as shown
in the marks numbered 14 and 15, which are those of the
Dyers1 and Vintners' Companies as used at this time. Nos.
12 and 14 being the ancient and modern mark of the
Dyers1 Company: Nos. 13 and 15, the ancient and mo-
dern mark of the Vintners1 Company.

The two nicks in the swan mark of the Vintners1 Com-
pany, which have so often been the subject of notice, are
probably intended for two half lozenges, or a demi-lo-
zenge, on each side ; the V is perhaps a chevron re-
versed ; the arms of the company bemg — Sable, a chevron
between three tons, argent. I think it probable that the
V is only the chevron reversed, for the true chevron could
scarcely be cut on the beak of the bird without each la-
teral branch crossing its elongated and tender nostril, and
this, from a feeling of humanity, the marker would also
be disposed to avoid. The chevron reversed, for many of
these swan-marks are evidently heraldic, had the additional
adaptation of representing the initial letter of the word
Vintner, and forming, also, the Roman numeral five, is
further borne in mind, and perhaps intended to be referred

MUTE SWAN. 223

to, at their hospitable entertainments, where one of the
regular stand-up toasts of the day is, the Worshipful Com-
pany of Vintners, with five — .

Mr. Kempe appears to discountenance the popular no-
tion that the sign of the Swan with two necks has any
reference to the two nicks in the swan-mark of this com-
pany ; but the sign has been considered a fair heraldic
personification of the term ; united, as it is, with the fol-
lowing considerations : that the Swan has been for some
hundred of years identified with the Vintners' Company
and its privileges ; that the principal governing officers of
the company for the time being are, a Master and three
Wardens, the junior Warden of the year being called the
Swan Warden ; that models of Swans form conspicuous
ornaments in their Hall ; and that the first proprietor of
the well-known inn, the Swan with Two Necks, was a
member of the Vintners1 Company.

No. 16 is the Royal swan-mark of our Most Gracious
Queen Victoria. This mark has been used through the
reigns of George the Third, George the Fourth, and Wil-
liam the Fourth, to the present time.

By the kindness of a friend I have been favoured with
an account of the whole number of old and young Swans
belonging to Her Majesty, and the two Companies, at
the last Swan voyage, in August 1841.

OLD SWANS. CYGNETS. TOGETHER.

Her Majesty 185 47 232

The Vintners' Company 79 21 100

The Dyers' Company 91 14 105

365 82 437

But the numbers formerly were much greater ; at one
period, the Vintners'* Company alone possessed five hun-
dred birds.

224

ANATID^l.

In the language of swanherds, the male Swan is called
a Cob, the female a Pen : these terms refer to the com-
parative size and grade of the two sexes ; the young
during their first year, are called Cygnets; during the
second, Grey-birds; afterwards, their plumage being per-
fect, White Swans. The black tubercle at the base of the
beak is called the berry, and a Swan without any mark
on the beak is said to be clear-billed.

For a reference to the various statutes, laws, orders,
&c. on Swans and swan-marks, see the article, Swan,
written by Mr. Sergeant Manning, in the Penny Cyclo-
pedia, from which I have made some short extracts.

POLISH SWAN.

NATATORES.

225
ANATIDJE.

THE POLISH SWAN.
Cygnus immutabilis.

Cygnusimmutalnlis, Polish Swa?i, YARKELL, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1838, p. 19.

THE London dealers in birds have long been in the
habit of receiving from the Baltic a large Swan, which
they distinguish by the name of the Polish Swan. I had
reason to believe that this Swan would prove to be a
distinct species, though even more nearly allied externally
to our Mute Swan, than the Bewick's Swan is to the
Hooper. Previous to the year 1836, a nobleman wrote to
the late Mr. Joseph Sabine, to inquire what was the name
of a tame Swan he had seen with her brood, the Cygnets
of which were all white ; and in the spring of 1836, the

VOL. in. Q

226 ANATID^J.

Ornithological Society of London purchased of Mr. Castang,
the dealer in birds, whose name was referred to under
the article on the Hooping Swan, a pair of these Polish
Swans with a young bird of their own brood, and this
cygnet was also white. This appeared to be a specific
peculiarity worthy of consideration ; the parent birds were
remarkable besides, in having the legs, toes, and their
intervening membranes of a pale ash-grey colour ; the
black tubercle at the base of the beak was of small size,
and there is a slight difference in the nostrils, the elongated
openings of which do not reach the black colour at the
base of the beakj on each side, but are entirely surrounded
by the orange colour of the beak, as shown in the re-
presentation. Unfortunately both the old female and the
young bird died in the following winter. The old male,
now in his ninth or tenth year, at the least, has but a
small tubercle at the base of the beak, and his legs and
feet, though a little darker than formerly, are still of a pale
slate grey. This bird has never paired ; and can scarcely
be said to associate with any of the Mute Swans on the
same water.

In the months of January and February 1838, Swans of
all sorts were more abundant than I ever remember to
have seen them, and I have already adverted to the great
number of Hoopers and Bewick's Swans which were seen
and killed at that season. The more intense the frost, the
farther south do the usual winter visiters extend their
range ; while new, or very rare species from extreme
northern latitudes are occasionally obtained.

During the severe weather of January 1838, several
flocks of these Polish Swans were seen pursuing a southern
course along the line of our north-east coast, from Scotland
to the mouth of the Thames, and several specimens were

POLISH SWAN. 227

obtained. The specimen I exhibited, by permission, at the
evening meeting of the Zoological Society, belonged to the
Rev. L. B. Larking, of Ryarsh Vicarage, near Maidstone,
for whom it had been preserved by Mr. Leadbeater. It was
one of four, shot on the Medway, near Snodland Church,
where a flock of thirty, and several smaller flocks were seen.

The circumstance of these flocks being seen, without any
observable difference in the specimens obtained, all of
which were distinct from our Mute Swan ; the fact,
also, that the cygnets, as far as observed, were of a
pure white colour, like the parent birds, and did not
assume, at any age, the grey colour borne for the greater
part of the first two years by the young of the other
species of Swans ; and an anatomical distinction in the
form of the cranium, to be hereafter noticed, which
was described by Mr. Pelerin, in the Magazine of
Natural History, induced me to consider this Swan en-
titled to rank as a distinct species, and, in reference to the
unchangeable colour of the plumage, I proposed for it the
name of Cygnus immutabilis.

I have very recently been favoured with a letter from
the Earl of Derby, who some years since purchased a
pair of Polish Swans in London, and sent them to
Knowsley. The female in this instance also, unfortu-
nately, died. The male paired with a Mute Swan, and a
brood was produced. A Polish Swan has also paired with
a Mute Swan on the waters in the Phoenix Park devoted
to the use of the Dublin Zoological Society. I was told
by an excellent naturalist who has very recently seen these
birds, that he was satisfied of the distinction between them
on seeing them side by side.

I have heard of one Polish Swan shot in Cambridgeshire,
and now preserved in the Wisbeach Museum ; and another

Q 2

228 ANATID^E.

was shot in the winter of 1840-41. This species, hdwever,
does not appear to have been distinguished elsewhere from
the Mute Swan, and I am therefore unable to name any
foreign geographical localities as producing it, beyond the
probability of its inhabiting those countries in the vicinity
of the Baltic.

In the adult bird the beak is reddish-orange ; the nail,
lateral margins, nostrils, and base of the upper mandible
black ; the peculiarity of the nostril has been noticed ; the
tubercle, even in an old male, of small size ; the irides
brown ; the head, neck, and the whole of the plumage
pure white ; legs, toes, and intervening membranes slate-
grey.

From the point of the beak to the end of the tail fifty
seven inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the
second quill-feather, which is the longest in the wing,
twenty-one inches and a half; tarsus four inches ; middle
toe and nail five inches and three-quarters.

Its food and habits closely resemble those of the Mute
Swan.

The organ of voice appears, from one that I examined,
to be like that of the Mute Swan ; but Mr. Pelerin has
found considerable differences in various parts of the head ;
the description arid measurements were given in a paper
published in the Magazine of Natural History for 1839,
page 178, from which the following is an extract.

The measurement of an adult cranium of each is as
follows : — Length, from the tip of the bill to the base of
occipital bone in C. immutabilis, six inches and three-
eighths ; C. olor, six inches and seven- eighths. Height,
from the bottom of the lower mandible when closed, to
the top of the protuberance at the base of the bill, in C.
immutalilis, one inch and five-eighths ; C. olor, two inches.

POLISH SWAN.

229

Height, from the base of the under jaw to the vertex of
the head, just behind the orbit of the eye, in C. immu-
tabilis, two inches and one-eighth ; C. olor, two inches and
one-quarter. In C. immutabilis the bill is rather more
flattened, particularly in the middle, between the dertrum,
or nail, and the nostrils ; the protuberance at the base of
the upper mandible is less developed. In the Polish Swan
the cranium is highest at the supra-occipital portion ; in
the Mute Swan the cranium is highest at the supra-orbital
portion ; but the greatest difference is perceptible on com-
paring the occipital bones ; the upper portion of this bone
in C. immutabilis protrudes considerably more, and there
are two oval foramina, one on each side just above the
foramen magnum, which are not present in any specimens
of C. olor that I have examined ; the portion forming the
boundary of the external orifice of the ear is much more
prominent, and the condyle forms a more acute angle with
the basilar portion of the occipital bone.

I have verified all Mr. Pelerines observations.

*-

230

NATATORES.

ANATID^E.

AN ATI DM.

THE RUDDY SHIELDRAKE.

Tadorna rutila.

Anas rutila, Ruddy Goose, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 330.

Tadorna „ „ Shieldrake, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 229.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 293.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xix.

Anas „ Canard KasarTta, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. t. ii. p. 832.
„ „ „ „ „ „ „ pt. iv. p. 531.

TADORNA. Generic Characters. — Beak about the length of the head, higher
than broad at the base, depressed or concave in the middle ; breadth nearly equal
throughout ; under mandible much narrower than the upper, the latter grooved
near the tip ; nail curved downwards forming a hook ; both mandibles furnished
with strong transverse lamellae. Nasal groove near the base of the beak ; nostrils
oval, lateral, pervious. Legs of moderate length ; the tibiae naked for a short
space above the tarsal joint ; toes three in front, entirely webbed ; one behind
free, without any pendent membrane or lobe. Wings of moderate length, tuber-
culated, pointed, the second quill-feather the longest. The sexes alike in plumage,
or very nearly.

WITHOUT intending to follow some systematic ornitholo-
gists in their numerous modern divisions of the old genus

RUDDY SHIELDRAKE. 231

Anas, I feel justified in adopting the genus Tadorna, in-
stituted by Dr. Leach and Dr. Fleming in 1822, and re-
vived by Boie in 1826, for the reception of the Ruddy
Shieldrake, and the Common Shieldrake, which in some
respects resemble the true Geese, particularly in the cir-
cumstance of the females being very nearly in plumage
of the same colour as that of the males, which is not the
case in the true Ducks. The similarity of the Shieldrakes
to the Egyptian Goose in several points will be obvious,
and they are frequently called Geese.

G. T. Fox, Esq. of Durham, appears first to have no-
ticed this bird as British, from an example in the Museum
at Newcastle, which had formerly belonged to Marmaduke
Tunstall, Esq., this was believed to have been killed at
Bryanstone, near Blandford in Dorsetshire, the seat of
Mr. Portman, in the severe winter of 1776; the same
frost of which season, as Mr. Fox remarks, produced the
Red-breasted Goose, also in that collection, a bird of equal
rarity, and, like the present one, a native of the eastern
parts of Europe. As the specimen is a female, there is
no doubt that this is the Grey-headed Duck of Brown's
Illustrations. Two other specimens have, however, been
killed since, and no question, therefore, exists of the pro-
priety of including it among our British Birds. Mr.
Selby mentions a specimen, now in his own collection,
killed in the south of England, which was at first lent
to him by Mr. Gould to figure from ; and in January
1834, a specimen was shot at Iken near Orford, on the
coast of Suffolk, which passed into the possession of Mr.
Manning, of.Woodbridge.

This species has a very wide geographical range : Pen-
nant received a specimen from Denmark ; it is found in all
the southern parts of Russia and Siberia, and the eastern

232 ANATID^E.

parts of Europe generally ; it Is sometimes obtained in
Germany, Hungary, and Austria ; has been killed a few
times in Italy, according to Savi ; and it is said to be
found in Africa as far south as the Cape. It has been
found in Persia, Asia Minor, at Trebizond, and in the
countries about the Caucasian range. Mr. Strickland says
it is frequently to be seen in the poultry shops at Smyrna,
but owing to the Turkish practice of cutting the throats
of birds as soon as shot, he was unable to obtain a perfect
specimen. Messrs. Dickson and Ross say this species is
abundant at Erzeroom, frequents marshes during the day,
but feeds late in the evening and early in the morning in
corn and stubble fields. Arrives there about the middle
of March, and departs at the end of November ; rarely
seen in the water. Said to breed in the marshes. Great
numbers on the Lake of Van in August, Native name,
Ahngoot. Colonel Sykes includes this species in his Ca-
talogue of the Birds of the Dukhun ; it has since been
obtained in North-western India, in Nepal, and in the
vicinity of Calcutta.

The food of this duck consists of aquatic plants and
their seeds, insects, and the fry of fish. Latham says it
makes its nest in the craggy banks of the Wolga, and
other rivers, or in the hollows of the deserted hills of
marmots ; forming it after the manner of the Shieldrake,
and it is said to make burrows for itself in the manner
of that bird ; builds sometimes in the shaft of an old well
that is not used, and has been known also to lay in a
hollow tree, lining the nest with its own feathers. They
pair, and the male and female sit by turns. They lay
eight or nine white eggs. When the young come forth
the mother will often carry them from the place of hatch-
ing to the water, with the bill. Have been attempted

RUDDY SHIELDRAKE. 233

to be domesticated, by rearing the young under tame
Ducks, but without success, as they remain wild, effecting
their escape the first opportunity ; and if the old ones are
taken and confined, they lay their eggs in a dispersed
manner, and never sit. The voice of the bird when flying
is not unlike the note of a clarionet : at other times it
cries like a Peacock, especially when kept confined ; and now
and then clucks like a hen. The organ of voice is unknown
to me. Each bird is very choice of its mate, for if the
male is killed the female will not leave the gunner till
she has been two or three times shot at. Quoting the
Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, who travelled in Tartary
and the Crimea, Latham says, the Tartars pretend that
the flesh of this bird is exceedingly dangerous : "I tasted
it," says he, " and only found it exceedingly good-for-
nothing" These birds go in pairs during the summer ;
at other times gregarious.

In the adult male the beak is lead colour; the irides
yellowish-brown ; head, cheeks, and chin buff colour, be-
coming darker, almost an orange-brown, towards the lower
part of the neck all round ; towards the bottom of the
neck a ring of black ; the back, tertials, breast, and all the
under surface of the body the same ; the point of the wing,
and the wing-coverts pale buffy white ; wing-primaries
lead grey, almost black ; secondaries rather lighter in
colour, the outer webs short of the end, forming a bril-
liant green speculum ; rump and tail-feathers lead-grey ;
legs, toes, and their membranes brownish-grey.

Whole length twenty-five or twenty-six inches ; the fe-
males are rather smaller in size ; and the female in the
Newcastle Museum is thus described by Mr. Fox : — u The
crown of the head and the neck is of a mouse-grey ; the
front, cheeks, and throat pure white. The whole of the

234 ANATID^E.

breast, belly, upper part of the back, and scapular fea-
thers, which are very long, of a light ferruginous, which
is the prevailing colour of the bird. The feathers are
broad at their end, semicircular, and tipped with a lighter
colour, which form semicircular lines all over the body.
The wing-coverts are white, which forms a broad space
on the wing ; below this the secondary quills are green,
forming a speculum ; the greater quills brown, darker on
the edges, which has occasioned them to be described as
black ; the same applies to the tail and back, which is
nearly covered by the scapulars, both of which are dark
brown, with a greenish tinge. The legs are dark co-
loured ; the toes largely webbed, and the webs black. At
the bend of the wing is a blunt knob. Beneath, on the
sides of the vent, are the rudiments of a bar of mottled
feathers, and the feathers of the thighs, and some of the
vent feathers are lighter than those of the rest of the
body/'

The male is distinguished from the female in having a
black collar round the neck, from which circumstance it
has been called the Collared Duck ; it has also been called
the Ruddy Goose.

Bewick has figured the female ; I have therefore pur-
posely given the figure of a male.

This species is very rarely found at sea.

COMMON SHELLDRAKE.

NATATORES.

235
ANA TIDjE.

THE COMMON SHELLDEAKE.

THE SHIELDBAKE, OR BURROW DUCK.

Tadorna vulpanser.

Anas Tadorna, Tlve, Shiddrake, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 256.

Tadorna Vulpanser, Common

„ Bellonii,
„ Vulpanser,
Anas Tadorna,

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 357.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 122.
„ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 289.

„ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 229.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. viii.

Canard Tadorne, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 833.
„ „ „ „ „ pt. iv. p. 531.

THE SHELLDRAKE or Shieldrake is one of the most beau-
tiful in appearance of our ornamental water-fowl : the
various colours of its plumage are pure and brilliant,
strongly contrasted ; their limits well denned ; and the
birds are retained in a state of domestication without dif-

236 ANATID^E.

ficulty. This species differs greatly from that of the same
genus last described, in being rarely seen inland, unless
in a semi-domestic state and pinioned ; but some are con-
stantly found on the sea-coast, and that during the whole
year, preferring flat shores, sandy bars, and links, where it
breeds in rabbit burrows, or other holes in the soft soil,
and hence has obtained the name of Burrow Duck, and
Bar Gander, which Dr. Turner considers is derived from
berg and gander, because it also builds in rocks. In Scot-
land it is called Skeeling Goose, according to Sibbald,
and other writers since his time. Many Shieldrakes come
from the north to visit this country for the winter, re-
turning again in the spring.

The authors of the Catalogue of the Norfolk and Suf-
folk Birds mention that it breeds in the rabbit burrows
formed in the sand-hills upon the coast of Norfolk. Its
nest is discovered by the print of its feet on the sand, and
therefore most easily found in calm weather ; for in windy
weather the driving sand soon obliterates the impression.
The old bird is sometimes taken by a snare set at the
mouth of the burrow. The eggs are often hatched under
domestic hens, and the birds thus obtained kept as an
ornament on ponds.

Mr. Selby mentions that these birds are also regular
inhabitants of the sandy parts of the Northumbrian coast,
and during the breeding-season the holes in the earth
frequented by them are furnished with bents of grass and
other dry vegetable materials, forming a nest sometimes
as far as ten or twelve feet from the entrance, and lined
with fine soft down, plucked from their own breasts. They
lay from ten to twelve eggs, and sometimes more ; these
are rather large, of a smooth shining white, about two
inches nine lines in length, and one inch eleven lines in

COMMON SIIELLDRAKE. 237

breadth. Incubation is said to last thirty days, during
which time the male watches near at hand, taking his
turn upon the eggs morning and evening, while his mate
goes off to pick up her hasty meal. When the young are
hatched they follow the parents, and in some situations
are even carried by them in their bills to the water, where
they soon learn to feed and take care of themselves. Their
food is various, namely, seaweed, bivalve and other shelled
mollusca, sandhoppers, sea-worms, marine insects, and the
remains of shell-fish. I have found the stomach of this
species filled with very minute bivalve and univalve mol-
lusca only, as though they had sought no other food ; a
predilection which may have given rise to the name of
Shell-drake ; or it may be so called, because it is parti-
coloured ; and the term Shield-drake may have had its
origin in the frequent use made of this bird in Heraldry :
the family of Brassey, of Hertfordshire,* and several other
families in this country, bearing in their arms this bird
on their shield, and sometimes as a crest. In captivity
they feed on grain of any sort, soaked bread, and vege-
tables. Their note is a shrill whistle. The flesh of the
Shieldrake is coarse and bad, dark in colour, and un-
pleasant both in smell and flavour.

Montagu and other writers have mentioned that this
species does not breed readily in confinement. The fol-
lowing hint may be of service. When the Zoological So-
ciety first had a pair of these birds, they exhibited no
signs of breeding, but their natural habits being consulted
by putting them into another place, where there was a
bank of earth, into which some holes were purposely made,
the birds immediately took to one of the holes and went

* Brassey bears quarterly, per fess indented sable and argent, in the first
quarter, a Shieldrake. Crest on a mount, a Shieldrake.

238 ANATID^E.

to nest there, bringing out a brood in 1835, and again in
1836. Of what has happened with them since I have no
notes ; but in the present season, 1841, there is a fine
and numerous show of young birds, from which the de-
scription of the plumage of the birds of the year in their
immature dress will be hereafter given. As observed by
Mr. Selby, the young birds soon become tolerably tame,
and answer to the call of the person who feeds them;
when fully fledged, however, being very active, they are
apt to stray away, and if left unpinioned, generally in time
fly entirely off, though they have been known, in some
instances, to return after an absence of many months.

Colonel Hawker, in reference to their habits, says, " The
young Shelldrakes, directly after being hatched in the
rabbit-burrows, are taken by the parent birds to the sea,
where they may be seen in what the boatmen call troops, of
from thirty to forty ; but as the female seldom hatches
more than fourteen eggs, it is clear that each flock is
formed by two or three broods. On their being approached,
the old ones fly away, and leave the young to shift
for themselves by diving. They may be easily shot when
they come up, but you can seldom kill more than one or
two at a time, as they always disperse before you can
get very near them.

" These birds show but tame sport with a gun, and are
good for nothing when killed. But, in winter nights,
they often give you a fine shot on the mud, though they
are so white that you can seldom perceive them, even
afloat, without a good moon. Be prepared to fire directly
you rise ; as they, being very quick-sighted birds, will
give you but little time to present your gun. We had a
great many Burrow Ducks on our coast, Hampshire and
Dorsetshire, during the last hard winter. They were the

COMMON SHELLDRAKE. 239

wildest of birds till half starved by the freezing of the
shell-fish, and then they became the tamest of all wild-
fowl/'

" You may keep young Burrow Ducks for five or six
weeks, provided you give them crumbs of bread, and only
a little water three times a day. But if you let them
get into the water, or even drink too much before they
are full grown, and fit to be turned out on your pond, you
are almost sure to kill them. This appears quite a para-
dox with birds that, in their wild state, are always in the
water ; but such is the case."

This bird is found on most of the sandy parts of the
coast of Ireland, and in Scotland as far as the Shetland
Isles, but is more common in those of Orkney, where Dr.
Patrick Neill says " it has got the name of Sly Goose,
from the arts which the natives find it employs to decoy
them from the neighbourhood of its nest : it frequently
feigns lameness, and waddles away with one wing trailing
on the ground, thus inducing a pursuit of itself, till, judg-
ing its young to be safe from discovery, it suddenly takes
flight, and leaves the outwitted Orcadian gaping with
surprise."

Mr. Dann tells me this beautiful Duck appears early in
May in great numbers on the Swedish coast, where they
breed ; and that they are found on the west coast of Nor-
way, as high as Drontheim, in small numbers.

It is found both in the northern and western countries
of Europe, on the borders of the sea. M. Temminck says
it is abundant in Holland, on the coasts of France, and
occasionally visits the rivers of Germany. M. Savi in-
cludes it in his Birds of Italy ; and it visits Corfu, Sicily,
and Malta in winter occasionally. Keith Abbott, Esq.
sent the Zoological Society specimens from Trebizond.

240 ANATID.E.

B. Hodgson, Esq. includes it among the Birds of Nepal ;
and M. Temminck says this species is found in Japan.

In the adult male the beak is vermilion ; the irides
brown ; the whole of the head and upper part of the neck
green, bounded by a collar of white, and below that a
collar of rich chestnut, which covers the upper part of the
breast, the space before the point of the wings, and the
upper part of the back ; the rest of the back, the rump,
and upper tail-coverts white : scapulars and part of the
tertials nearly black; the longest tertials with the outer
webs rich chestnut ; point of the wing and all the wing-
coverts white ; primaries very dark brown ; the speculum
of the secondaries green ; tail-feathers white, tipped with
black ; lower central line of the breast and belly rich dark
brown ; sides, flanks, vent, and under tail-coverts white ;
legs, toes, and their membranes flesh colour.

Whole length twenty-four to twenty-six inches. From
the carpal joint to the end of the wing thirteen inches ; the
second quill-feather the longest. The female is rather
smaller than the male, and not quite so bright in her
colours.

The young of the year in August have the beak flesh
colour ; the head and neck brown ; chin, and front of the
neck white ; interscapulars and wings brown ; wing-coverts
white ; tertials white, but edged with chestnut, the first
appearance of that colour ; primaries black ; speculum be-
coming green ; all the under surface white ; legs flesh
colour.

The young birds do not breed till they are two years
old.

I have referred, in the present volume, to the pe-
culiar character of the organs of voice in some of the
Geese and Swans, and in almost all the Ducks and Mer-

COMMON SHELLDRAKE. 241

gangers, forming together the large, the valuable, and in-
teresting family of the Anatidse ; and I may here refer
particularly to that organ as found in the Shieldrake,
which is so entirely distinguished from that of any other
species, as at once and alone to afford, as far as I have yet
seen, a decided specific character. The trachea, or wind-
pipe, in the Shieldrake is about ten inches long, nearly
uniform in size throughout its length, except towards the
bottom, where, for about one inch, it is much smaller. On
each side of the bone of divarication, forming the bottom
of the tube, there is a globular, hollow, bony protuberance,
that on one side being as large again as the one on the
other. The bone is thin, and so flexible when in its moist
and natural state as readily to become indented on pres-
sure. The representation given below is only a little
smaller than the natural size. The tube below each en-
largement, going off, one to each lobe of the lungs, presents
nothing remarkable.

242

NA TA TORES.

ANATID.E.

ANATIDJE.

THE SHOVELER,*

BLUE- WINGED SHOVELER, OR BROAD- BILL.

Anas dypeata.

Anas dypeata, SJioveler Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 264.

„ rubens, Red-breasted Shoveler, „ „ „ „ p. 265.

„ dypeata, The Shoveler, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

Spathulea „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 123.

„ „ Common „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 297.

Anas „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 230.

Rhynchaspis „ Shoveler Duck, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xix.

Anas „ Canard souchet, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 842.

ANAS. Generic Characters. — Bill about as long as the head, broad, depressed,
sides parallel, sometimes partially dilated ; both mandibles furnished on the inner
edges with transverse lamellae. Nostrils small, oval, lateral, anterior to the base
of the beak. Legs rather short, placed under the centre of the body ; tarsus some-
what rounded ; toes three in front, connected by intervening membrane ; hind toe

* The Shoveler, — genus Spathuha, Fleming, 1822; Rhyncliaspis^ Stephens,
1824 ; and Clypeata, Brehm. 1831.

SHOVELER. 243

free, without pendent lobe or membrane. Wings rather long, pointed. Tail
pointed, or wedge-shaped. The sexes differ in plumage.

THE first division, or genus, of the true Ducks, as here
arranged, will contain the Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Bi-
maculated Duck, Wild Duck, Garganey, Teal, and the
Wigeons, all of which will be found to have the following-
characters in common. Externally they exhibit consider-
able length of neck ; the wings are also long, reaching
nearly to the end of the tail ; the tarsi somewhat round ;
the hind toe free, or having no pendent lobe. In habits
they may be stated generally as frequenting fresh-water,
but passing much of their time on land, feeding in ditches
and about the shallow margins of pools, on aquatic plants,
insects, worms, and occasionally on small fish, taking their
food at or near the surface ; possessing great powers of
flight, but seldom diving unless pursued. Of their internal
soft parts, the stomach is in the greatest degree muscular,
forming a true gizzard ; the intestines long ; the csecal
appendages from six to nine inches in length, in the larger
birds, and decreasing only in proportion to the size of the
species. Of the bones it may be observed, that the ribs
are short, the angle formed by the union of the last pair on
each side extending but little beyond the line of the pos-
terior edge of the sternum ; the keel of the breast-bone
deep, affording great extent of surface for the attachment
of large and powerful pectoral muscles ; the enlargement
at the bottom of the trachea, in all of them, is of bone
only.

The males of the species of this division are further re-
markable for a particular change in the colours of some
parts of their plumage, by which they become, for a time
during summer, more or less like their females. This
alteration in appearance, produced by a partial production

K2

244 ANATIDJ).

of new feathers, and a change of colour in others, is very
remarkable in the Pintail ; and Colonel Montagu was the
first, I believe, to record in print the annual change which
takes place in that species. The change which the Mallard
undergoes has since been observed and described by Mr.
Waterton. The Shoveler and others also suffer a partial
change of this sort, to be hereafter noticed. The cause or
the utility of this change has not been explained, that I
am aware of. Mr. Gould says, " as we have observed that
this change is common to the males of those species that
more especially breed in marshes, among reeds, &c., and as
it generally takes place at the period of incubation, may it
not serve as a protection to the species by rendering the
fostering parent less conspicuous at this critical period, than
he would be were he to retain the gay nuptial dress, which
would present so strong a contrast to the sombre- tinted
vegetation among which it is necessary for him to remain,
until the young are able to provide for themselves ? But
to this view of the subject it may be mentioned, that as
soon as the females begin to sit, the males desert them, and
the whole charge of each young brood devolves upon the
female, the males going together in small flocks, intent
only on providing for and taking care of themselves.

The Shoveler is to be considered generally as a winter
visiter to this country, but some remain every year to
breed. They inhabit marshes, lakes, rivers, and muddy
shores, selecting their food in shallow water, by the in-
strumentality of their sensible beak, the laminated sides of
which being abundantly supplied with nerves, enable them
to retain the nutritious, and reject the useless. They feed
on some grasses and other vegetables, with worms, aquatic
and other insects, even some insects that are winged ;
Gesner, on that account, called this species Anas muscaria,

SHOVELER. 245

and Vieillot says, that at the present time, one of its com-
mon names in France is Canard gobe-moucJie. Shrimps
have been found in its stomach ; and Mr. Audubon men-
tions that in North America, in some parts of which this
Duck is abundant, it feeds upon leeches, small fishes,
ground-worms, and snails. The flesh is. tender, juicy, and
of good flavour. The excellence of the Canvass-back Duck
of America, as an article of food, is proverbial, yet Mr.
Audubon also says, that no sportsman who is a judge will
ever go by a Shoveler to shoot a Canvass-back.

Wild-fowl are probably more plentiful on the eastern
side of England, from Essex to Lincolnshire, than in most
other counties, perhaps, because they are opposite, and
nearest to Holland, where most of them are very abundant.
Mr. Salmon mentions that a pair bred annually amongst
some green rushes on the warren at Stanford, in Norfolk.
The Rev. Richard Lubbock, in a communication to me
from Norfolk, says, " the Shoveler used frequently to breed
at Winterton, Horsey, &c., and has not yet discontinued.
I have seen two nests at different times ; eight eggs in one,
nine in the other, placed in a very dry part of the marsh,
at a considerable distance from the Broad." The authors
of the Catalogue of the Norfolk and Suffolk Birds, say,
"the Shoveler remains all the year in Norfolk. We have
twice met with its nest in Winterton Marshes. It was
placed in a tuft of grass, where the ground was quite dry,
and was made of fine grass. After the female begins to
sit, she covers her eggs with down plucked from her body.
In the spring of 1818 the warrener at Winterton found
several nests belonging to this species, containing in the
whole fifty- six eggs.1' Mr. J. Youell, of Yarmouth, in a
communication to the Linnean Society, says, that he, in
one season, obtained upwards of thirty eggs of the Shoveler

246 ANATID^E.

Duck. These eggs were put under some domestic fowls,
and most of them were hatched ; but he succeeded in rear-
ing only two of them. Their bills, when a few days old,
were not longer than those of the domestic Duck, but at
the age of three weeks they had obviously increased in
length more than those of the common duckling. One of
these birds, a male, lived till it was ten months old, and
then had attained in a considerable degree the adult
plumage of the Shoveler.

That the bill of the young Shoveler when hatched is
not dilated laterally, as has been described, I can myself
answer. During the summer of 1841 a pair of Shovelers
made a nest, and brought out their young on one of the
islands in the Garden of the Zoological Society ; the bills
of these ducklings were as narrow, and the sides as paral-
lel, as the bills of some young Gadwalls which were hatch-
ed at the same time on an island in the same piece of
water. The egg is buiFy white, tinged with green ; two
inches two lines long, by one inch and six lines in breadth.

The Shoveler has bred with the Garganey, and a young
male bearing many indications of both parents, was pre-
sented to the Zoological Society by Lord Saye and Sele.
This interesting bird was kept during one summer in a
small pond with a female Garganey, and a female Sho-
veler, but without success, and the bird died in the fol-
lowing winter.

Although the Shoveler formerly bred in Romney Marsh,
it is now comparatively rare there, and also along the line
of the southern counties to Cornwall. It is not uncommon
in North Wales in winter, and probably breeds in Ireland.
Mr. Heysham has met with it only a few times in the
western parts of Cumberland. It is not mentioned as
visiting Orkney or Shetland ; and Mr. Dann tells me this

SHOVELER. 247

Duck is by no means common in the parts of Scandinavia
where he resided, but is chiefly confined to the south of
Sweden. It is found in Gothland, in Russia and Ger-
many ; is abundant in Holland ; breeds regularly in the
marshes of France, and the Zoological Society have re-
ceived it from Oporto. It is seen on its passage about
Genoa and in Italy twice in every year, in the spring and
again in November ; is found at Corfu, Sicily, and Malta
during the winter, and frequents the northern parts of
Africa, is called in consequence the Barbary Shoveler ; and
specimens have been brought from South Africa by Dr.
Andrew Smith. Mr. Strickland observed this species at
Smyrna in winter ; Messrs. Dickson and Ross sent the
Zoological Society specimens from Erzerum ; and the na-
turalists of the Russian expedition found it on the shores
of the Caspian Sea. The Shoveler has been found in the
north-western parts of India. Colonel Sykes includes it
among the Birds of the Dukhun, it is found in Nepal, and
about Calcutta ; and M. Temminck says that examples
from Japan exactly agree with the specimens taken in
Europe. The Shoveler is found in the United States, in
North America, and at Hudson's Bay ; and interesting
accounts will be found in the works of Audubon, Wilson,
Nuttall, and Dr. Richardson.

In the adult male the beak is lead colour, dilated on
each side towards the tip ; the irides yellow ; the whole
of the head and the upper part of the neck green ; lower
part of the neck, the inter-scapulars, scapulars, and some
of the tertials white ; middle of the back dark brown, the
feathers having lighter-coloured margins ; the point of
the wing, the lesser wing- coverts, and outer web of some
of the tertials, pale blue ; greater wing-coverts white ;
primaries dark brown, almost black ; the secondaries the

248

ANATID^E.

same, but the speculum green ; rump, upper tail-coverts,
and tail-feathers, almost black; breast, and all the belly
rich chestnut brown ; thighs freckled with dark brown,
on a ground of lighter pale brown ; the vent white ; under
tail-coverts black ; legs, toes, and their membranes, red-
dish-orange ; the nails black.

The whole length about twenty inches. From the car-
pal joint to the end of the wing ten inches ; the second
quill-feather the longest.

Adult males in summer change the green colour of the
head and neck to brown, spotted with very dark brown ;
back and scapulars dusky ; breast and belly ferruginous,
spotted with black ; legs orange.

Females have the head and neck mottled with two
shades of brown ; the feathers on the upper surface of the
body darker brown in the centre, with light brown edges
and tips ; under surface of the body pale brown.

Young males at first resemble females, changing by slow
degrees to the true distinctive plumage of the sex, but do
not attain it till after the old males have completed their
change under the influence of the autumn moult.

Of the windpipes figured below, that with the circular
bony enlargement belongs to the male Shoveler, the other
to the female.

GADWALL.

249

N ATA TORES.

ANATIDJE.

THE GADWALL.

Anas strepera.

Anas strepera, Gadwall Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 275.

„ „ The Gadwall, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 364.

„ „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 124.

Chauliodus* „ Common „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 301.

Anas „ The „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 231.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. viii.

„ „ Canard chipeau, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 837.

THE GADWALL, or Grey Duck, as the term is intended
to imply, is a rare species, occurring sometimes in winter,
but more frequently in the spring, rather than at any
other season of the year, and then only in very limited
numbers. Montagu mentions that during the many years
he devoted to observing and collecting British Birds, he
was never able to obtain a recent specimen. Examples
are, however, occasionally to be met with on our eastern

* Genus Chauliodus of Swainson, 1831.

250 ANATID.E.

coast, and not uncommonly in the London markets, but
some of these latter birds are very probably brought from
Holland, where they are known to be rather common,
and from whence a considerable quantity of wild-fowl of
different sorts is sent to this country for sale throughout
the season for working decoys. Sir William Jardine men-
tions, in a note appended to this species in his edition of Wil-
son's American Ornithology, that in Holland, in September
and October, this is the most common Duck in the markets,
and that they were observed to be abundant on the lakes.
The eastern parts of Europe seem to be the more favourite
localities with this species. M. Vieillot says that it is
not uncommon on the coast of France in the month of
November, if the weather is rough. In Switzerland, ac-
cording to Professor Schinz, it is more frequently seen in
autumn than in winter. At Genoa and in Italy it is
observed rather as a bird of passage, in spring and in au-
tumn. It is observed at Corfu, Sicily, and Malta, in
winter. The Zoological Society have received specimens,
sent by Sir Thomas Reade, from North Africa. Messrs.
Dickson and Ross found this species at Erzerum in March. -
The Russian naturalists observed it in the countries of
the Caucasus. It has been found in the north-western
parts of India, and at Calcutta; and Colonel Sykes in-
cludes it in his Catalogue of the Birds of the Dukhun,
where it is seen in flocks. It is said to be abundant in
the vast marshes of the North of Europe, but does not
go far to the west of the Baltic, as M. Nilsson says that
it is rare in Sweden ; and Mr. Dann tells me that he
never met with this species in Norway or Lapland. As
might be expected, it is rare in the western parts of the
British Islands ; it has but rarely been killed in Ireland ;
only occasionally in Cornwall or Devon, but more fre-
quently in Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge and Norfolk.

GADWALL. 251

Mr. Proctor, subcurator at the University Museum,
Durham, who visited Iceland a few summers since, sent
me word that the Gadwall is not common there ; he only
obtained one nest, composed of dry grass and down, and
containing five eggs ; this was placed near the edge of
the fresh- water, in a marsh near My vat on the north side of
Iceland.

This species is described by various writers on the Birds
of North America and the United States as being found
from the fur countries as low as South Carolina.

The Gadwall, like the other Ducks of this division with
long and pointed wings, has a vigorous and rapid flight,
but appears to dislike exposure, and hides itself among
thick reeds and aquatic herbage. This is observed to
be the habit of a pair in the Gardens of the Zoological
Society, which mostly conceal themselves in the long grass
on the islands of the ornamental water in which they are
confined. These birds bred there in the season of 1839,
and again in 1841, laying seven or eight eggs. One egg
left unhatched in the nest was of a uniform buffy white
colour, tinged with green, and measured two inches two
lines in length, by one inch eight lines in breadth. These
Ducks feed on vegetable matter, aquatic insects, and small
fish.

In the adult male the beak is lead colour ; irides hazel ;
the head and upper part of the neck light brown, speckled
with darker brown ; back grey, produced by an alterna-
tion of darker and lighter coloured grey lines ; the point
of the wing, and the small coverts chestnut, varied with
orange-brown ; the greater coverts almost black : primaries
nearly black ; the secondaries similar, but the outer webs
forming the speculum white ; tertials pointed, and of two
shades of brownish grey, the darker colour occupying the
centre of each feather, the lighter colour forming the mar-

252 ANATIDvE.

gin : rump and upper tail-coverts bluish-black : tail-fea-
thers dark brown, with lighter coloured edges ; lower part
of the neck in front, and on the side dark grey, each feather
ending in a half circle of lighter grey; breast and belly
white ; sides, flanks, and vent, covered with two shades
of grey in short lines ; under tail-coverts bluish-black ;
legs, toes, and their membranes, orange ; claws black.

The female has the head and upper part of the neck
spotted with dark brown, on a surface of pale brown ; the
alternate crescentic bands on the lower part of the neck
in front dark brown, and pale brown, but the bands broader
than in the male ; under surface of the body white ; lower
part of the neck behind, and the upper surface of the
body, brown, the feathers edged with paler brown ; wing-
coverts brown, with paler margins ; speculum like that
of the male ; tail-feathers of dark brown, with edges and
tips of pale buffy brown and white.

The young birds of the year at the Zoological Gardens,
compared with the old birds, are of a more uniform red-
dish-brown colour above, speckled with dark brown ; the
middle of each feather also dark brown.

The windpipe of the Gadwall is rather small in calibre,
with a slight enlargement of the tube about two inches
above the bony protuberance as here shown. The voice
of this species is loud, and hence it obtained the name of
strepera.

NATATORES.

PINTAIL DUCK.

253
ANA TIDJE.

Anas

Querquedula* „
Anas „

Dafila caudacuta^
A nas acuta,

THE PINTAIL DUCK.

Anas acuta.

acuta, Pintail Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 266.

„ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 372.

„ The Cracker, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 122.

Common Pintail, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol ii. p. 311.

The ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 232.

Pintail Duck, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. v.

Canard piktj TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 838.

THIS handsome Duck is a winter visiter to this country,
and is one of the first among those species which are taken
when the decoys begin to be worked in October. It re-
mains here through the winter till spring, and is obtained
by wild-fowl shooters on the coast, as well as by fen-
men on the rivers and lakes of the interior ; its flight is

* Querquedula, Selby, 1833. f Dafila, Leach and Stephens, 1824.

254 ANATID.E.

rapid. It is observed to feed by preference in shallow
water, and it selects plants, insects, their larvae, and mol-
lusca. Sir William Jardine mentions having once shot
two, while they were feeding in the evening on a wet
stubble field, in company with the common Wild-Duck.
This species is one of the best of our various Ducks for
the table ; the flesh is excellent, and in great esteem.
The Pintails, however, do not breed readily in confine-
ment; neither the Zoological Society nor the Ornitholo-
gical Society have succeeded in this point with the Pin-
tail Duck, though both parties retain several pairs on the
canal, ponds, and islands, apparently well adapted to their
habits, and where the males constantly undergo that re-
markable summer change in their plumage which renders
them for a time more like their females in appearance
than any other species in which this change is observed.
This alteration commences in July, partly effected by
some new feathers, and partly by a change in the colour
of many of the old feathers. At first one or more brown
spots appear in the white surface on the front of the neck ;
these spots increase in number rapidly, till the whole head,
neck, breast, and under surface have become brown ;
the scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials, undergo, by de-
grees, the same change from grey to brown. I have seen
a single white spot remaining on the breast as late as the
4th of August ; but generally by that time the males can
only be distinguished from females of the same species by
their larger size, and their beak remaining of a pale blue
colour. In the female the bill is dark brown. I have
seen a male Pintail, confined in the hutch of a dealer
throughout the summer, that did not exhibit any change
at all. The following is Montagues description of a male
Pintail, after he had thrown off the masculine plumage,

!

PINTAIL DUCK. 255

taken on the 19th of August: — "Bill as usual; top of
the head, and from thence down the back of the neck,
dusky and pale ferruginous, intermixed in minute streaks,
paler on the forehead ; sides of the head and throat brown,
with minute dusky specks tinged with ferruginous ; the
front and sides of the neck brown, with dusky black spots,
which are minute on the upper part, becoming larger by
degrees downwards, where they are also more distinct ;
the breast and belly very pale brown, with more distant
dusky spots ; the back and scapulars dusky black, with
pale margins, each feather having a transverse bar of white
near the tip ; the longer scapulars are only margined with
rufous white, and some are powdered with white ; the
rump, like the back, but these feathers gradually lose the
white bar as they approach the tail, so that the tail-
coverts are only margined with white; the feathers on
the sides of the body being large, have broad margins, with
the middle dusky black, in which is either a ferruginous
white bar, or two spots, one on each side of the shaft ;
the prime quills dusky grey as usual ; the speculum
changeable green, or copper, tipped with white, a violet
bar dividing the green from the white ; the first tertial is
brown on the inner web, grey on the outer near the shaft,
and a broad margin of violet ; the rest of the tertials are
brown, dashed with cinereous black near the shafts ; the
coverts of the wings plain dark cinereous, the largest
series tipped with bay ; the tail consists of sixteen dusky
feathers, dashed with cinereous, gradually becoming darker
towards the middle feathers, which rather exceed the next
in length, making the tail regularly cuneiform : vent, and
under tail-coverts rufous white, with distant black spots."

At the annual autumn moult the males again assume
with their new feathers the colours peculiar to their sex,

256 ANATIDJS.

but the assumption is gradual. White spots first appear
among the brown feathers on the front of the neck ; by
the end of the second week in October the front of the
neck and breast is mottled with brown and white; at
the end of the third week in October a few brown spots
only remain on the white.

These birds form their nests in rushes and strong
herbage, producing seven or eight eggs, which are greenish
white in colour, and rather elongated in form, measuring
two inches one line in length, by one inch five lines in
breadth. Montagu mentions " that the notes of the
Pintail are extremely soft and inward ; the courting
note is always attended with a jerk of the head ; the other
greatly resembles that of a very young kitten. In the
spring the male Pintail indicates his feelings by suddenly
raising his body upright in the water, and bringing his
bill close to his breast, uttering at the same time a soft
note. This gesticulation is frequently followed by a sin-
gular jerk of the hinder part of the body, which in turn is
thrown up above the water." Montagu mentions also that
Pintails have bred in confinement ; and Lord Stanley
informed him he had a hybrid brood produced two seasons
following between a female Pintail and a male Wigeon ;
the hybrid birds laid eggs during two successive seasons,
but they were unproductive. In December 1831, the
Honourable Twiselton Fiennes exhibited at the Zoological
Society a specimen of a hybrid Duck, bred between a male
Pintail and a common Duck. It was one of a brood of
six, several of which were subsequently confined with the
male Pintail from which they sprung, and produced young.
A specimen of a female of this second brood was also
exhibited, and these three part-bred Pintails having bred
again with the true Pintail, have now lost all the ap-
pearance of the common Duck.

PINTAIL DUCK. 257

The Pintail has been killed occasionally in different
parts of Ireland in winter. It is rare in Wales, Cornwall,
and Devon ; more common on the coast of Dorsetshire and
Hampshire, particularly from Poole Harbour to Lyming-
ton, where it is called the Sea Pheasant, on account of
the length of its tail, and where it is seen in small flocks
during winter. It occurs also occasionally in the marine
and fenny districts, of the eastern counties. The figure of
the male on the fore-ground in the illustration of the
species here given, was taken from a fine specimen, killed
in Cambridgeshire, now in the collection of Dr. Thackeray,
the Provost of King's College.

The Pintail is rather rare in the extreme north of
England, and in Scotland. Mr. Kobert Dunn, in his
useful little book, says, I never met with this bird in
Shetland, but it is tolerably plentiful in Orkney, particu-
larly in the island of Sanda. It frequents the inland
lakes more than the sea-shore, and leaves these islands
early in the spring. Richard Dann, Esq. tells me that the
Pintail Duck is common in Lapland, and at the head of
the Bothnian Gulf during the summer months. It breeds
late ; " I saw on the 1st of July, 1838, a large flock, both
males and females, in a lake near Lulea, which had evi-
dently not yet dispersed for breeding. In the Dofre Fiell
mountains they are tolerably numerous in May, but pass
on to the north. They do not appear, however, in the
autumn on their return from thence, and from their ap-
pearing on the western coast in autumn but rarely, I am
induced to think their migration is southerly in autumn,
and as winter advances westerly. They are by no means
shy or difficult of access. The young are five or six in
number."

This species is said to be common in Russia, Germany,
VOL. HI. s

258 ANATID.E.

Holland, and France. In Spain it occurs at Lake Gallo-
canta, in Arragon, where it is called collilargo. It is seen
at Genoa twice annually on its passage ; and in Italy Savi
says it appears at the beginning of winter and remains till
spring. It is observed at Corfu, in Sicily, and at Malta
in winter. Mr. Strickland saw this species at Smyrna in
winter. Messrs. Dickson and Ross sent the Zoological
Society specimens from Erzerum, that were killed there at
the end of March ; and the Russian naturalist found this
Duck in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. It is found in
India, China, and Japan.

The Pintail is included in the Catalogue of the birds of
the Faro Islands ; and Mr. Proctor says that a few breed
in Iceland, laying from six to ten eggs, in a nest placed
among reeds and thick herbage ; it is also found in North
America, the United States, and Newfoundland. The
British Museum contains a specimen from Jamaica.

The appearance of the adult male in July, August, and
September, has been already noticed. In winter the bill is
lead grey on the sides, part of the central ridge and the
base brownish-black ; irides dark brown ; head, cheeks,
chin, sides, and upper half of the neck in front rich dark
brown ; nape and back of the neck the same, the occipital
portion tinged with purple ; back, scapulars, the part
before the wings, and the smaller coverts, rich grey, pro-
duced by fine undulating alternate lines of greyish-white
and bluish-black ; primaries greyish brown : secondaries
black, the end of the outer web of each forming a speculum
of dark green : greater wing-coverts ash-brown, tipped
with reddish-buff and white ; tertials elongated, black in
the centre, with a white lateral margin on the outer web,
and a grey one on the inner ; tail-coverts ash-grey ; the
elongated tail-feathers black; the others dark brown,

PINTAIL DUCK. 259

margined with white ; from the occipital portion of the
neck on eacli side descends a white stripe, which becoming
broader as it passes downwards, extends in front over the
whole of the lower portion of the neck, breast, belly, and
part of the flanks ; the sides grey ; vent and under tail-
coverts velvet black ; legs, toes, and their membranes,
blackish brown.

The whole length of the male, somewhat influenced by
the tail-feathers, is from twenty-six to twenty-eight inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing ten inches and
a half ; the first quill-feather the longest in the wing.

The female has the head reddish-brown ; the neck pale
brown, both parts speckled with very dark brown ; upper
surface of the body dark brown ; each feather almost black
in the centre, and pale brown on the margin ; tail-feathers
also dark brown, varied with pale brown ; no appearance
of white lines on the sides of the neck ; under surface of
the body nearly uniform pale brown.

The length of the windpipe in this species is about nine
inches and a half, the diameter of the tube slightly en-
larged about an inch above the bony labyrinth, the form of
which is figured below.

I

8 2

260

ANATIDJ2,

NATATORES.

AN AT ID JE.

Anas

THE BIMACULATED DUCK.

Anas glocitans.

glocitans, Bimaculated Duck, PBNN. Brit. Zoo), vol. ii. p. 272.
„ „ „ BEWICK, Brit Birds, vol. ii. p. 37

„ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 125.

Querquedula
Anas

Teal,

Duck,

Teal,

Canarde ylousseur,

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 321.
JENVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 232.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. pt. iv. p. 533.

THE British historical notice of this prettily marked
duck was thus given by Mr. Vigors, in November 1824.*
" The male of this species was first described by Pennant
in his British Zoology, under the name of Bimaculated
Duck, and introduced as an inhabitant of the British
Islands, in the following words : — ' Taken in a decoy in
1771, and communicated to me by Edward Poore, Esq.1
The same bird was afterwards described and figured by
Dr. Pallas, in the Acta Stoc&kolmiensia for 1779, as a

* Linneean Transactions, vol. xiv. p. 560.

BIMACULATED DUCK. 261

native of Siberia, frequenting Lake Baikal and the river
Lena ; and was named by him Anas glocitans.* On the
authority of Mr. Pennant the species has subsequently
been included among the birds of Great Britain, by writers
on British Ornithology ; but no further account has
reached us of the specimen alluded to by that distinguished
naturalist, nor has it been ascertained whether it was pre-
served after it was communicated to him. The specimen
of both male and female, from which I have taken the
description, were sent up from a decoy near Maldon in
Essex, to Leadenhall market, in the winter of 1812-13.
Here they were observed by a respectable naturalist, Mr.
George Weighton, of Fountain Place, City-road, who
immediately purchased them and set them up. From his
collection they have subsequently passed into mine. There
can be little doubt of the two birds being sexes of the same
species. They agree in all the essential particulars that
serve to identify the species of this family ; their bill, legs,
and feet, exactly according in structure, and the colouring
and markings of the speculum on the wings, a distinguishing
character among the Anatida, being precisely the same.
We have moreover, in favour of this conclusion, the
negative evidence that the other sex of neither of these
birds has until now been ascertained ; and we have the
positive evidence that both these specimens were taken in
the same decoy and at the same time.11

Such was the account of this species, furnished by one
of our most distinguished naturalists at that time, and but
little has been learned since. Of its habits or its nidifica-
tion, nothing, that I am aware of, is known. Mr. Proctor
sent me word that he saw this species at Iceland, but
could not obtain it. M. Temminck, including a notice of

* There is, however, reason to believe that the glodtans of English authors is
the formosa of Pallas.

262 ANATID^E.

it in the fourth part of his Manual, has furnished some
particulars of its plumage, which will he given here after
the description of the adult male. I looked in vain for
any account of this rare species in the Natural History
Catalogues of the Russian Expeditions towards the Cau-
casus.

Since the publication of the first edition of this work,
Mr. Bartlett has obtained a specimen of a male in the
London market, and there is one in the Chinese exhibition,
indicating that it is a bird of that country.

The following is Mr. Selby's description of the adult
male, taken from the specimen. " Bill blackish-grey, pass-
ing towards the base and edges into orange-yellow. Front,
crown, and occiput, very deep reddish-brown, glossed with
purplish-black, and passing upon the hind part of the neck
into deep violet-purple. Between the bill and eyes, and
behind the ear-coverts, are two large irregular patches of
chestnut-brown, margined and varied with white. Sides
of the neck and cheeks glossy duck-green, the rest of the
upper part of the neck, and sides of the breast, reddish-
brown, with oval black spots. The middle part of the
breast pale reddish-brown, also spotted with black.
Ground colour of the mantle pale sienna-yellow, undulated
with black lines. Scapulars the same, tipped with glossy
Scotch-blue. Wing-coverts hair-brown, the lower range
having pale wood-brown tips. Speculum dark green,
glossed with purple. Upper and under tail-coverts green-
ish-black, glossed with purple. Tail wedge-shaped, with
the two middle feathers black, narrow, acuminate, and
much longer than the rest, which are hair-brown, margined
with white. Belly and abdomen yellowish-white, with un-
dulating black lines, most distinct upon the flanks. Legs
and feet pale orange."

BIMACULATED DUCK. 263

The whole length fifteen inches and three-quarters.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing eight inches
and four-tenths.

M. Temminck says that " the males of this species ap-
pear to vary very much in the degree of purity of the tints
of their plumage, and in the colour and form of the two
large spots on the neck. He has seen one male bird
covered in part only with the variegated plumage of that
sex, while all the rest was like that of the female, but
dotted here and there with some feathers of the male.
The top of the head alone exhibited some red colour at the
tip of the feathers, and the rest black ; the metallic green
also being clouded with black, at the end of white feathers.
Probably, adds the author, a young male, or perhaps a
male in the moult."

The female, according to Mr. Selby, has " the chin and
throat pale buff. Head and neck the same, but with spots
and streaks of black, those upon the crown of the head
being larger and more distinct. Lower part of the neck,
and sides of the breast, pale yellowish-brown, with blackish-
brown spots. Flanks variegated with yellowish-brown,
and blackish-brown. Upper parts blackish-brown, the fea-
thers being deeply margined with reddish- white, and pale
yellowish-bro.wn. Lesser wing-coverts hair-brown, with
the lower tier deeply tipped with pale reddish- brown.
The upper half of the speculum green, with purple reflec-
tions ; the lower half velvet black, with white tips to the
feathers. Quills and tail hair-brown, the latter margined
with white and reddish-white. Legs orange.

This species has been confounded by some authors with
the Japan Teal, but though marked something like it on
the head and neck, it is a much larger bird.

264

NA TA TORES.

ANATIDJL

AN AT ID X\

THE WILD DUCK.

A nas boschas, The Mallard,
„ „ Wild Duck,

Anas boschas.

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 258.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
„ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 342.

Common „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 123.

„ Wild „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 305.

TJie Mallard, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 233.

Common Wild Duck, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvi.

TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii p. 835.

FEOM the evidence of Pennant and others it appears cer-
tain that the Wild Duck was formerly much more nume-
rous in the British Islands than it is at present. To the
progress of draining, and the consequent extension of agri-
culture this change may be greatly attributed, and though
a few pairs of this handsome and valuable species may still

WILD DUCK. 265

remain here to breed during summer on the margins of
rivers and lakes in many counties, these bear but a very
small proportion to the numbers which annually visit this
country from high northern latitudes during winter. Par-
ticular spots, or decoys, in the fen countries, are let to the
fowlers at a rent of from five pounds to thirty pounds per
annum ; and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-
one thousand two hundred Ducks, including Teals and
Wigeons, were sold in London only, from ten of these
decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire.

Two illustrations, reduced in size, from designs which
appeared in the Penny Magazine, of February 1835,
which exhibit the screens, the net, and the mode of pro-
ceeding, will enable the reader, with a short description, to
understand the process.

The wild birds are enticed from that portion of the lake
near the wide open mouth of the tunnel by means of the
dog, the decoy ducks, and the corn used in feeding them
in, till the decoyman has worked them sufficiently up the
pipe to enable him to show himself at one of the openings
between the wild birds and the entrance from the lake, the
oblique position of the reed screens enabling all the birds
in the pipe to see him, while none that are on the lake
can. The wild-fowl that are in sight hasten forward, their
retreat being cut off by the appearance of the man whom
they dare not pass. The decoyman then moves on to the
next opening, waiving his hat if necessary, and the wild
birds are thus driven along till they enter the tunnel net and
are all taken, a twist of the net prevents them getting
back. The decoyman then takes the net off from the end
of the pipe with what fowl he may have caught, takes them
out one at a time, dislocates their necks, hangs the tunnel
on to the net again, and all is ready for working afresh.

266

ANATIDJE.

I am indebted to the Rev. Richard Lubbock for the
following account of the mode of making a decoy, supplied
him by a friend in Norfolk.

In making a decoy it is necessary to have from an acre
and a half to three or four acres of water, in a quiet place
surrounded by plantation ; the water should be in the
form of a star, making six equal divisions of the compass ;
in these six recesses must be made six pipes : they are
constructed by digging cuts in the land something in the
form of a semi-circle covered over with bows, and a net
gradually tapering to the end, at which must be placed a
tunnel net, to be taken off when the fowl are driven into it.
On each side of the pipe are screens made of reed to
shelter the person working the decoy ; the outer side of
the circle of the pipe is the one on which the person walks
who is decoying the fowl, and in the screens on that side

WILD DUCK.

267

must be divisions for the dog to pass over, and also for the
man to appear at when driving the fowl.

The water forming the decoy should be surrounded with
a fence of reeds three or four feet high to prevent the
decoy Ducks from getting out of it. About Midsummer is
the time to put them into the water, and commence
training them, which is a very important part in the art of
decoying ; they should be young birds and made very
tame, taught to come to any pipe from all parts of the
water whenever they are whistled, and to prevent them
flying they should be pinioned.

In working a decoy it is best to go to that pipe at
which the wind blows from the tunnel net to the bend of
the pipe ; by doing so all scent of the person at work is
carried away from the fowl in the pipe, and as all wild-
fowl by choice rise head to wind, there are generally more

268

ANATID.E.

taken with the wind in that direction than any other.
During the time the weather is open they are taken almost
entirely by means of the dog, but as soon as the frost sets
in they are taken by feeding them in the pipe, and keeping
a piece of water constantly open near it.

The reason in favour of a small piece of water for a
decoy, not exceeding three or four acres at the most, is,
that when thus confined in extent you can almost always
work fowl, but if a large lake is made a decoy, there may
be thousands of Ducks on the water, but none near enough
to a pipe to regard the dog* or the decoy Ducks.

Bewick, in his excellent ornithological work, has given
a plan of one pipe of a decoy, with zigzag markings showing
the situation and position of the screens formed of reeds, by

which the fowler and his trained dog are hid from the
sight of the wild birds, an outline only of which is here
introduced.

* The well-trained dog moves the birds from the banks when they are sluggish,
and is otherwise useful when they are within the mouth of the pipe.

WILD DUCK. 269

The Duck and Mallard begin to congregate in the decoy
soon after Midsummer, but these are the fowl that are
bred in the neighbourhood. About the first week in
September the Teal begin to come, and about the begin-
ning of October, if easterly winds prevail, there is generally
a flight of fowl from foreign countries, composed of Ducks,
Wigeon, Dunbirds, Teal, with a few of the Shoveler and
Pintail Ducks ; but the principal flight of foreign fowl
does not arrive till the weather becomes severe ; at that
time all sorts arrive, with the exception of the Garganey,
which we do not see before the spring of the year, and
then only for a short time previously to the different
descriptions of wild-fowl migrating to other countries.*

The Wild Duck is an early breeder ; and Mr. Waterton
in his published essay on this species, considers that the
old birds remain pairs through the entire year ; and that
the young ones, which have been hatched in the preceding
spring, choose their mates long before they depart for the
Arctic regions in the following year. With his usual
felicity of expression this gentleman observes, '• I have a
favourite hollow oak tree on a steep hill, into which I can
retire to watch the movement of the pretty visiters. From
this I can often see a male and female on the water be-
neath me, nodding and bowing to each other with as much
ceremony as though they were swimming a minuet, if I
may use the term. Hence I conclude that there is mutual
love in the exhibition, and that a union is formed."

The nest is composed of grass, intermixed and lined with
down, and is placed on the ground, sometimes near the
margin of rivers or lakes, at other times a considerable

* The best description of the mode of forming a decoy, and the manner of
working it, that I am acquainted with, is in the RJV. Richard Lubbock's " Ob-
servations on the Fauna of Norfolk, and more particularly of the district of the
Broads." 1845.

270 ANATID^E.

distance from water. I have known the nest of the Wild
Duck to be found in a field of young wheat, sometimes in
a thick hedge row, or in a wood. Occasionally the Duck
will make her nest at a considerable elevation from the
ground. One mentioned by Mr. Tunstall, at Etchingham,
in Sussex, was found sitting upon nine eggs, on an oak
twenty-five feet from the ground. The author of the
Rural Sports records an instance of a Duck taking posses,
sion of the deserted nest of a Hawk in a large oak ; and
Montagu makes mention of one that deposited her eggs in
the principal fork of a large elm tree, and brought her
young down in safety. Mr. Selby records an instance,
within his own knowledge, and near his own residence,
" where a Wild Duck laid her eggs in the old nest of a
crow, at least thirty feet from the ground. At this eleva-
tion she hatched her young ; arid as none of them were
found dead beneath the tree, it was presumed she carried
them safely to the ground in her bill, a mode of conveyance
known to be frequently adopted by the Eider Duck." I
have a note of a nest with fifteen eggs, upon which the
female was sitting hard, just ready to hatch, on the 3rd of
May. The eggs are of a greenish-white colour, smooth on
the surface, two inches three lines and a half long, by one
inch seven lines in breadth. The young Ducks are two
months or ten weeks before they can fly, and formerly
advantage was taken of this inability, to have, in the fens,
an annual driving of the young Ducks before they took
wing. Numbers of people assembled, who beat a vast tract,
and forced the birds into a net placed at the spot where
the sport was to terminate. A hundred and fifty dozens
have been taken at once : but this practice being supposed
to be detrimental, has been abolished by Act of Parlia-
ment.— Pennant.

WILD DUCK. 271

These birds feed on grain, or seeds, worms, slugs, insects,
and small fish. As soon as the females begin to sit the
males leave them, and soon after undergo that remarkable
change in the colour of their plumage, which has already
been referred to in the males of several species, belonging
to this division of this extensive family.

The change in the Mallard is thus characteristically de-
scribed by Mr. Waterton from personal observation.

" At the close of the breeding season the Drake under-
goes a very remarkable change of plumage ; on viewing it,
all speculation on the part of the ornithologist is utterly con-
founded ; for there is not the smallest clue afforded him,
by which he may be enabled to trace out the cause of this
strange phenomenon. To Him alone, who has ordered the
Ostrich to remain on the earth, and allowed the Bat to
range through the ethereal vault of heaven, is known why
the Drake, for a very short period of the year, should be
so completely clothed in the raiment of the female, that it
requires a keen and penetrating eye to distinguish one
from the other. About the 24th of May, the breast and
back of the Drake exhibit the first appearance of a change
of colour. In a few days after this, the curled feathers
above the tail drop out, and grey feathers begin to appear
amongst the lovely green plumage which surrounds the
eyes. Every succeeding day now brings marks of rapid
change. By the 2Srd of June scarcely one single green
feather is to be seen on the head and neck of the bird. By
the 6th of July every feather of the former brilliant
plumage has disappeared, and the male has received a garb
like that of the female, though of a somewhat darker tint.
In the early part of August this new plumage begins to
drop off gradually, and by the 10th of October the Drake
will appear again in all his rich magnificence of dress;

272 ANATID^E.

than which scarcely anything throughout the whole wild
field of nature can be seen more lovely, or better arranged
to charm the eye of man. This description of the change
of plumage in the Mallard has been penned down with
great care. I enclosed two male birds in a coop, from the
middle of May, to the middle of October, and saw them
every day during the whole of their captivity. Perhaps
the moulting in other individuals may vary a trifle with
regard to time. Thus we may say that once every year,
for a very short period, the Drake goes, as it were, into an
eclipse, so that, from the early part of the month of July,
to about the first week in August, neither in the poultry
yards of civilized man, nor through the vast expanse of
Nature's wildest range, can there be found a Drake in
that plumage which, at all other seasons of the year, is so
remarkably splendid and diversified.*'

The Wild Duck may be called resident in Ireland, from
its breeding there, and some being to be met with at all
seasons. The same may be said of it in England and in
Scotland. Richard Dann, Esq. in his notes to me on this
species, says, " the Wild Duck is common over the whole
of Norway and Sweden, but is found only as a straggler, or
in very small numbers, within the Arctic Circle. I have
seen them at Quickiock, and at Jucka'siervi, but there they
are rare. Their great breeding places are the numerous
shallow reedy lakes at the head of the Bothnian Gulf;
they seem naturally to prefer the vicinity of cultivated
districts and feed much on corn in August and September.
They are also found in the mountainous parts of Norway,
and breed as high as the birch tree goes. The young and
females migrate south first, the old males remaining until
they have recovered their full plumage, and at the end of
September are sometimes to be seen in flocks of three or

WILD DUCK. 273

four hundred together. They remain in considerable num-
bers among the islands on the western coast of Sweden till
the sea freezes." The Wild Duck is common also over
the other parts of the Continent of Europe ; is found east-
ward as far as Japan; westward over North America and
the United States, and was obtained by Captain Beechey
during a voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Straits ; it is
probably indigenous to the greater part of the northern
hemisphere.

The Wild Duck is the undoubted origin of many of the
varieties of our domestic ducks ; but in these one curious
difference of habit is observable: the Wild Duck is strictly
monogamous ; our most common Domestic Ducks, on the
contrary, are polygamous ; they are also very prolific, one
Duck has been known to produce one hundred and eighty
eggs in one season. The Common Duck has bred with the
Egyptian Goose, the Shelldrake, the Muscovy Duck and
the Pintail Duck.

In the adult male the bill is yellowish-green ; the irides
hazel ; all the head and the upper half of the neck rich
glossy green ; below that a narrow ring of white ; the
neck behind and the back greyish chestnut brown, becoming
dark on the lower part of the back, and bluish black on
the rump and upper tail-coverts ; the four middle tail-
feathers velvet black, and curled upwards ; the rest lancet-
shaped, ash-grey in the middle, margined with white, the
most outer feathers having the broader margins ; scapulars
a mixture of brown and grey ; the small wing-coverts ash-
brown ; the greater coverts with a bar of white near the
end, and tipped with velvet black ; primaries ash-brown ;
the secondaries the same on the inner web, the outer
portion towards the end of the outer web rich shining pur-
ple, forming a speculum, but bounded by a bar of velvet

VOL. III. T

274 ANATID.E.

black, and tipped with white; tertials pale chestimt-hrown,
the outer webs darkest in colour ; front and sides of the
neck below the white ring rich dark chestnut, each feather
at the commencement of winter edged with white ; breast,
belly, vent, and flanks, greyish-white, the sides before and
under the wings marked with delicate grey-lines ; under
tail-coverts velvet black ; legs, toes, and their membranes
orange yellow. The whole length twenty-four inches.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing eleven
inches and a half; the second quill-feather the longest
in the wing.

The female has the beak greenish-black, towards the
end light yellow-brown, the nail black ; irides brown ;
cheeks, head, and neck, pale brown, each feather streaked
with black in the middle ; the scapulars, and the whole of
the back of the same two colours, but prettily varied,
some of the feathers black in the middle and on the
margin, with a light brown band between the two dark
colours ; tail-feathers the same ; small wing-coverts ash-
brown ; the large coverts white towards the end and
tipped with velvet black ; primaries uniform dark brown ;
the secondaries the same on the inner web, outer webs
forming a purple speculum, ending in a band of black, and
tipped with white ; tertiaries dark brown ; chin and throat
pale brown ; lower part of the neck richer reddish-brown,
varied with dark brown ; breast, belly, vent, and under
tail-coverts pale brown, slightly varied with darker brown,
which occupies a portion of the centre of each feather; legs
and toes orange, the interdigital membranes darker.

The females are smaller than males, and measure but
twenty-two inches in length; the wing ten inches and a
quarter; the first and second quill-feathers very nearly
equal.

WILD DUCK. 275

I have seen two instances in which females of this
species have assumed to a considerable extent the appear-
ance of the plumage of the Mallard, even to the curled
feathers of the tail. One of these birds, in my own col-
lection, was given me when alive by my kind and liberal
friend John Morgan, Esq. In this female the beak was
yellowish-brown ; the head and upper part of the neck a
mixture of green and brown ; the white ring below per-
fect ; the lower part of the neck and the breast chestnut-
brown ; the upper surface of the body a mixture of ash-
brown and dark brown ; the under surface dull white.
When this bird was examined after death the sexual organs
were found to be diseased, as. in the cases of the Hen
Pheasant, mentioned in the second volume, page 319.
In the recently published Illustrations to his Fauna of
Scandinavia, M. Nilsson has given a coloured figure of a
Duck in this state of plumage, plate 163, which is called
a barren female, and in which the curled tail-feathers are
made very conspicuous. From the general similarity in
these females to the appearance assumed for a time by
healthy males in July, I am disposed to refer this sea-
sonal change in males to a temporary exhausted state of
the male generative organs and their consequent diminished
constitutional influence on the plumage.

The windpipe of the Mallard is about ten inches long,
the diameter of the tube is of equal size throughout ; the
bony labyrinth is large, the vignette indicates the form by
its outline, but represents a section of the lower part of the
tube of the trachea, the bony cavity, and the bronchial
tubes, as seen from behind, the enlargement in this, as in
most of the other species, being on the left side. The
object here intended is to show the course of the air from
each lobe of the lungs to the single portion of the tube of

T 2

276 ANATID^E.

the windpipe. The column of air on the right side in the
bird, and in the representation, goes direct from the right
lobe of the lungs to the tracheal tube ; but the column of
air on the left side, on passing through the bronchial tube,
is opposed by the descending edge, and being divided by
it, a portion is sent in circles round the inner surface of the
cavity before it becomes united with the air from the other
lobe in the tube common to both. A compound tone of voice
is thus produced by which wild-fowl shooters can distinguish
males from females, of the same species, in the darkest
night, whenever the birds utter their note, and this they
frequently do, apparently for the purpose of keeping
together. Gilbert White of Selborne, with his usual dis-
crimination, says, in his forty-third letter to Daines Bar-
rington, which is devoted to the consideration of the notes
and language of birds, uamong Ducks the sexual distinction
of voice is remarkable ; for, while the quack of the female
is loud and sonorous, the voice of the Drake is inward, and
harsh, and feeble, and scarce discernible."

The resemblance to the reed or other mouth-piece, and
the edge opposed to its inner orifice, to produce vibration,
in some musical wind instruments, will be obvious.

GARGANEY.

NATATORES.

277

ANATIDM.

THE GARGANEY,

OR SUMMER TEAL.

Anas querquedula.

Anas querquedula, Garganey Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 277.

„ „ The Garganey, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 390.

„ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 125.

Querquedula circia, Garganey Teal, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 318.

Anas querquedula, The Garganey, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 234.

„ „ Garganey Teal, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiii.

„ „ Sarcelle d'ete, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 844.

INTERMEDIATE in size between the Teal and the Wigeon,
the birds next in succession to be described, the Garganey,
is rather a rare species, and though I have seen specimens
in October, it more frequently makes its appearance in the
spring, and then only in comparative small numbers.
These birds are then on their way to the south, as various
references to authorities in the south of Europe, to be here-

278 ANATIDJ5.

after referred to, will determine. A few pairs remain oc-
casionally in the eastern part of Norfolk to breed, as the
Rev. Richard Lubbock sent me word that he had shot the
young in July and August ; and hence it is called the sum-
mer Teal. The authors of the Catalogue of Norfolk and
Suffolk Birds, say also, it seems probable that the Garganey
sometimes breeds in Norfolk, as the Rev. Henry Tilney, of
Hockwold, had a pair brought to him on the 6th of May,
in the female of which was a perfect egg. And Mr.
Youell has received a specimen of this Duck killed near
Yarmouth in June. Mr. Salmon, an accurate observer,
says he has never succeeded in obtaining a nest of the
Garganey on the western side of Norfolk. The Garganey
has bred with the Shoveler.

The Garganey has been but rarely killed in Ireland, and
then on the east coast. It is rare in Wales, Corn-
wall, and Devon. It is rare also in Kent and Essex;
has been quoted as occurring in Norfolk, and is occasionally
sent up to the London market from the decoys of Lincoln-
shire. Mr. Dunn, of Hull, sent me word that he received
two in October 1840. Mr. Selby says no instance of its
capture further north in England has come to his know-
ledge. Dr. Edward Clarke sent me notice from Edinburgh
that six specimens were shot in Stirlingshire during the last
fortnight of March 1841 ; of these Dr. E. Clarke obtained
two examples for his own collection, and speaks in terms
of the highest praise of the delicate qualities of these birds as
food. The Garganey is not included among the Birds of Ork-
ney or Shetland, either by Dr. Patrick Neill or Mr. Dunn.
Professor Nilsson says it is found in Sweden in Summer ;
and it is said to inhabit Russia and Siberia. M. Tem-
minck says it is abundant in Holland, Germany, and in
some parts of the interior. M. Vieillot says it is found in

GARGANEY. 279

France in summer, arriving in March, and breeds there in
April, laying from ten to fourteen eggs, in a nest formed
of dry grass and placed in a bunch of reeds. The egg is of
a buff colour, and measures one inch nine lines in length
by one inch and three lines in breadth. The food of this
species consists of seeds, slugs, insects and their larvae.

The Garganey is found in Spain about Aragon ; arrives
at Genoa in flocks, from February to April. Savi says it
visits Italy in March, and remains the summer ; and the
Prince of Canino says that at Rome it is common in
summer. It is found at Corfu, in Crete, and in Sicily all
the year : at Malta, only when on its passage in spring.
Sir Thomas Reade sent the Zoological Society specimens
of the Garganey obtained in the vicinity of Tunis ; and
it will be recollected that this bird has, by some authors,
been called the African Teal. Keith Abbot, Esq. sent
specimens from Trebizond ; the Russian naturalists found
it inhabiting the countries of the Caucasus ; Mr. Gould
mentions that it has been found on the Himalayan range ;
Colonel Sykes includes it among his Birds of the Dukhun,
and Mr. Blyth has obtained it at Calcutta.

The adult male, as observed here in March, has the
bill brown ; the irides hazel ; the forehead, top of the
head, and occiput, dark brown, forming a stripe which
ends in a point half way down the neck behind ; over the
eye and ear-coverts, on each side, and passing to the back
of the neck under the dark brown stripe, is a stripe of white ;
cheeks, and sides of the neck nutmeg brown, varied with
short hair-like lines of white ; the back dark brown, each
feather edged with lighter brown ; scapulars elongated,
black, with a central stripe of white ; wing-coverts bluish-
grey ; speculum dull green, margined with white ; pri-
maries brownish-black ; tertials bluish-grey ; tail greyish-

280 ANATID^E.

brown ; chin black ; neck in front, and the whole of the
breast dark brown, with pale brown crescentic bands ;
belly white ; sides and flanks varied with transverse black
lines, bounded by two broad bands; under tail-coverts
mottled black and white ; legs, toes, and their membranes
greyish-brown .

The whole length sixteen inches. From the carpal joint
to the end of the wing seven inches and three-quarters ;
the first quill-feather the longest.

Females are smaller than males, and have the whole of
the head brown, with darker spots and lines ; over the
eye an indication of a light band of pale brown ; back,
scapulars, and tertials dark brown, with ferruginous edges
and white tips ; wing-coverts brown ; speculum dull green,
between two bars of white ; chin white ; breast varied with
two shades of brown, on a surface of greyish-white ; sides
and flanks pale brown, varied with darker brown.

Young males, as usual, resemble females in their first
plumage, attaining their sexual distinctions after their first
moult.

The windpipe of the Garganey is about seven inches in
length ; the form of the bony enlargement nearly oval, and
placed so as to appear like a continuation of the tracheal
tube ; the enlargement is in the front, and the bronchial
tubes come off from the flattened inner surface which lies
upon the oesophagus. The voice, as noticed by Mr. Selby,
is said to be a low hoarse croak.

TEAL.

NAT A TO RES.

281

ANATID^E.

THE TEAL.

Anas crecca.

crecca, The Teal, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 279.

„ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

,, „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 392.

„ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 125.

Common „ SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 315.

Tlie „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 235.

Common „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.

Sarcelle d'hiver, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 846.

THIS very prettily marked species, the smallest of our
Ducks, but one of the best as an article of food, is an
early and constant winter visiter, making its appearance by
the end of September, sometimes sooner than that, and

A nets

Qucrquedula

Anas

Querquedula

282 ANATID.E.

remaining with us till spring has made considerable pro-
gress; their numbers constantly recruited through the
winter months by additional arrivals from the northern
parts of Europe, and our markets in consequence obtain
a regular supply from the various decoys and other modes
of capture. Although numbers in spring return again
to more northern localities to breed, many remain in this
country and pass the summer near fresh- water lakes. That
some of these breed here, also, in suitable localities, is
proved by the fact that in the summer of 1817, Mr.
Youell, of Yarmouth, had four young birds of the Teal
brought to him, which were hatched at Reedham in Nor-
folk. The authors of the Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk
Birds say also, that very small ones have been observed
in company with their parents upon Ranworth Broad, by
Mr. Kerrison of that place ; and that they breed also on
Scoulton Mere. The Rev. Richard Lubbock, of Norfolk,
in his note to me on this species, says, " the Teal must,
in some years, either breed abundantly with us, or mi-
grate hither very early ; I have known sixty or seventy
Teal come in small parties to the same plash of water at
sundown, by the first week in August." The Teal bear
confinement well, and at the Gardens of the Zoological
Society, though restricted to a very small pond with a
margin of thick and high grass, with some low shrubs,
have bred regularly for the last five seasons. The eggs
are white tinged with buff, measuring one inch nine lines
in length, by one inch four lines in breadth. The food of
the Teal consists of seeds, grasses, water plants, and in-
sects in their various states. In confinement they require
grain. Some Teal breed about the lakes of Wales, and
a few in Romney Marsh. Mr. Selby, who has paid at-
tention to the habits of this species in Northumberland,

TEAL. 283

says, " our indigenous broods, I am inclined to think,
seldom quit the immediate neighbourhood of the place
in which they were bred, as I have repeatedly observed
them to haunt the same district from the time of their
hatching till they separated and paired, on the approach
of the following spring. The Teal breeds in the long
rushy herbage about the edges of lakes, or in the boggy
parts of the upland moors. Its nest is formed of a large
mass of decayed vegetable matter, with a lining of down
and feathers, upon which eight or ten eggs rest." Dr.
Heysham, in his Catalogue of Cumberland Animals, says,
that a few Teal certainly breed in the mosses of that
county every year.

In Ireland the Teal is found in great numbers through-
out the winter, and a few are resident there all the year.
Sir Robert Sibbald, and other authorities since his time,
notice the Teal as inhabiting the edges of the Scottish
lakes ; Mr. Dunn, however, says that it is not numerous
either in Orkney or Shetland, although the most so in
winter; but that a few pairs occasionally remain during
summer and breed. They prefer the inland lakes to the
sea-shore. Richard Dann, Esq. sent me word that this
beautiful little Duck is widely and numerously dispersed
over the whole of Norway and Sweden, but is most plen-
tiful in the north during the breeding-season. It breeds
all over Lapland, both western and eastern, and is very
abundant in the Dofre Fiell, within the range of the birch
trees. The eggs vary in number from ten to fifteen. It
breeds also in the cultivated districts in all the mosses
and bogs. Mr. Proctor says the Teal is pretty common
in Iceland. Eastward of Scandinavia it is found in Russia,
and is abundant in Germany, Holland, France, Spain,
Italy, Corfu, Sicily, and Malta; visits North Africa in

284 ANATID^.

winter, and has been noticed at Smyrna and Trebizond.
The Teal was found in the vicinity of the Caucasian range,
by Russian naturalists, and is included in catalogues of
the birds of various parts of India, China, and Japan.
The Teal of North America is distinct from the Teal of
Europe.

In the adult male Teal the beak is nearly black ; the
irides hazel ; forehead, and a narrow band over the top
of the head, rich chestnut brown ; at the gape and up-
wards, along the base of the upper mandible, and from
thence high up over the eye, and then backwards towards
the occiput, there is a narrow line of buff; from the lower
edge of the eye to a point below and behind the ear-coverts,
another narrow line of the same light colour ; all the space
from the eye between these two lines, and extending back-
ward to the occiput, forms a broad patch of rich glossy
green ; cheeks and sides of the neck, below the under
light coloured line rich chestnut ; back of the neck, sca-
pulars, and upper part of the back a mixture of black and
white in narrow transverse lines ; the longest of the sca-
pulars and the tertials dark brown ; all the smaller wing-
coverts ash-brown ; the large coverts tipped with white,
forming a bar, two or three of the higher coverts having
their white tinged with bay ; primaries dark brown ; the
secondaries forming a speculum of velvet black, green and
purple, tipped with white ; lower part of the back dark
brown ; upper tail-coverts almost black, edged with ru-
fous ; tail-feathers pointed, dark brown ; the chin black ;
front of the upper part of the neck chestnut ; lower part
of the neck in front partly covered with circular spots of
black, on a ground of white, tinged with pale purple ;
breast and belly white ; sides and flanks barred with nar-
row black and white lines ; central under tail-coverts vel-

TEAL 285

vet black ; lateral tail-coverts delicate buff colour, with a
narrow band of velvet black at the base ; under surface
of tail-feathers ash-grey ; legs, toes, and membranes brown-
ish-grey.

The whole length fourteen inches and a half. From
the carpal joint to the end of the wing seven inches and a
quarter ; the first and second quill-feathers nearly equal ;
and the flight of the species very rapid.

Of male Teal observed constantly last summer, some
had lost the sexual distinctions of the plumage by the 27th
of July, and all were changed by the 4th of August ; re-
maining like the females, till they acquired new feathers
at the autumn moult. The female has the whole of the
head speckled with dark brown, on a ground colour of
light brown ; upper part of back and scapulars dark
brown, each feather with two narrow transverse bars of
buffy-brown ; wing like the male, but the speculum has
more velvet black, less green, and no purple colour ; chin
pale brown ; lower part of neck on the front and sides
varied with two shades of brown, in crescentic marks ;
breast white ; sides, flanks, belly, and under tail-coverts
dull white, spotted with dark brown.

The trachea of the male Teal is about five inches in
length, the tube rather narrower near the middle than at
any other part ; the bony enlargement of the size and form
represented in the figure below.

286

NA TA TORES.

ANATID^E.

ANATIDM.

THE WIGEON.

Anas penelope.

Anas Penelope, The Wigeon,

Mareca* „

Anas

Common
The

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 273.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 366.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 124.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 324.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 236.

GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. x.

TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 840.

Canard sffleur,

THE immense number of Wigeons which visit this coun-
try during the winter season render it a valuable species
here, with the additional advantage that it frequents the
shores all round the coast, as well as the rivers, lakes,
and fens of the interior. It is justly in great esteem for

* Mareca of Stephens, 1824.

WIGEON. 287

the table, and, from its abundance, generally sells at a
moderate price. Its habits in some respects resemble those
of the Wild Duck, and great quantities are taken with
them in decoys ; while for coast night-shooting, Colonel
Hawker says, the Wigeon is like the fox for hunting, it
shows the finest sport of anything in Great Britain. Ample
directions for approaching and getting shots at these birds
on the coast will be found in this gentleman's most amusing
and instructive work on all that relates to guns and
shooting.

The Wigeon appears first about the end of September
or the beginning of October, and flocks continue to arrive
at intervals till the weather becomes severe. Mr. Water-
ton observes that the " Wigeon is a much more familiar
bird than either the Pochard or the Teal. While these
congregate on the water, beyond the reach of man, the
Wigeon appears to have divested itself of the timidity
observable in all other species of wild-fowl, and approaches
very near to our habitations. A considerable time elapsed
before I was enabled to account satisfactorily for the Wi-
geons remaining here during the night; a circumstance
directly at variance with the habits of its congeners, which,
to a bird, pass the night away from the place where they
have been staying during the day. But, upon paying a
much closer attention to it than I had formerly been ac-
customed to do, I observed that it differed from them all,
both in the nature of its food, and in the time of pro-
curing it. The Mallard, the Pochard, and the Tea], ob-
tain nearly the whole of their nourishment during the
night. On the contrary, the Wigeon procures its food in
the day time, and that food is grass. He who has an
opportunity of watching the Wigeon when it is undis-
turbed, and allowed to follow the bent of its own inclina-

288 ANATID^E.

tions, will find that, while the Mallard, the Pochard, and
the Teal, are sporting on the water, or reposing on the
bank at their ease, it is devouring with avidity that same
kind of short grass on which the Goose is known to feed.
Hence, though many flocks of Wigeons accompany the
other water-fowl in their nocturnal wanderings, still num-
bers of them pass the whole of the night here ; and this
I know to be a fact, by their singular whistling noise,
which is heard at all hours."

In March and April the Wigeon again moves north-
ward for the breeding-season, and it is only within the
last few years that a small number have been ascertained
to remain in the most northern part of Scotland, to breed
about the lakes of Sutherlandshire. Colonel Hawker says
that " Wigeon either choose their mates, or detach them-
selves into small trips preparative to so doing, by about
Valentine's day." Mr. Selby, in his paper on the Birds
inhabiting the county of Sutherland, says, "as the Wi-
geon had not previously been detected breeding in Britain,
we were much pleased to observe several pairs upon the
smaller locks near Lairg, which we concluded had their
nests among the reeds and other herbage which grew in
their vicinity. We were not so fortunate, however, as to
find one here, though diligent search was made ; but
afterwards, upon one of the islands of Loch Laighal, we
sprung a female, which was shot from her nest, containing
seven eggs. It was placed in the heart of a large rush
bush, and was made of decayed rushes and reeds, with a
lining of warm down from the bird's body. The eggs
were smaller than those of the Wild Duck, and of a rich
cream- white colour." The length two inches and one-
eighth, by one inch and a half in breadth. Sir W. Jar-
dine, who was one of the exploring party with Mr. Selby

WIGEON. 289

in Sutherlaiidshire, in June 1834, mentions that " Wigeon
were seen upon Loch Shin, Loch Naver, Loch Loyal, and
Loch Hope. They were by no means abundant ; and it is
probable that the birds in this district were at the most
southern limit of their breeding stations, and bore no pro-
portion whatever to the immense flocks which frequent
our coasts in winter." The note of the Wigeon is a shrill
whistle, and in some parts of England it is in consequence
called the Whew Duck and Whewer ; its name in France,
Canard siffleur, has reference to the same circumstance.
In some books on cookery, and in bills of fare, Wigeons
are called Easterlings ; and all over Lapland they are
called Grass Ducks. The note of Richard Dann, Esq.,
in reference to the Wigeon in Scandinavia, is as follows :
— " This is the most abundant of all the Duck tribe in
Lapland, frequenting the grassy swamps, lakes, and rivers.
They appear with the first breaking up of the ice, in pairs,
and as soon as the female begins to lay, the male loses
his beautiful plumage, and secretes himself in willow
swamps, and in the most inaccessible morasses ; nor does
he recover his former appearance until November or De-
cember. The females lay from five to eight eggs. They
also breed in the Dofre Fiell, as high as the birch grows,
and in many other parts of Norway and Sweden, but only
in straggling pairs. They migrate south early in Sep-
tember, appearing in great flocks on the coast of Norway
and Sweden. The young keep among the rushes and
reeds in the lakes ; the old birds betaking themselves to
the shallows on the coast ; but they, unlike the Mallard,
entirely leave Sweden in the winter."

Mr. Proctor sent me word that a few breed in Iceland,
forming their nest generally among low bushes near the
edge of the fresh- waters.

VOL. in. u

290 ANATID^E.

The female Wigeon has not been known to breed in
confinement that I am aware of, but the male has bred
with a Pintailed Duck, and in another instance with a
dun-coloured variety of the Common Duck. A preserved
specimen given me by Richard Dann, Esq. has all the ap-
pearance of being a hybrid between the Wigeon and Com-
mon Duck. A few pairs breed in Holland, according to
M. Temminck ; and these birds are abundant in France
and Germany throughout the winter. They are found in
Spain, and are observed at Genoa on their passage in
spring; and from Italy and Sicily are said to go as far
south as Egypt. Mr. Strickland saw Wigeon at Smyrna
during winter. It has been observed in the vicinity of the
Caucasus, and is found in various parts of India, in China,
and Japan.

In the adult male the bill is brownish-black, tinged with
lead colour ; irides dark brown ; from the eye a green
streak passing backwards ; forehead and top of the head
cream white ; the cheeks and hind part of the neck rich
reddish chestnut ; interscapulars, scapulars, and all the
back greyish-white, crossed with irregular zigzag lines of
black ; upper tail-coverts freckled with grey ; tail-feathers
elongated, pointed, and nearly black ; wing-coverts white,
tipped with black ; the primaries uniform dark-brown ;
the outer webs of the secondaries form a green speculum
edged with black ; the black outer webs of the tertials
broadly edged with white ; the inner webs hair-brown ;
chin and neck in front almost black ; lower part of the
neck and the space before the wing pale rufous ; under
wing, sides, and flanks, marked with dark transverse zig-
zag lines on a ground of white ; breast, belly, and vent
white ; under tail-coverts velvet black ; legs, toes, and
their membranes dark brown.

WIGEON. 291

The whole length eighteen inches. From the carpal
joint or point of the wing, to the end of the longest quill-
feather, ten inches and a half; the length of the first and
second primary quill-feathers nearly equal.

The adult male birds undergo considerable change in
their appearance towards the end of July or the beginning
of August, becoming much more uniform in their general
colour, losing some of the most conspicuous external dif-
ferences which distinguish males from females, and which
are to be considered as secondary sexual characters.

The female Wigeon has the bill bluish-black ; the irides
brown ; head and neck brown, tinged with rufous, and
speckled with dark brown ; the back varied with two
shades of brown, that in the centre of each feather the
darkest in colour, the paler brown on the margins tinged
with rufous ; quill and tail-feathers as in the male ; under
surface of the body nearly white.

The plumage of the young male birds of the year, for
a time, resembles that of the females.

The tube of the windpipe in the adult male Wigeon is
about six inches in length, and nearly equal in diameter
throughout ; the form of the bony enlargement and the
depending bronchial tubes as figured in the vignette below.

u2

292

NA TA TORES.

ANATID^E.

ANATIDM.

THE AMERICAN WIGEON.

Anas Americana.

Anas Americana, American Wigeon, WILSON, Am. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 86.

„ „ JARDINE'S edit. vol. iii. p. 109.

« „ AUDUBON, Ornith. Biog. vol. iv. p. 337.

„ „ NUTTALL, Man. vol. ii. p. 389.

Mareca, „ „ STKPHENS, Shaw. Zool. vol. xii. p. 135.

„ „ FAUN. Bor. Amer. vol. ii. p. 445.

THE occurrence of the American Wigeon in a London
market during the winter of 1 837-8, was thus noticed by
Mr. Edward Blyth, in the third volume of the Naturalist,
page 417.

" " The American Wigeon is a novelty which was ob-
tained by Mr. Bartlett. He selected it from a row of
Common Wigeons, deeming it, at the time, to be only an
accidental variety of the species ; there was a female
along with it, which, after some hesitation, he unfortu-
nately left, considering it only as a variety, but insuffi-

AMERICAN WIGEON. 293

ciently diverse to be worth preserving ; he has since, how-
ever, positively recognised the female of the American
Wigeon to he identical with the bird he thus passed over,
hesitatingly, in the market. The dimensions of the male
bird were nineteen inches in length, and thirty-two and a
half in extent of wing ; the beak is rather narrower than
that of its European relative, and nearly a quarter of an
inch longer ; the tracheal labyrinth, or rather osseous ve-
sicle, considerably smaller ; scarcely exceeding in magni-
tude that of a Teal."

I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Bartlett for the
opportunity afforded me of giving a figure, description,
and measurements from his specimen. Towards the end
of February, 1844, a second specimen of this American
Wigeon was shot by Henry Bell, a wild-fowl shooter, in
Strangford-lough, near Belfast, as recorded by W. Thomp-
son, Esq., of Belfast, in the Annals of Natural History,
vol. xv. p. 310 ; and this wild-fowl shooter, who is an in-
telligent man, and has followed the practice since he was
able to carry a gun, is certain of having killed other birds
of the same species in Belfast Bay, but never any so far
advanced towards the adult male plumage, and therefore his
attention was the less excited. I must refer to American
authorities for the habits and localities of this bird. Wil-
son says " this species is very common in winter along the
whole coast, from Florida to Rhode Island, but most
abundant in Carolina, where it frequents the rice planta-
tions. In Martinico, great flocks take short flights from
one rice field to another, during the rainy sesaon, and are
much complained of by the planters. The Wigeon is the
constant attendant of the celebrated Canvass-back Duck,
so abundant in various parts of the Chesapeake Bay.
They are said to be in great plenty at St. Domingo and

294 ANATHLE.

Cayenne, where they are called ' vingeon,"* or c gingeon ;
are said sometimes to perch in trees ; feed in company,
and have a sentinel on the watch, like some other birds.
They feed little during the day, but in the evening come
out from their hiding-places, and are then easily traced by
their particular whistle, or whew, whew. This soft note?
or whistle, is frequently imitated with success, to entice
them within gunshot. They are not known to breed in
any part of the United States ; are common in the winter
months along the bays of Egg Harbour and Cape May,
and also those of the Delaware. They leave these places
in April, and appear upon the coasts of Hudson's Bay in
May, as soon as the thaws come on, chiefly in pairs ; lay
there only from six to eight eggs, and feed on flies and
worms in the swamps ; depart in flocks in autumn. These
birds are frequently brought to the market of Baltimore,
and generally bring a good price, their flesh being excel-
lent. They are of a lively frolicsome disposition, and with
proper attention might easily be domesticated."

Dr. Nut tall says " he has never seen them anywhere so
numerous as in the Neuse river, round Newbern, forty
miles from the ocean, where, in company with the Can-
vass-back and Buffel-head, they are seen constantly in
February and March."

Mr. Audubon says " this Duck is abundant during win-
ter at New Orleans, where it is much esteemed on account
of the juiciness of its flesh, and is best known by the name
of Zinzin. In the western country, and in most parts of
the eastern and Middle States, it is called the Bald Pate.
While advancing along the shores of the Bay of Mexico,
in April 1837, I and my party observed this species in
considerable numbers ; and during the whole of our stay
in the Texas, we daily saw, and very frequently procured

AMERICAN WIGEON. 295

Wigeons. There they were found in ponds of brackish
water, as well as in the fresh-water streams. Before we
left that country they were all paired ; and I was in-
formed by the Honourable M. Fisher, secretary to the
Texian Navy, that a good number of them breed in the
maritime districts, along with several other Ducks, and
that he annually received many of the young birds. Their
manners at this time fully proved the correctness of the
statements of all those who spoke to me on this subject.
Indeed, my opinion is, that some of these birds also pro-
pagate in certain portions of the most southern districts
of the Floridas, and in the Island of Cuba, as I have seen
Wigeons in the peninsula in single pairs, in the beginning
of May." Mr. Audubon adds, that the note of this bird
is not in his judgment at all like the hew, hew, spoken of
by Wilson.

Dr. Townshend states that it is abundant on the Co-
lumbia River ; and Dr. Richardson obtained it as far north
as the Saskatchewan, in May 1827.

In Mr. Bartletfs bird the beak is black ; the irides
hazel ; behind the eye a green streak passing backward ;
forehead and top of the head dull white; neck, cheeks,
and occiput, pale brownish white, freckled with black, the
occipital feathers a little elongated ; upper part of the
back, the scapulars, and part of the wing-coverts reddish-
brown, each feather crossed with minute zigzag blackish
lines, some of the elongated scapulars falling over the wing-
coverts ; lower part of the back hair-brown ; upper tail-
coverts brown, barred with pale brown ; tail-feathers uni-
form brown, slightly elongated and pointed ; wing-coverts
white, slightly varied with brown ; the greater coverts
tipped with black ; the primaries uniform brown ; the
outer webs of the secondaries forming a green speculum,

296 ANATID^E.

tipped with black ; outer web of the tertials blackish-
brown, inner web hair-brown ; lower part of the neck in
front reddish-brown, extending along under the wing to
the flanks, which are barred with dark lines ; breast, belly,
and vent white ; under tail-coverts brownish- black ; legs,
toes, and their membranes dark brown. The whole length
nineteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the
wing ten inches ; the second quill-feather the longest in
the wing, but the first almost as long.

Wilson says " the female has the whole head and neck
yellowish- white, thickly speckled with black, very little
rufous on the breast ; the back is dark brown. The
young males, as usual, very much like the females during
the first season, and do not receive their full plumage until
the second year. They are also subject to a regular change
every spring and autumn."

The lower part of the trachea, here introduced from Mr.
Audubon's work, is, as noticed by Mr. Blyth, of small
size, and decidedly different in form from that of the
European Wigeon.

EIDER DUCK.

NATATORES.

297
ANATID^E.

«SS^-

THE EIDER DUCK.

OR ST. CUTHBERT S DUCK.

Somateria mollissima.

ATMS mollissima, Eider Duck,

Somateria

Anas

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 243.

„ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 322.

Common Eider, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 119.

„ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 338.

Eider Duck, JENVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 237.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

Cmifird Eider, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 848.

SOMATERIA. Generic Characters. — Bill swollen and elevated at the base ;
extending up on the forehead, where it is divided by an elongated, descending,
angular projection of feathers down the surface. Nostrils lateral, oval, small.
Legs short ; feet of four toes, broadly webbed, hind toe with a deeply lobated

298 ANATIDJ5.

membrane. Wings only of moderate length, with the first quill-feather equal
in length to the second.

THE distinguishing characters, both external and inter-
nal, of the first division of true Ducks, will be found at
page 243 of the present volume ; those of the second di-
vision of these birds which now remain to be described
are decidedly different, and may be thus stated: — Ex-
ternally they exhibit the neck and wings short, the latter
only reaching to the origin of the tail-feathers ; the legs
short and compressed ; the hind toe lobated, with an ex-
tended web to the inner toe. They frequent the sea, or
the deep parts of the largest fresh-water lakes, and have
been called Oceanic Ducks ; seldom seen on land ; their
walk embarrassed from the backward position of the legs,
but they dive constantly and with great facility, taking
their prey at various depths below the surface ; their food,
fish, shelled mollusca, Crustacea, and marine insects, but
little or no vegetable production ; their powers of flight
moderate. Of their soft parts, the oesophagus is capable
of great dilatation ; the stomach is a muscular gizzard, but
the internal cavity is large, and the sides comparatively
thin. The ribs are elongated ; and the keel of the breast-
bone decreases in depth in those species which in their
habits most resemble the Mergansers.

The Eider Duck, though indigenous to some of the
northern parts of England, as well as several of the Scot-
tish Islands, is only a winter visiter to the southern por-
tions of the kingdom, and that too in very limited num-
bers. It is but rarely killed in Ireland, and has been seen
and shot on the Cornish, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Hamp-
shire, and Norfolk coasts. A fine adult bird was ob-
tained in the London market in January 1 843, and I saw
two beautiful specimens in January 1844. On the other

EIDER DUCK. 299

side the Channel, M. Baillon, of Ahbeville, procured a
female which was killed in Picardy, during the middle of
summer ; and Pollidore Roux included the Eider Duck
among the birds found in Provence.

The most southern locality in this country at which this
species is known to breed regularly, is that which was
visited by Pennant in July 1 769, and has been frequently
visited by Mr. Selby, namely, the Fern Islands, situated
upon the northern coast of Northumberland. Here, the
latter gentleman observes, " these birds, if protected, would
soon become very numerous, and might be made a source
of productive wealth, as they afford, in great abundance,
that fine and elastic down known by their name, and
which, as an article of luxury, produces an exorbitant
price. This consideration, however, has hitherto been
lost sight of, and the eggs of the Eider have been taken
indiscriminately with those of the Gull, Guillemot, &c.
and sold for a mere trifle to the inhabitants of the main
land. In consequence, the young annually produced have
been few, and those only of the later or second hatchings.
The last season, however, proved more fortunate to all
the feathered inhabitants of the islands, as they were pro-
tected from extensive depredation by the gentleman em-
ployed as architect to erect a light-house upon one of the
outer rocks. A very numerous brood of all the species,
but particularly of the Eiders, was the consequence of
this care. About April these birds are seen assembling
in groups along the shores of the main land, from whence
they cross over to the islands early in May. As soon as
the females begin to lay, which is usually about the 20th,
the drakes leave them, and again spread themselves along
the adjoining coast. The usual number of eggs is five, of
a pale asparagus green, and rather large, measuring three

300 ANATID^E.

inches in length, by two inches and one line in breadth.
The nest is composed of fine seaweed, and as incubation
proceeds, a lining of down, plucked by the bird from her
own body, is added ; this increases from day to day, and
at last becomes so considerable in quantity, as to envelope
and entirely conceal the eggs from view, no doubt contri-
buting by its effect, as a nonconductor of heat, to the
perfect evolution of the foetus. The young, as soon as
hatched, are conducted to the water, and this, in some
instances, must be effected by the parent carrying them
in her bill, as I have frequently seen the nest placed in
such situations as to preclude the possibility of its being
done in any other way. Incubation lasts a month. The
food of the Eider consists of the young of the different
muscles that cover the rocks, and other species of bivalves.
The young are reared with difficulty in confinement, and
being very bad walkers, are subject to frequent accidents
in the poultry-yard. Like all the Anatid^ possessing a
lobated hind toe, they dive with facility, and remain sub-
merged for a long time."

The Eider Duck is also called St. Cuthbert's Duck,
from the circumstance of its breeding there on a rock,
called St. Cuthbert's Isle, as well as upon other islands
which form the group. " So early as A.D. 635, says the
author of Rambles in Northumberland and on the Scottish
Border, a monastery was established at Lindisfarn, one
of these islands, by Aidan, a Scottish monk, educated in
the island of lona, or Icolmkil, who exercised the office
of bishop in Northumberland. From this period a suc-
cession of bishops continued to preside at Lindisfarn till
about 803, when, in consequence of the monastery having
been several times plundered by the Danes, the bishop
and his brethren abandoned the island, taking with them

EIDER DUCK. 301

the body of St. Cuthbert, which had been interred in the
church, as one of their most precious relics. After the
saints body had been in a state of almost perpetual transit
for nearly two centuries, he at length made choice of
Durham, as a final resting-place, and thither the See of
Lindisfarn was transferred, with the remains of St. Cuth-
bert, in 995. Though Lindisfarn thus lost its importance
as a bishop's see, it was not entirely deserted as a place
of religious abode ; for a cell of Benedictine monks, de-
pendent on the abbey at Durham, was afterwards esta-
blished there, which continued to the suppression of the
monasteries by Henry the Eighth."

Mr. J. Macgillivray, who visited the outer Hebrides in
the summer of 1840, mentions that these birds breed on
several of the islands there, more particularly that called
Haskir. Mr. Bullock brought nest, down, eggs, and young
birds, from Papa Westra, one of the Orkneys in 1812 ;
and this species has since been observed on the islands of
Orkney and Shetland by Mr. Drosier, Mr. Salmon, Mr.
Dunn, and others, from 1828 to the present time. Mr.
Hewitson mentions that the Eider was the most numerous
of the Ducks breeding on some of the islands on the west
coast of Norway, where they are strictly protected. Upon
one island which Mr. Hewitson and his friend visited, in
company with the keeper, the females were sitting in great
numbers, and were so perfectly tame, and on such fami-
liar terms with him, that they did not appear to be in the
least disturbed whilst we stood by to look at them, and
some of them would even allow him to stroke them on
the back with his hand. The male birds at this time were
floating about in hundreds among the islands, giving the
sea a lively and even beautiful appearance. Earl Derby^s
principal menagerie keeper, who was sent to Sweden in

302

the summer of 1839, brought back with him a brood of
young Eiders, which he reared, feeding them on slugs,
and the bodies of shelled mollusca. Several of these birds
are now alive at Knowsley. Eider, Eder, or Edder, is
the name applied to this Duck in Germany, Sweden,
Denmark, and Norway. It is found on the Faro Islands,
at Iceland, at Spitzbergen, and at Nova Zembla. Mr.
Scoresby observes that the specimens seen by him at Spitz-
bergen were smaller than those in the seas of Greenland.
To the westward these birds were noticed in Davis1 Straits,
Baffin's Bay, and on each of the Arctic voyages performed
by Sir Edward Parry and others. The Eider Duck is
also found in the northern parts of North America, as
will be found by reference to the ornithological works of
Dr. Richardson, Mr. Audubon, and Wilson.

In the adult male the beak is dusky green ; the nail
white ; the irides brown ; top of the head velvet black ;
lore and cheeks white; ear-coverts and occiput pale green;
back, scapulars, tertials, point of wing, and smaller wing-
coverts white ; greater wing-coverts black, wing primaries
and secondaries dull black ; the tertials elongated, and
falling partly over them ; rump black ; tail-feathers dull
black ; chin and upper part of neck in front white ; lower
part of neck pale buff; breast, belly, sides, and all the
under surface black, except a patch on the flank, which is
white ; legs, toes, and their membranes dusky green.
The whole length twenty-five inches. From the point
of the wing to the end of the longest quill-feather eleven
inches.

Young males of the Eider are at first like the adult
female, but when changing in their first winter the head
and neck are mottled with two shades of dark brown,
with a few white feathers appearing through in different

EIDER DUCK. SOS

parts ; lower portion of neck, and upper part of the
back, mottled black and white ; wing-coverts and tertials
becoming white ; the rest of the plumage black ; legs
and bill greenish-grey. The pure white colour is assumed
by slow degrees, and the males do not attain the appear-
ance of adult birds till their third winter.

The female in colour is like the hen of the Black Grouse,
namely, a pale brown, tinged with red, and varied with
marks of darker brown ; very similar to the female of the
King Duck hereafter figured ; the quill and tail-feathers
dull black.

The following notes in reference to the periodical changes
of the plumage in old arid young Eider ducks, have been
supplied me by James Hunt, the head-keeper at the
Zoological Gardens in the Regents Park.

August 21st, 1845. An old male. This bird began to
lose its white, or breeding plumage, about the 7th of June,
and by the 20th of July it was almost black, a few white
feathers being left on the back, which did not disappear.
This change seems to be an alteration in colour, as very
few feathers were shed during the change. He remained
in this state of plumage till about the 4th instant, when he
commenced moulting, and about the 14th instant, the
white feathers on the breast and back began to reappear.
He is now full of new feathers and getting the white
plumage fast.

A male bird of the year 1842, received from Norway in
October 1844 did not acquire his perfect breeding plumage
this last summer.

Eleven young birds of the season of 1844, were re-
ceived at the Gardens from Scotland on the 24th of August
of the same year : they were then about eleven weeks
old, of a dark brown colour, and without distinction in

304 ANATID^E.

plumage as to sex. About a month after their arrival the
male birds began to get much darker in colour, almost
black, and by the middle of October a few white feathers
began to appear on the back. The white feathers did
not appear on the breast till the middle of November.
This change seemed to go gradually on till June, when
the breeding plumage was observed to be about half per-
fect. They began to lose their white plumage about the
same time as the oldest male, but they did not lose so
much of it, as a number of the white feathers remained on
the back and breast. They commenced moulting about
the same time as the old bird, and the white plumage
is now coming on them much the same as on him.

No perceptible change takes place in the plumage of
the females.

The windpipe of the male Eider measures nine inches in
length, the tube uniform in size throughout ; the bony
labyrinth and inferior tubes as represented below.

STELLER'S WESTERN DUCK. 305

NA TA TORES. A NA TIDM.

STELLEITS WESTERN DUCK.
Somateria dispar.

Fuligula dispar^ Western Pochard,

Polysticta Stelleri, „ „

Anas dispar, Canard de Steller,

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 360.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 243.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xviii.
EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 79.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 547.

A SINGLE example of this rare species of Duck was shot
on the 10th of February 1830, at Caistor, about three miles
north of Yarmouth, in Norfolk, and was soon afterwards
presented to the Norwich Museum by the Eev. George
Steward, as stated by Messrs. C. and J. Paget, in their
Sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth and its neigh-
bourhood. It has since been noticed by the various authors
above named, whose synonyms are quoted, and by the

VOL. III. X

306 ANATID^E.

kindness of Mr. Charles Buckler, who allowed me the use
of a drawing taken by himself from the bird at Norwich, I
am enabled to give an exact representation of the only British
killed specimen that I am acquainted with. It is a male
very closely approaching the perfect plumage of an adult.

This species of Duck has now been killed three or four
times in Sweden, and once in Denmark. Professor Nils-
son, in his Fauna of Scandinavia, has given coloured
figures of both sexes; and M. Temminck further remarks
that it visits the Eastern parts of the North of Europe,
and has occasionally wandered into Germany.

It inhabits Asia and North America ; was originally de-
scribed, from specimens obtained by Steller, in Kamt-
schatka, where it breeds upon rocks inaccessible to man.
Dr. Latham mentions that there was a specimen formerly
in the Leverian Museum. Examples have been brought
from the Western side of North America, and it was in
consequence called the Western Duck, and Anas occidua.
The description of the plumage of the adult male here
given was taken from a beautiful specimen in the possession
of Mr. John Leadbeater.

It is stated of this species that it flies in flocks, and
never enters the mouths of rivers. Its food is marine
insects, with mollusca naked and testaceous.

It will be observed that some of the English authors
quoted under the figure of the bird, have considered it a
Fuligula, and have arranged it among the Pochards, not,
however, without some doubts that this would probably
be found not to be its natural situation. The anatomy,
which I believe is as yet unknown, will at some future time
indicate the proper location ; but in its general character
and appearance, with its habit of breeding on high and
steep rocks, it appears to me to be more closely allied to

STELLER'S WESTERN DUCK. 307

the Eider Duck, and I have accordingly placed it next in
succession to that species.

In the adult male the bill is brownish-black ; the irides
pale brown ; round the eye a narrow ring of black ;
between the beak and the eye, and on the occiput, a patch
of pale green ; head, cheeks., and part of the neck behind
white ; below the white on the neck there is a collar of
black, which ends in a broad stripe, passing the whole
length of the middle of the back and upper tail-coverts,
this latter portion tinged with raven blue; the wing
primaries and tail-feathers brown ; the secondaries in part
white, with a steel blue outer web forming a rich specu-
lum ; the terminal portions white ; each tertial feather
white on the inner web, rich blue on the outer web,
and curved downwards towards the end: wing-coverts
white ; scapulars elongated, and like the tertials, with
the narrow inner web white, the broader outer web rich
blue ; chin and throat rich brown ; below the broad
bluish-black collar is a narrow collar of white, the colour
extending over the sides of the neck to each wing ; just
below the point of the wing, some of the white feathers
have black at the tip, forming a dark patch ; middle of
breast and belly rich chestnut brown, passing off into a
buff colour on the front, sides, and flanks ; vent, and
under tail- coverts dark brown; legs, toes, and their mem-
branes black ; the hind toe with a deep lobe.

The whole length of the bird nineteen inches. From
the point of the wing to the end of the longest quill-
feather nine inches.

Our figure of the female Western Duck was taken from
M. Nilsson's coloured plate, and has the greater coverts
and the secondaries tipped with white, forming two bars
enclosing between them a bluish-black speculum.

x 2

308

ANATID^E,

NATATORES.

ANAT1DJE.

THE KING DUCK.

Somateria spectabilis.

Anas spectaUlis, King Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 246.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol ii. p. 327.

Somateria „ King Eider, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 120.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 343.

„ „ „ Duck, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 238.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

Anas „ Canard a ttte grise, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 851.

THIS species is very little inferior to the Eider Duck in
size, and also resembles it in its habits, but is much more
rare as a British bird ; indeed, there are but few instances
recorded of its occurrence. Mr. Bullock assured Colonel

KING DUCK. S09

Montagu thai he found this bird breeding in Papa Westra,
one of the Orkney Islands, in the latter end of June. It
had six eggs, rather less than those of the Eider Duck,
and, like that bird, covered them with its own down.
The nest was on a rock impending the sea. An egg of
this species, in my own collection, is of a pale green
colour, two inches, and rather more than a half long, by
one inch and three quarters in breadth.

According to Mr. Thompson, this species has been
killed in Ireland, and the specimen is in the collection of
Mr. Robert Ball, of Dublin. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns
mentions that it has been killed at Aldborough on the
coast of Suffolk ; and M. Vieillot says it has been taken in
France.

Professor Nilsson of Sweden states that some visit the
most northern part of the Baltic, Denmark, and Norway.
A few breed in the Faroe Islands and at Iceland, but in
the higher northern regions they are numerous. Nova
Zembla, Spitzbergen, and various parts of Greenland, are
annually visited by these birds in vast numbers during the
breeding-season, and accounts were furnished by the
naturalists who sailed with the various Arctic expeditions
of discovery from this country. In the Appendix to Sir
Edward Parry ""s first voyage, it is stated by Major Sabine
that this species were very abundant in the North Georgian
Islands, having their nests on the ground in the neigh-
bourhood of fresh-water ponds, and feeding on the
aquatic vegetation. Captain James C. Ross, in the last
published Appendix, says, " vast numbers of this beautiful
Duck resort annually to the shores and islands of the
Arctic Regions in the breeding-season, and have on many
occasions afforded a valuable and salutary supply of fresh
provision to the crews of the vessels employed on those

310 ANATHLE.

seas. On our late voyages comparatively few were ob-
tained, although seen in very great numbers. They do
not retire far to the south during the winter, but assemble
in large flocks ; the males by themselves, and the females,
with their young brood, are often met with in the Atlantic
Ocean, far distant from any land, where the numerous
crustaceous and other marine animals afford them abun-
dance of food."

The adult male has the beak reddish-orange, bounded
with a black line ; the irides yellow ; cheeks white, tinged
with green ; top of the head and the occiput bluish-grey ;
lower part of neck behind, the upper part of the back, and
the scapulars white ; lower part of the back, the rump,
and upper tail-coverts black ; the point of the wing black ;
wing-coverts white; all the wing and tail-feathers nearly
black ; the primaries tinged with red on the inner web ;
the ends of the elongated scapulars and tertials fall in curves
over the wings ; under the chin a streak of black ; front of
neck and breast white, the latter tinged with buff; the
lower part of the breast, the belly, and all the under
surface black, except a patch on the flank, which is white ;
legs, toes, and membranes orange-red.

The whole length twenty-four inches. From the carpal
joint to the end of the longest quill-feather eleven inches
and a half.

The female has the beak greenish-brown, and the whole
of the plumage of two shades of brown ; the darker colour
occupying the centre of each feather ; the brown on the
head and neck rather lighter in colour, than the other
parts of the body.

Young males at first resemble the females ; at a later
period one described by Dr. Richardson had the head and
neck dusky yellowish-grey, crowded with black spots ;

KING DUCK.

311

upper plumage mostly pitch-black, with yellowish-brown
edgings ; breast and flanks yellowish-brown, spotted and
barred with black ; belly the same colours intimately
mixed ; bill as in the female.

The representation of the lower portion of the trachea
here given is of a natural size, and taken from a specimen.

312

N ATA TORES.

ANATID^E.

ANA T1DJE.

THE VELVET SCOTER.

Anas fusca, Velvet Duck,

Oidemia

Anas

Velvet Scoter.

Oidemia fusca.

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 247.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 337.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 119.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 333.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 239.

GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxii.

TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 854.

OIDEMIA. Generic Characters.— Bill swollen or tuberculated at the base,
large, elevated, and strong ; the tip much depressed and flattened, terminated by
a large Hat nail, which has its extremity rounded and slightly deflected ; mandi-

VELVET SCOTER. 313

bles laminated, with the plates broad, strong, and widely set. Nostrils lateral,
elevated, oval, placed near the middle of the bill. Wings of mean length, con-
cave, acute. Tail short, graduated, acute. Legs far behind the centre of gravity ;
tarsi short ; feet large, of four toes, three in front, and one behind. Outer toe as
long as the middle one, and much longer than the tarsus ; hind toe with a large
lobated membrane. — Selby.

THE VELVET DUCK is only a winter visiter to the sea-
shore of the British Islands. It has been killed in the
vicinity of Dublin, in Cornwall, and in Devonshire. J. G.
Shorter, Esq., of Hastings, obtains specimens on that part
of the Sussex coast, and it has been killed off Dover.
Specimens were obtained in the London market during
the winters of 1832 and 1837; Mr. Hoy procured it
in Suffolk, and it has also been killed in Norfolk. It occurs
in Holland and France, and even as far south as Provence
and Italy, being included in the Histories of the birds
of those countries by Messrs. Temminck, Vieillot, Roux,
and Savi. From its habits of diving rather than flying
when approached, it is sometimes caught in the nets of
our sea fishermen, by becoming entangled in the meshes,
and it is occasionally caught also in the stake nets set
for salmon, as noticed by Mr. Selby, who mentions " that
in those he had dissected, the gizzard, which was large and
strong, was filled with the remains of mytilus, mactra,
solen, and other shelly mollusca, intermixed with the spawn
of fish or crustaceous animals."

Mr. Robert Dunn says this species is rare in Shetland,
but is very common in Orkney, where it arrives in the
beginning of winter, and retires again very early in the
spring. It frequents the sounds in flocks of ten or twelve,
generally feeding in the middle or deep water, and in the
stream of the tide. It is remarkably shy, and great
caution is required in approaching it. The flesh of this
Duck is in no estimation.

314 ANATIDJ5.

The Velvet Duck is included by Muller among the Birds
of Denmark ; Mr. Hewitson saw it in the western part of
Norway ; and the memorandum of this species in Scandi-
navia, supplied me by Richard Dann, Esq., is as follows : —
" This Duck is common during the summer months in the
interior of the whole of Scandinavia, north of lat. 60°. It
frequents and breeds on the large lakes in the mountainous
districts, especially those of which the shores are flat and
boggy, and covered with vegetation. In Lapland it is com-
mon everywhere. The eggs are much sought after by the
Laps. These birds are also common in the Dofre Fiel, ap-
pearing at the latter end of May. They hatch very late,
seldom before the middle of July. Their nests are placed
on hummocks, among the willow swamps, or long grass
near the water. They frequent the lakes as high as the
birch grows.

The Velvet Duck inhabits Russia and Siberia, and west
of Norway and the Faroe Islands, is found at Iceland. No
notice of this species occurs in the natural history returns of
any of the recent Arctic voyages. It is, however, abundant
in various parts of North America, as detailed by Mr. Au-
dubon, who says " those which breed at Labrador begin to
form their nests from the 1st to the 10th of June. The
nests are placed within a few feet of the borders of small
lakes, a mile or two distant from the sea, and usually
under the low boughs of the bushes, of the twigs of which,
with mosses and various plants matted together, they are
formed. They are large and almost flat, several inches
thick, with some feathers of the female, but no down under
the eggs, which are usually six in number, measuring two
inches and three-quarters in length, by one and seven-
eighths in breadth, of a uniform pale cream colour, tinged
with green. The males leave the females after incubation

VELVET SCOTER. 315

lias commenced. On the 28th of July I procured five
young ones out of a brood of six, among which, although to
appearance scarcely a week old, I could readily distinguish
the males from the females as they swam on the little pond
around their mother ; the former having already a white
spot under the eye. A pair had bred on the same water
for six or seven years in succession, and the young did not
leave the pond until they were able to fly."

The adult male has the beak orange, based and edged
with black ; the irides pale yellowish- white ; the eye-
lid and a small patch behind each eye white ; the ends
of the secondary quill-feathers white, forming a conspicuous
bar across the wing ; all the rest of the plumage uniform
velvet-black ; the legs and toes reddish- orange, the inter-
vening membranes dark brown.

The whole length twenty-two inches. From the point of
the wing to the end of the longest quill-feather ten inches
and three-quarters.

In the female, Mr. Audubon says, the basal prominence
of the bill is much less elevated, and the colour of the
whole bill is dusky. The irides and feet are as in the male,
but of duller tints ; the general colour of the plumage is a
sooty brown ; the breast and abdomen lighter ; there are
two whitish spots on each side of the head, one near the
base of the upper mandible, the other behind the eye ; the
secondary quills are white, as in the male.

The trachea of the male Velvet Duck is remarkable for a
hollow bony enlargement situated about two-thirds down
the tube, made up of expanded tracheal rings, which in
the adult bird are firmly ossified together. Upon each
side of this enlargement a small muscle passing downwards
is inserted upon the inner side of the shaft of the bone,
called the merrythought ; and the voice is probably in-

316

ANATID^E.

fluenced by the action of these muscles altering the relative
position of this hollow bulb upon the tube. There is also
another peculiarity. On making a longitudinal lateral sec-
tion, as shown in the outside figures below, it will be seen
that the inner tube of the trachea, at its upper part, has an
aperture on each side by which it communicates freely with
the cavity within another bony enlargement, situated im-
mediately below the superior larynx, and brings to mind
the laryngeal cavities found in some of the higher animals.
A slip of paper is represented as passing through both
apertures.

COMMON SCOTER.

NATATORES.

317
AN ATI DM.

THE COMMON SCOTER.

Anas nigra, The Scoter,

Oidemia

Anas

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 248.

„ „ MONTAGU, Omith. Diet.

„ „ BEWICK, Brit. Bird8, vol. ii. p. 389.

Black Scoter, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 119.

„ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 329.

„ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 239.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xv.

Canard macreuse, TEMM. Man. d'Onrith. vol. ii. p. 356.

THE COMMON SCOTER is generally considered a winter
visiter only, and during that season is to be seen in great
numbers on various parts of our coast. They are, however,
also to be seen in the summer on the southern coast of
England. Richard Dann, Esq., told me he saw flocks
in the sea off Dungeness, in the middle of June 1841, and
other flocks have been seen on the coast of Dorsetshire. I
have occasionally seen here and there a straggling Scoter or

318 ANATIDJl.

two outside the rocks of the Isle of Wight, and in Christ-
church Bay in June and July. It is not improbable that
these were birds only twelve or fourteen months old, that
would remain unable to breed till the following summer.
The Scoter is not very often found on fresh- water inland
during winter ; yet the late Sir Richard C. Hoare, Bart.,
sent me word, some years ago, that his keeper had shot a
Scoter on the ornamental water in the Park at Stourhead,
Wiltshire, which is more than twenty miles from the sea, in
a straight line, and no such bird had been seen there before.
It has also been shot on a pond at Farnham in Hampshire.
The Scoter feeds almost exclusively on the soft bodies of
muscles, and the animals of other bivalve shells, which they
obtain by diving, and they approach the shore generally
with each flood-tide for the purpose of satisfying their
appetite. The flesh of the Scoter is oily, and has a strong
fishy taste ; it is in consequence, but seldom eaten in this
country ; but these same qualities are considered a recom-
mendation elsewhere, for being identified with fish, it is
allowed by the Romish church to be eaten in Lent, and on
fast days ; and so great is the demand for it, that many
devices are in use on the sea coasts of Catholic countries to
obtain these Ducks for the use of the table. One of the
modes in practice is thus described in more than one work
on ornithology. Advantage is taken of the habits of this
Duck by the fishermen on the coast, who, at the ebb-tide,
spread their nets horizontally, about two or three feet above
the beds of shell-fish, which these birds are observed most
to haunt. Upon the return of the tide the Scoters ap-
proach in great numbers, and diving for their food, become
entangled in the meshes of the floating nets ; and in this
way it is said that twenty or thirty dozens have been taken
in a single tide.

COMMON SCOTER. 319

I am indebted to H. L. Long, Esq., of Hampton Lodge,
Farnham, for a copy of a French account by M. Hugo, of
the mode in which many of these birds are obtained upon
the various salt lakes in the vicinity of Martigues, at the
mouth of the Rhone. These numerous salt lakes are fre-
quented in winter by large flocks of aquatic birds. With
the first appearance of frost the Scoters and other Ducks
arrive in numerous small flocks, and a destructive sort of
battue takes place, in which all who can are induced to par-
ticipate with great eagerness. About Christmas, when the
Scoters have made their appearance, printed bills are
posted at Marseilles, Aix, and all the principal places
in the vicinity, stating the intended order of attack upon
the birds, and the day and hour at which it is to take place.
The Mayors of two or three of the principal places make
the necessary arrangements ; on the eve of the day fixed
upon all the shooters are divided into parties, and each has
a boat, a pilot, and a commander appointed. The assem-
blage is large, filling the inns and the lodgings to be had at
private houses. In the morning, at the sound of a drum,
the embarkation takes place on the lake named for the first
attempt. The boats, filled with sportsmen, form an ex-
tended circle around the flocks of birds at one part of the
lake ; the boats then draw in, diminishing the circle by
degrees till the crews are within gunshot of the intended
victims. At a well-known and preconcerted signal, a
partial discharge takes place at the unfortunate birds while
swimming on the surface of the water. Many are killed on
the spot ; those which escape this first fire attempt to save
themselves by flight, when a second discharge assails them
ill the air ; many more fall, and with broken wings and
loud cries are picked up by the shooters, who divide the
spoil, not without many altercations, and return to land.

320 ANATHLE.

After a short respite, the birds having again collected
together on that or some other neighbouring lake, a second
advance takes place in the same manner, and the day is
passed in making a succession of attacks, each followed by
a retreat for a time to allow the birds to reassemble. A
chasse, as it is termed, of a somewhat similar character, is
performed near Bastia, the capital of Corsica ; but in this
locality the Scoter is always accompanied by numbers of
the Red-throated Diver, which appear to act the part of
sentinels outside the flocks of Ducks ; and so quick-sighted
are these sentinels, and so instantaneously do they dive,
and so rapidly do they swim under water, that hundreds
of Scoters are killed to one couple of Divers. M. Savi
includes the Scoter among the Birds of Italy. M. Vieillot
says that the coast of Picardy is covered with them in
winter whenever the wind blows from the north, or north-
west : and M. Temminck describes it as abundant on other
parts of the coast of France, and in Holland. I am not
aware that the Scoter has ever been found to breed in
this country. The nest is described as formed of grass and
other vegetable matter, mixed and lined with a quantity of
its own down ; the eggs about six in number. These, as
figured in the work of M. Thienemann, are of a pale buff
colour, tinged with green ; two inches six lines in length,
by one inch and nine lines in breadth. In reference to the
Scoter in Scandinavia, Richard Dann, Esq., sent me word
that this Duck frequents the same places, and is very
similar in its habits to the Velvet Duck, both being gene-
rally found in the same localities. After the female has
laid, the males associate in large flocks, and slowly draw
towards the coast, where they arrive in October. They
are never found on the coast during summer there. Mr.
Proctor found the Scoter breeding in Iceland, but it is

COMMON SCOTER. 321

not common ; only two nests were obtained. In the adult
male the beak is black ; except the central ridge of the
upper mandible, which is orange ; the irides brown ; all
the plumage deep black ; legs and toes dusky black, the
webs darker, or quite black. The whole length nineteen
inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest
quill-feather nine inches ; the second quill-feather rather the
longest in the wing.

In the female all the upper surface of the body is of a
uniform blackish brown, the margins of the wing-coverts a
little lighter ; cheeks, and sides of the neck paler brown ;
lower part of the neck, the breast, abdomen, vent, and
under tail-coverts, dark brown ; legs and toes brown,
tinged with green : the interdigital membrane almost
black. Young birds of the year, at the approach of their
first winter, have the cheeks, chin, sides and front of the
neck, dull greyish- white, and the under surface of the
body mottled with white and brown.

The trachea of the male Scoter differs from that of the
male of any other species among the Ducks, in having no
bony enlargement ; and differs from that of the female
only in having the principal tube, as well as the bronchial
tubes rather larger. A portion of both are figured below.

VOL. III.

322

N ATA TORES.

ANATID^E.

A NAT ID JE-

--!.-— 2

THE SURF SCOTER.

Oidemia perspicillata.

Oidemia perspicittata, Surf Scoter •, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 119.

,. „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 335.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 240.

„ „ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 81.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiv.

Anas „ Canard marchand, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 853.

ACCORDING to the testimony of various authors, namely,
Dr. Fleming, Sir W. Jardine, Mr. Selby, and M. Tem-
minck, examples of this Duck have occurred on the Islands
of Orkney and Shetland ; Mr. Gould obtained a specimen
that was killed in the Frith of Forth, as noticed in his
work above quoted ; and Mr. Bartlett, of London, received
' a recently shot Surf Scoter for preservation, as recorded in

SURF SCOTER. 323

the third volume of the Naturalist, page 420, from which
bird the measurements here given and some other par-
ticulars were derived. M. Vieillot says that this species
appears sometimes on the coast of Picardy, and that it
lives on fishes and testaceous mollusca, which are obtained
by diving. Professor Schinz mentions one killed in Swit-
zerland, in April 1818. Messrs. Meyer and Wolf include
this Duck in their pocket volumes of the Birds of Germany;
and Professor Nilsson gives a coloured figured of the male
in his illustrated Fauna of Scandinavia, in consequence of
the occurrence of the species in that country. It is only,
however, on the shores of high latitudes in North America
that Surf Scoters in any quantity can be observed ; and
the accounts of Wilson and Mr. Audubon must be referr-
ed to for a knowledge of their habits in localities where
they are abundant.

Wilson says, " this Duck is confined to the shores and
bays of the sea, particularly where the waves roll over the
sandy beach. Their food consists principally of small
bivalve shell-fish, spout-fish, and others that lie in the sand
near its surface. For these they dive almost constantly,
both in the sandy bays and amidst the tumbling surf.
They seldom or never visit the salt marshes. They con-
tinue on our shores during the winter, and leave us early
in May, for their breeding places in the North. Their
skins are remarkably strong, and their flesh coarse, tasting
of fish. They are common in winter along the whole
coast, from the river St. Lawrence to Florida. This
species was also found by Captain Cook, at Nootka Sound,
on the north-west coast of America."

Mr. Audubon's account furnishes many interesting par-
ticulars, and a portion of it is as follows : — " While pro-
ceeding towards the sterile country of Labrador, in 1833,

Y 2

324 ANATID^E.

on board the Ripley, I found the waters of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence alive with Ducks of different species. The
nearer we approached the coast, the more numerous did
they become ; and of the many kinds that presented them-
selves to our anxious gaze, the Surf Duck was certainly not
the least numerous. It is true that in the noble bays of our
own coast, in the Sound, between New York and the
Hook, on the broader waters of the Chesapeake, and
beyond them to the mouths of the Mississippi, I had seen
thousands of Surf Ducks ; but the numbers that passed the
shores of Labrador, bound for the far north, exceeded all
my previous conceptions. For more than a week after we
had anchored in the lovely harbour of Little Macatina, I
had been anxiously searching for the nest of this species,
but in vain. At length I found that a few pairs had
remained in the neighbourhood, and one morning, while
in the company of Captain Emery, searching for the nests
of the Red-breasted Merganser, over a vast oozy and
treacherous fresh-water marsh, I suddenly started a female
Surf Duck from her treasure. We were then about five
miles distant from our harbour, from which our party had
come in two boats, and fully five and a half miles from
the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The marsh was
about three miles in length. The nest was snugly placed
amid the tall leaves of a bunch of grass, and raised fully
four inches above its roots. It was entirely composed of
withered and rotten weeds, the former being circularly
arranged over the latter, producing a well rounded cavity,
six inches in diameter, by two and a half in depth. The
borders of this inner cup were lined with the down of the
bird, in the same manner as the Eider Duck's nest, and in
it lay five eggs, the smallest number I have ever found in
any Duck^s nest. They were two inches and two and a

SURF SCOTER. 325

half eighths in length, by one inch and five eighths in their
greatest breadth ; more equally rounded at both ends
than usual ; the shell perfectly smooth, and of a uniform
pale yellowish, or cream colour. I took them on board
along with the female, which was shot as she rose from the
nest. We saw no male bird near the spot; but in the
course of the same day met with several males by them-
selves, about four miles distant from the marsh, as we
were returning to the harbour. This induced me to be-
lieve, that, like the Eider and other Ducks that breed
in Labrador, the males abandon the females as soon as
incubation commences. I regret that, notwithstanding
all my further exertions, I did not succeed in discover-
ing more nests or young birds, The female, which
was killed as she flew off from the nest, uttered a rough
uncooth guttural cry, somewhat resembling that of
the Goosander, on similar occasions; and I have never
heard any other sound from either sex. The Surf Duck
is a powerful swimmer and an expert diver; it is frequently
observed fishing at the depth of several fathoms ; and it
floats buoyantly among the surf or the raging billows,
where it seems as unconcerned as if it were on the most
tranquil waters. I have never seen this species on any
fresh-water lake or river, in any part of the interior,
and therefore consider it as truly a marine Duck."

The adult male has the beak orange, with a square
patch of black on each side at the base of the upper man-
dible ; irides straw yellow ; on the top of the head and
on the back of the neck, are two oval patches of white ;
all the rest of the plumage black ; legs and toes orange red,
the membranes brownish-black. The whole length twen-
ty-one inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the
wing nine inches and a quarter; the first and second

326

ANATID.E.

primary quill-feathers of equal length, and the longest in
the wing.

The female differs from the male in having the plumage
of dull brown, which is lightest in colour about the cheeks
and under surface of the body ; the beak dark olive ; the
feet greyish-brown. According to the descriptions given,
the trachea of the Surf Scoter resembles that of the Velvet
Scoter as represented at page 316.

The vignette below represents the difference in the ex-
tent of the membrane depending from the hind toe of the
two divisions of true Ducks ; that on the left side belongs
to the first division, or Surface-feeding Ducks ; that on the
right to the second division, the Oceanic, or Diving Ducks.

RED-CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK. 327

NATATORES. ANATWJE.

THE BED-CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK.

Fuligula rufina.

Fuligula rufina, Red-crested Pochard,

Mergoides „
Fuligula, „
Anas „

Duck,

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 350.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 240.
EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 77.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. vi.

Canard Sijfleur Hupp£, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 864.

FULIGULA. Generic C/taracters. — Bill not longer than the head, but slightly
elevated at the base, depressed towards the tip ; sides parallel ; both mandibles
laminated, lateral edges of the upper mandible enclosing the edges of the under
one. Nostrils at a short distance from the base. Wings rather short, pointed.
Legs with the middle and outer toes longer than the tarsus, which is flattened
laterally ; feet large, webbed, the hind toe with a broad depending membrane.

328 ANATID.E.

I HAVE followed the example of several modern zoolo-
gists in adopting the generic term Fuligula, for an exten-
sive series of oceanic Ducks, the general characters and
habits of which are noticed in the paragraph at page 298.
The necessity for this distinction has been acknowledged
by M. Temminck himself, and the grounds for the sepa-
ration are stated in the note below,* from the 68th No.
of the Planches Calories, Art. 406.

I had the pleasure of first noticing-|- this handsome Duck
as an occasional visiter to this country in January 1826,
when a male was shot near Boston, while feeding on fresh-
water in company with some Wigeons. Though a well-
known species, inhabiting the eastern parts of Europe, it
had not previously been recorded to have been killed in
England. During the same winter several others were
obtained ; more than one occurred in the London markets,
and were eagerly purchased for collectors. One was se-
cured by Mr. Bartlett, as noticed in the Naturalist, vol.
iii. p. 420. Since then a specimen has been killed at
Yarmouth, another at Colchester, now in the Museum of
the Cambridge Philosophical Society ; and the female re-
presented by Mr. Gould, in the Sixth Part of his Birds of
Europe, is in the collection of the Hon. W. T. T. Fiennes.
This specimen was killed out of a flock of eighteen, on
the Thames, near that gentleman's estate at Erith in Kent.

This species has been obtained very recently in Norfolk
in January 1844, and at Falmouth in March 1845.

* " Nous avons cru necessaire de separer des canards proprement dits, et de
reunir, toutes ces especes a doigt post6rieur garni d'un rudiment de membrane, vu
que le squelette de ces oiseaux nous offre des differences marquees et constantes ;
que leur maniere de vivre et le choix des alimens ne sont pas les memes que chez
les canards a doigt post^rieur lisse, et que les caracteres faciles a saisir fournissent
de tres-bons moyens pour etablir la difference ge"nerique entre ces deux groupes."
+ Zoological Journal, vol. ii. page 492.

RED-CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK. 329

M. Vieillot says this species has been taken, though
rarely, in France. It has been included in two or three
Histories of the Birds of Germany. It is mentioned by
M. Necker in his published notice of the Birds of Geneva;
has been found more than once in different parts of Swit-
zerland and Provence ; has been seen at Genoa ; and is
included by M. Savi, in his Ornithology of Italy. Our
countryman Willughby, it will be recollected, obtained
this Duck in the market at Rome.* It is stated to be
found in Sicily all the year, laying from six to eight green-
ish-white eggs. It is most abundant during winter, and
is considered to come there from the East. The Zoolo-
gical Society has received specimens from North Africa,
sent by Sir Thomas Beade, and it was formerly noticed
in Barbary, by Shaw, in his published Travels in that
country. It is found in Austria, Hungary, and Turkey.
Russian naturalists have observed that it is very common in
winter at Bakou, on the Caspian Sea. According to Dr.
Latham it inhabits the vast lakes of the desert of Tar-
tary ; is sometimes seen on the great lakes lying on the
east side of the mountains of the Uralian chain, but not
elsewhere in Siberia. Mr. Gould mentions, in his Birds
of Europe, that he has received specimens from the Hi-
malaya, and Colonel Sykes includes it among his Birds of
the Dukhun, but states that it is rare in that part of
India. It has been found in the North Western part of
India ; B. Hodgson, Esq. includes it in his Birds of Nepal,
and Mr. Blyth has obtained it in the vicinity of Calcutta.
The food is stated to be shell-fish and aquatic vegetables.

In the adult male the beak is vermilion-red ; the nail
white ; the irides reddish-brown ; the whole of the head,
and the upper part of the neck all round rich reddish-

* Willughby, Om. p. 364.

330

ANATID^E.

chestnut, the feathers on the top of the head considerably
elongated, forming a conspicuous crest ; the back of the
neck below, and the upper tail-coverts dark brown ; the
back, and a portion of the scapularies, wing-coverts, and
tertials, yellowish-brown ; a white patch on the carpal joint
of the wing, and another over the joint ; greater coverts
ash-brown ; wing-primaries and tail-feathers greyish-brown ;
the secondaries with the outer webs white, forming a spe-
culum ; front of the neck, breast, belly, and under tail-
coverts rich dark brown ; the sides and flanks white ; legs
and toes vermilion-red, interdigital membrane almost black.

RED-CRESTED WHISTLING DUCK. 331

The whole length twenty-two inches. From the carpal
joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the
longest in the wing, ten inches and a half.

The female is without a crest ; the top of the head dark
brown ; cheeks, throat, and sides of the neck greyish-
white ; upper surface of the body pale rufous-brown ; point
of the shoulder and the speculum greyish- white ; breast
reddish-brown ; the other parts of the under surface grey-
ish-brown ; beak and legs reddish-brown.

The windpipe of the male is about nine inches in length,
the tube is narrow in diameter at the middle, and near the
end, but enlarged at the commencement and again below
the middle, as shown in the representation of the lower
half inserted on the opposite page. The labyrinth in the
Ducks of this division is composed partly of bone, and
partly of membrane. The right and left surface are
here shown ; the membrane supported by delicate portions
of bone diverging from an outer bony ring.

332

NATATORES.

ANATID.E.

ANATIDJE-

s^- _- -

THE POCHARD,

OR DUN BIRD.

Fuligula ferina.

Anas ferina^ Pochard Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 271.

„ „ Tlie Pochard, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 369.

Nyroca „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 121.

Fuligula „ Red-headed „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 347.

„ „ Common „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 241.

„ „ Red-headed „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

Anas „ Canard milouin, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 868.

THE POCHARD, or Dun-bird, for this species is known by
various names, as Red-headed Poker, and Red-eyed Poker,
from the prevailing colour of the head, and the peculiar
colour of the eye, not observed in any other British Duck ;

POCHARD. 333

and Dos gris, or Grey-back, in some parts of North Ame-
rica, as we are told by Mr. Audubon ; is a winter visiter
to this country, appearing about the beginning of October,
and leaving us again in the spring to seek, during its breed-
ing-season, higher northern regions.

While here it resorts to inland lakes and rivers, as well
as the sea-shore, and though a difficult bird to take in a
decoy on account of its shyness and caution, and the fa-
cility with which it dives enabling it to get back under
water in the pipe, yet, from being very abundant as a species
great numbers, according to authorities, are taken every
season. Many thousands are sold every winter in one
market only in London ; and Montagu mentions that the
method formerly practised for taking the Pochard, was some-
thing similar to that of taking Woodcocks. Poles were
erected at the avenues to the decoys, and after a great
number of these birds had collected for some time on the
pond, to which wild-fowl resort only by day, and go to
the neighbouring fens to feed by night, a net was at a
given time erected by pulleys to these poles, beneath which
a deep pit had previously been dug ; and as these birds,
like the Woodcocks, go to feed just as it is dark, and are
said always to rise against the wind, a whole flock was
sometimes taken together in this manner ; for if once they
strike against the net, they never attempt to return, but
flutter down the net till they are received into the pit,
from whence they cannot rise, and thus we are told twenty
dozen have been taken at one catch.

Dun-birds are, in general, remarkable for the excellence
of their flesh, and probably but little inferior to the far-
famed Canvass-backed Duck of the United States, which
it very closely resembles in the colour of its plumage, but
our Dun-bird is the smaller Duck of the two. Dun-

334 ANATID^E.

birds are best while they feed at the mouths of rivers,
and about fresh-water, but when they feed at sea on fishes,
Crustacea, and mollusca, I have found them coarse and
ill flavoured. They feed principally during the night.

When these Ducks are not excited or alarmed, their note
is a low whistle, but at other times it is a rough croak.
The Dun-bird is not so slender and elegant in form as
the Wild Duck, and others of the first division, or more
surface-feeding Ducks, but are short in the body, and
depressed in form, swimming low in the water, and are
observed to be bad walkers on land, from the backward
position of their legs ; an arrangement of great service to
them as swimmers and divers. Rusticus, of Godalming,
says that fifty or more have been seen on the piece of
water there called the Old Pond, in company with Wild
Ducks ; from which, however, they always separated on
rising. Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, in their Norfolk
Catalogue of Birds, mention, in 1825, that this species
breed at Scoulton Mere ; and the Rev. Mr. Lubbock sent
me word that it has also bred there of late years. Mr.
Hewitson says a small number of the Pochard remain
during the summer months, and breed on the borders of
the inland meres, so numerous in many parts of Holland.
The nest is placed amongst the rushes, or other coarse
herbage abounding in those situations. The eggs vary in
number from ten to twelve. The specimen figured in Mr.
Hewitson's work on the eggs of our British Birds, is of a
buffy-white colour, two inches in length, and one inch and
five-eighths in breadth. I have seen a Duck which had
all the appearance of having been bred between the Po-
chard and the Ferruginous Duck, the species next in suc-
cession. M. Vieillot says this species appears in France
at two periods of the year, namely, in October on its way

POCHARD. 335

south ; and in April on its return ; but has been killed
in France in the month of July. It is taken in Provence
and Italy, and is recorded to have been found as far south
as Egypt.

North of England, it is found at the Orkney and Shet-
land Isles, in Denmark and Sweden ; but neither Mr. Hew-
itson nor Mr. Dann mention having seen this Duck either
in Norway or Lapland. It goes, perhaps in its migra-
tion, more to the eastward, as it is said to be abundant
in Russia and the north of Germany. Mr. Blyth has
obtained it at Calcutta.

The Pochard, or Dun-bird, is a common Duck in Ame-
rica, dispersed and breeding over the fur countries in
summer, some of them in winter going as far south as
Carolina and Louisiana.

The adult male has the bill black at the point and the
base ; the intermediate portion pale blue, forming a broad
transverse band ; the irides red ; the head and upper part
of the neck all round rich chestnut-red ; the neck below
deep black ; back, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts,
freckled over with minute grey specks and lines, on a
ground of white ; primaries and secondaries nearly uni-
form grey ; the primaries ending in dark brown ; the se-
condaries narrowly tipped with white ; rump and upper
tail-coverts nearly black ; tail-feathers uniform greyish-
brown ; breast, sides, and belly to the vent, greyish-white ;
produced by minute grey marks, on a white ground;
under tail-coverts black ; legs and toes bluish-grey, the
intervening membranes bluish-black.

The whole length nineteen inches and a half. From the
point of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather, which
is the longest, eight inches and a quarter.

The adult female has the bill black ; the irides brown ;

336 ANATID^E.

head, and all the back of the neck, dusky greyish-brown ;
back and wings darker grey than that of the males ; quill-
feathers like those of the males; no bright- coloured spe-
culum in either sex ; chin and throat pale greyish-brown ;
lower part of the neck in front dark brown ; all the under
surface of the body uniform dull greyish-white ; under
tail-coverts dark grey ; legs and feet as in the male.

Young males at first resemble the females, obtaining
some change with the feathers of their first autumn moult ;
the change in the colour of the feather going on by slow
degrees afterwards. As late as the middle of January,
young males of the previous summer had not attained their
perfect plumage ; and Dr. Fleming mentions that the
black on the breast of the young males does not make
its appearance during the first year.

The trachea of the male is about eight inches in length,
the diameter of the tube large, tapering suddenly towards
the bottom ; the labyrinthic tympanum of beautiful form ;
the bronchial tubes short. The engraving below repre-
sents the surface opposed to the left side of the bird.

FERRUGINOUS DUCK. 337

NA TA TORES. A NA TID&.

THE FERRUGINOUS DUCK,

AND WHITE-EYED DUCK.

Fuligula nyroca.

Anasferruginea, Red Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 272.

„ „ Ferruginous Duck, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet, and Suppt.

„ nyroca, Castaneous „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 332.

Nyroca leucoptJialmos, White-eyed „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 121.

Fuligula nyroca, Nyroca Pocliard, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 354.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 242.

„ „ White-eyed Duck, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. v.

Anas leucopthalmos, Canard a iris blanc, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 876.

THOUGH somewhat in colour resembling the Pochard or
Dun-bird last described, the Ferruginous Duck is at once
distinguished from it by its smaller size, its dark brown
back, and by the ends of its secondary quill-feathers being
white ; forming a single white bar on the wing at all
ages. Like the Pochard, the Ferruginous Duck is a

VOL. in. z

338 ANATIDJ2.

winter visiter to this country, and but few are annually
taken. It has been killed in Cambridgeshire and in Nor-
folk, and the flesh is reported to be excellent. Mr. Bul-
lock obtained specimens in the London market ; and I
have seen examples of all ages that were procured in the
London market ; these are generally received from the
eastern counties, between the Thames and the Humber,
but two were killed near Oxford, in the winter of 1832,
and another pair also during the last winter, for a notice
of which I am indebted to W. Borrer, Esq. jun. A hy-
brid between this species and the Pochard has been re-
ferred to.

This species is occasionally sent to London alive from
Holland, where it is sometimes caught in decoys. M.
Vieillot says it is a rare bird in France, and only seen in
winter. It has been taken in Switzerland, Provence, and
Italy; it is common throughout the year at Corfu, in
Crete, and in Sicily, but is only observed at Malta in
winter, and is stated to go as far south as North Africa
and Egypt. It is the Sarcelle tf Egypt of Buffon.

The Ferruginous Duck is recorded to have been taken
in Persia; and specimens have been received from North
Western India, the Himalaya Mountains, Thibet, Nepal,
and Calcutta.

It appears to be a resident in the North of Germany
from October to March. Dr. Latham says it inhabits
Russia, and is frequent about the Don. It was formerly
said to have been found in the rivers of Sweden ; and
Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, mentions having had a
specimen sent him from Denmark ; but this species is
not included by Professor Nilsson at the present time
either in his Ornithology of Sweden, or in his Fauna of
Scandinavia. It is, however, included among the Birds

FERRUGINOUS DUCK. 339

of Iceland, by F. Faber, who published in 1822. Ac-
cording to M. Temminck, this Duck feeds on insects,
small frogs, aquatic plants, and their seeds; and makes
its nest near rivers and marshes, laying nine or ten white
eggs, slightly tinged with green. The egg, as figured by Dr.
Thienemann, measures two inches and one eighth in length,
by one inch and a half in breadth.

In the adult male the bill is bluish-black; the irides
white ; the whole of the head, the neck all round, to the
upper part of the breast, and the sides, rich chestnut-
brown ; round the middle of the neck a narrow ring,
rather darker in colour ; the whole of the back and wing-
coverts umber-brown, with a tinge of green ; primary quill-
feathers dusky black, part of the inner webs white ; the
secondaries white, forming a bar of that colour on the
wing, but the extreme ends are black ; tail-feathers brown-
ish-black ; on the chin a small triangular spot of white ;
lower part of the breast arid the belly white ; the flanks
brown ; vent greyish-brown ; under tail-coverts white ;
legs and toes bluish-black, the membranes darker. The
whole length sixteen inches ; the wing, from the carpal
joint seven inches and three-quarters. The first quill-
feather the longest in the wing.

In the female the irides are not quite white ; the whole
head and neck deep reddish-brown, darker in tint, and not
so rich in appearance as the same parts in the male ; wings
like those of the male; lower breast and belly dingy
white ; the female bird is rather smaller than the male.

The young bird of the year, during its first winter, is
still smaller than the adult female, and has also still less of
the red chestnut tint ; the back, wings, and neck are of
two shades of brown, the edges of the feathers being of
the lighter colour ; breast and belly dull brownish-grey.

340

ANATID^E.

The trachea of the male is about six inches in length ;
the tube is small at both ends, but enlarged in the mid-
dle ; the portion represented below is of the natural size.

SCAUP DUCK.

341

NATATORES.

AN ATI DM

'•:•

THE SCAUP DUCK.

Fuligula marila.

Anas mania, Scaup Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 251.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 355.

Nyroca „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 122.

Fuligula „ „ Pochard, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 354.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 243.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xix.

Anas „ Canard milouinan, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 865.

THE SCAUP -DucK is a winter visiter to this country, and
rather a late one, seldom making its appearance till the
end of October, or the beginning of November, about
which time, particularly if the weather be rough and cold,
they arrive in small flocks on various parts of the coast,
and at the mouths of rivers, but do not very often visit
the waters of inland counties. They appear to prefer low,

342 ANATIDJE.

flat, muddy, or oozy shores, and are numerous throughout
the winter months on the coasts of Hampshire and Dorset-
shire, where, in company with Tufted Ducks, Golden
Eyes, and other species, they are pursued by wild-fowl-
shooters in their gun-punts, and also occasionally caught
by fishermen in upright nets fixed in curving lines, on
perpendicular stakes in shallow bays. The Scaup Duck,
however, feeding on small fish, mollusca, aquatic insects,
and marine plants, is by no means in request for the table,
as its flesh is generally coarse, dark in colour and fishy in
flavour. The greater part of its food is obtained by diving,
at which it is very expert, but like most of the short-
winged diving-ducks it gets upon wing from the surface
of the water but slowly, prefers rising against the wind,
and flies at a moderate pace. What it wants, however,
in speed, it appears to make up in caution, and it is con-
sidered a difficult bird to approach. Its name of Scaup
Duck, is, according to Willughby, derived from the bird
feeding among broken shells, which are called scaup.
Beds of oysters and muscles are in the north called Oyster
scawp, and muscle scawp, and from feeding on these shell
covered banks, the bird has obtained the name of Scaup
Duck.

Colonel Montagu, who kept both sexes of this species
alive in confinement many years, observed "that they as-
sociated together apart from all other Ducks, made the
same grunting noise, and both had the same singular toss
of the head, attended with an opening of the bill, which,
in the spring, is continued for a considerable time while
swimming and sporting on the water. This singular ges-
ture would be sufficient to identify the species were all
other distinctions wanting. In the case of one female
which died, Montagu mentions that the cause of death

SCAUP DUCK. 343

appeared to be in the lungs, and in the membrane that
separates them from the other viscera ; this last was much
thickened, and all the cavity within was covered with
mucor, or blue mould."

"It is a most curious circumstance," this writer adds,
" to find this vegetable production growing within a living
animal, and shows that where air is pervious, mould will be
found to obtain, if it meets with sufficient moisture, and a
place congenial to vegetation. Now the fact is, that the
part on which this vegetable was growing was decayed, and
had no longer in itself a living principle ; the dead part,
therefore, became the proper pabulum of the invisible seeds
of the mucor, transmitted by the air in respiration ; and
thus nature carries on all her works immutably under every
possible variation of circumstance. It would, indeed, be
impossible for such to vegetate on a living body, being in-
compatible with vitality, and we may be assured that
decay must take place before this minute vegetable can
make a lodgment to aid in the great change of decomposi-
tion. Even with inanimate bodies the appearance of mould
or any species of fungi is a sure presage of partial decay
and decomposition."

M. De Selys Longchamps has found a similar growth
lining the air-cells in the lungs of an Eider Duck ; * and
Mr. Owen described the same appearance as found by himself
in the bronchial tubes of a Flamingo.-f- References to des-
criptions and figures of various singular vegetable growths
on insects, will be found in the first Part of the third
volume of the Transactions of the Entomological Society of
London ; and those acquainted with Edwards1 Gleanings in
Natural History will remember his coloured representa-

* Annals of Natural History, vol. viii. page 229.

f Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1832, page 142.

344 ANATID^E.

tions of vegetating caterpillars, and vegetating wasps, in
the plates numbered 335 and 336, published many years
since.

In spring, the Scaup Ducks depart to countries north of
the Orkney and Shetland Islands to breed ; and I am only
acquainted with one record of their producing their young
in Scotland, which is that by Mr. Selby, in his notice of
the birds found when exploring Sutherlandshire in the
month of June 1834. " A single female was shot by Sir
William Jardine, in a small loch between Loch Hope and
Eriboll ; she was attended by a young one, which unfortu-
nately escaped among the reeds. This is the first instance
of its breeding in Britain having been ascertained that I am
aware of."

Of this species in Scandinavia, Richard Dann, Esq., has
supplied me with the following note : — " The Scaup Duck,
in its migration south, does not make its appearance on the
western coast of Europe until late in the winter, and then
only in comparatively small numbers ; its migration appears
to be more southerly than westerly. It breeds on the
swampy lakes towards the north of the Bothnian Gulph,
near Lulea, in considerable numbers. I have shot the
young there previously to their being able to fly. I
have seen them about Gellivara and Lulea in small
numbers. Being a diving-duck they avoid the reeds, and
keep out in the open water. They are, also, tolerably
numerous in the Dofre Fiell mountains, frequenting and
breeding near swampy solitary lakes as high as the birch-
wood grows. At whatever season the Scaup Duck is shot,
it is generally very fat and heavy. The eggs are five or
six in number.

Mr. Procter sent me word that the Scaup Duck is a
very common species in Iceland, where it breeds either

SCAUP DUCK. 345

among the aquatic herbage, or the large stones, near the
edge of fresh water, making little or no nest, but a quantity
of down covering the eggs, which are from five to eight in
number : an egg brought from Iceland by Mr. Procter, and
figured in Mr. Hewitson's work, is of a uniform clay brown
colour, two inches and three-eighths in length, by one inch
and five-eighths in breadth.

Mr. Charles Drosier, who gives, in the fourth volume of
the Naturalist, a brief sketch of a voyage across the North
and Baltic seas, says, that large flocks of Scaup Ducks
were seen streaming over the water, as the vessel entered
the gulf of Finland, in the month of August, and others
were seen on the shore. They were known to be com-
mon in Russia, Siberia, and southwards to Germany ; and
M. Temminck mentions that they are abundant in Holland.
In France, they are mostly confined to the coast, and the
Scaup Duck is included among the birds of Switzerland
and Italy. It is observed in Sicily during winter.

This species is common in North America, from the fur-
countries to the southern states of the Union, depending on
the season of the year.

In the adult male the bill is pale blue ; in form, narrowest
at the base, dilated considerably towards the point, being
nearly one third wider ; the nail curved and black ; the
irides yellow ; the head and the neck all round, as well as
the upper part of the breast and back, black ; the cheeks
and sides of the neck glossed with rich green ; the rest of
the back and the scapulars spotted and striped with
broadish black lines, on a ground of white, with consider-
able intervals between the lines ; the wing-coverts of much
darker grey than the back ; the wing-primaries brownish-
black ; the secondaries white, forming the speculum, but
tipped with black ; tertials as dark a grey as the smaller

346 ANATHLE.

wing-coverts ; rump and upper tail-coverts black ; tail-
feathers brownish-black ; breast, sides below the wing, and
the flanks pure white ; the portion of the belly behind the
legs marked with greyish lines, on a ground of white ;
under tail-coverts black ; legs and toes bluish-black, the
intervening membranes darker. The whole length eighteen
inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing nine
inches ; the first and second quill- feathers very nearly
equal in length, but the first rather the longer of the
two.

The head and neck of the female is of a dark brown
colour ; the beak lead colour ; around the base of the beak
in old females, a broad band of white ; the lower part of
the neck and breast dark brown ; the back and scapulars
light grey, transversely barred with irregular dusky lines ;
the greater quill-feathers dark brown ; the secondaries
white, tipped with dark brown ; the tail-feathers also dark
brown ; the belly dirty white ; under tail-coverts dusky
black ; the legs and toes dusky blue, the webs black. The
female is nearly as large as the male, and from the broad
white band occasionally to be found around the base of the
bill, has been figured and described as a distinct species
under various names.

Young birds resemble the females, generally, but the
light colour on the back is varied with brown spots.

AMERICAN SCAUP.

NA TA TORES.

347
ANATIDJE.

THE AMERICAN SCAUP.

Fuligula mariloides.

Fuliyula mariloides, American Scaup, VIGORS, Zoology of Captain Beechey'g

Voyage, page 31, note.

I AM indebted to the kindness of my friend, Mr. Henry
Doubleday, for the opportunity of figuring and describing a
Duck very closely allied to our Scaup ; differing from it, in-
deed, so little, that it has been doubted, by good authority,
whether it ought to be considered otherwise than as a
variety only. Since this specimen has been in my posses-
sion, for my use in this work, it has been examined in com-
parison with the true Scaup by several ornithological friends,
who believe, with Mr. Doubleday and myself, that it is
entitled to be described as distinct, and I have, therefore,

348 ANATID^E.

applied to it the specific term mariloides, as mentioned by
the late Mr. Vigors, in a quotation to be hereafter noticed.

The British Scaup Duck is well known in the United
States, and the accounts of the American ornithologists,
Messrs. Wilson, Audubon, and Nnttall, appear to refer to
the species which immediately precedes the present subject
in this work.

Sir W. Jardine, writing of the Scaup Duck, observes,
" In the Northern Zoology, the American specimens are
said to be smaller, but no other distinctions could be per-
ceived ; a single northern specimen which I possess, agrees
nearly with the dimensions given of the smaller kind, and
I can see no other important difference ; but there are also
larger-sized birds, known to the natives by the addition
of JceetcJiee to the name, and I think it probable that two
birds may be here confused, which future observations will
allow us to separate.""

Mr. Audubon, in his last work on the Birds of America,
which is but recently concluded, admits marila and
mariloides as distinct species.

Dr. Richardson's remarks on the Scaup Duck in the
Fauna Boreali- Americana, are as follows : — " Our speci-
mens are smaller than English ones killed in the winter,
the head, bill, wings, and legs, in particular, being propor-
tionally smaller, and the bill less high at the base. — A
variety, nearly corresponding with the English one in size,
is also found in the fur-countries, where it is distinguished
by the epithet of keetchee (bigger) : but an attentive ex-
amination of a number of specimens, disclosed no peculiari-
ties which could characterise it as a distinct species, except
its size. The undulated markings on the back and wings
are darker, and less extended than in the English speci-
mens." Mr. Swainson adds in a note at the bottom of the

AMERICAN SCAUP. 349

page, " one of these varieties (if such they be) is common
upon the lakes of Mexico/1

The late Mr. Vigors, who wrote the ornithological por-
tion of the volume published on the various subjects in
Zoology obtained during a voyage to the Pacific and
Behring's Straits, performed in H.M.S. Blossom, under the
command of Captain F. W. Beechey, appends the follow-
ing remarks to his notice of our Scaup Duck at page 31 : —

" Several specimens of a bird nearly allied to this species,
if not the same, were brought home by the expedition.
They uniformly differ from the typical Fuligula marila in
their smaller size ; in the black colour on the breast being
less intense and defined ; in the undulating white markings
being less diffused over the scapulars and back, and being
wanting almost entirely on the wing-coverts. Dr. Richard-
son, whose judgment on these points, and whose experience
respecting the birds of the Arctic Regions, entitles him to
every confidence, is inclined to consider these birds but as
a variety of the European species. Following his opinion,
I refrain from describing them as separate. It is, how-
ever, to be observedj that the true Fuligula marila is found
in North America, and there is less reason to believe the
birds alluded to above to be varieties resulting from climate
or locality. Should the species prove to be distinct, the
specific name of mariloides, which has been suggested by
Dr. Richardson, would be appropriate/1

I have not been able to find Dr. Richardson^s suggestion
of the name mariloides, (Scaup-like,) except in the quota-
tion here made, and examination of more examples of the
bird, than the single one here figured, may be considered
necessary to decide that this Duck is distinct from the
Scaup Duck. I have, however, adopted the name pro-
visionally.

350 AtfATID^E.

The bill is blue, equal in breadth throughout, the sides
being parallel ; the irides yellow ; head, cheeks, and upper
part of the neck all round rich Orleans plum-colour, but with
more of red than purple ; lower part of the neck, and upper
part of the breast, jet black ; all the back, scapulars, small
wing-coverts, and tertials, one uniform tint, produced by
fine black transverse lines on a ground colour of greyish-
white ; greater wing-coverts black ; wing primaries brown-
ish-black ; secondaries white, forming the speculum, and
tipped with black; rump and upper tail-coverts nearly
black ; tail-feathers dark brownish-black ; the sides below
the wings, and the flanks, covered with fine grey lines, on a
ground of white : lower part of the breast and the belly
mottled with pale greyish-brown and white ; vent dark grey,
almost as black as the under tail-coverts ; feet like the beak,
much smaller than these parts in the true Scaup, and
darker in colour, being of a more uniform bluish-black.

In the figures given, great care has been taken to present
the true relative appearance of the two birds.

I only know of this one example found in England,
which was purchased in Leadenhall market a few winters
since. The form of the trachea is unknown to me, and not
possessing any measurements taken before the bird was
preserved, I refrain from mentioning those which may not
exist in a state of nature.

ArJ TA TORES.

TUFTED DUCK.

351

AN AT ID M.

• '•

THE TUFTED DUCK.

Fuligula Cristata.

Anas fuligula, Tufted Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 249.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 386.

Nyroca „ „ „ FLKM. Brit. An. p. 122.

Fuligula cristata, „ Pochard, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 357.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 244.

„ „ „ Diick, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xii.

Anasfuligula, Canard morillon, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 873.

THE TUFTED DUCK is a constant and well-known winter
visiter to this country, frequenting our sea-coasts, estuaries
and lakes, where it generally remains till March. It is
frequently seen in company with the Pochard, the Scaup,
the Golden Eye, and other oceanic Ducks on our shores,
but, occasionally, also in small parties, and sometimes in
pairs only. It is a plump and short bird, depressed in
form, swimming low in the water ; and though it frequents

352 ANATID,E.

our rivers and other fresh-waters in considerable numbers,
it is considered a difficult Duck to take in a decoy on ac-
count of the facility with which it dives, and gets back in
the pipe towards the open entrance and the pool. Its food is
similar to that of the Scaup Duck, but, unlike that species,
its flesh is generally excellent, so much so, that from its
goodness this bird is sometimes called the Black Wigeon.

Tufted Ducks bred in confinement in the ponds at the
Gardens of the Zoological Society, during the summer of
1839-40, and 41, and again in 1845 ; but I do not remem-
ber to have met with any record of their breeding in a
wild state in Britain. The egg figured by Mr. Hewitson
was obtained from Holland, where a few pairs of these
birds are scattered during the season among the many
inland waters, and breed on their borders amongst the
thick cover which generally skirts them. They lay from
eight to ten eggs, in shape rather pointed at one end,
of a pale buff colour, tinged with green ; measuring two
inches and one-eighth in length, by one inch and three-
eighths in width.

Besides being found generally over England, even to
the southern shores during winter, it is also found along
the eastern coast of Ireland, but leaves both countries,
and also Scotland, in spring, for higher northern latitudes.
Faber includes it among the birds of Iceland, but it does
not appear to go farther to the westward. The Tufted
Duck is not found in North America, though sometimes so
stated. Mr. Richard Dann, says, " this Duck is by no
means common either in Norway or Sweden. I have met
with it in the neighbourhood of Lulea, on the Bothnian
Gulf, where it breeds ; and in spring it appears on the
coast and on the adjacent lakes and rivers in the south
of Sweden in small numbers." Linnaeus in his Tour

TUFTED DUCK. 353

mentions having seen this species at Lycksele in Lapland ;
it is also the Lapmarck Duck of Pennant's Arctic
Zoology, and is found in Russia.

During winter it visits France, Germany, Switzerland,
Provence, Italy, and other southern states. It is found
in Corfu and in Sicily, but is rare at Malta. Mr.
Drummond says it is very numerous at Biserta near
Tunis. The Zoological Society have received specimens
from Trebizond. The Russian naturalists found it was
common in the vicinity of the Caucasus in winter. Mr.
Gould mentions having received examples from the Black
Sea, Northern India, and the Himalaya. Colonel Sykes
includes it among the birds of the Dukhun ; B. Hodgson
Esq. includes it in his Birds of Nepal, Mr. Blyth has
obtained it at Calcutta, it is found in China, and M.
Temminck says that specimens sent from Japan do not
differ from those obtained in Europe.

The adult male has the bill pale blue, except the nail,
which is black ; in form nearly parallel, or but little
dilated towards the point ; the irides brilliant golden
yellow ; the head, the whole of the neck, the back, rump,
tail and wings black, except a small portion of each of the
secondaries of the wing, which is white, forming a white
bar, or speculum, but tipped with black ; the sides of the
head, behind and below the eyes, are tinged with purple ;
the occipital feathers considerably elongated, forming a
crest or tuft, from which the bird derives its name ; at the
chin a small triangular spot of white ; breast, belly, sides,
and flanks, pure white ; vent, and under tail-coverts
black ; legs and toes dark blue, the webs black. The
whole length of the bird seventeen inches ; of the wing
from the carpal joint to the end eight inches ; the first and
second quill-feathers nearly equal in length.

VOL. III. A A

354

ANATID.E.

The female is dark brown on all those parts which in
the old male are black ; the white of the under surface of
the body less pure in colour, being tinged with grey, or
pale ash-brown ; the speculum of the wing white, as in the
male.

I have seen a dead female that was known to be old,
with the feathers at the base of the upper mandible
speckled with white, like the adult female of the Scaup ;
and with some elongation of the occipital feathers.

The trachea in this species is about seven inches long,
the tube somewhat larger at the upper end, below that
of nearly equal diameter throughout ; the figure under-
neath shows the form of the tympanum.

NATATORES.

LONG-TAILED DUCK.

355

ANATIDM.

THE LONG-TAILED DUCK.

Fuligula glacialis.

Anas glacialis, Long-tailed Dtick, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 268.

„ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 375.

Clangula „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 121.

Harelda „ Hareld, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 363.

„ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 247.

„ Duck, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. vii.

Anas Canard de Miclon, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 860.

THIS beautiful species, remarkable for great diversity in
the appearance of its plumage, depending on age, sex, or
the season of the year, is another winter visiter to the
British shores, and that, too, only in small numbers, except
the weather is severe ; for this bird remains in the north
as long as any surface of water remains unfrozen. The
specimens obtained in this country are also, for the
most part, young birds of the previous season, which are

356 ANATIM.

observed generally to take a wider range than those of
greater experience. These Ducks are most frequently
found on the coast, not far from land, in sheltered bays, or
estuaries ; but have been occasionally taken in inland
counties. Mr. W. Borrer, jun. sent me notice of an
adult male killed in Huntingdonshire, in January 1838.
This species has been killed a few times on the south
coast of Devonshire ; and Charles Prideaux Esq. -who
resides near Kingsbridge, sent me a notice with a coloured
drawing of a young bird killed in the estuary at Kings-
bridge, late in December last. This bird has also been
killed on the coast of Dorsetshire. I have more than
once obtained young birds in their first winter in the
London markets at a low price, being sometimes unknown,
and not at that age attractive in colour. It is considered a
rare bird, but has been killed on the coasts of Kent,
Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. I saw a very recently killed
adult specimen in November 1843.

Of this bird, on the other side of the Channel, M. Tem-
minck says, that it appears rather often on the coast of
Holland, and occasionally visits the large lakes of Ger-
many. M. Vieillot says that it is rare on the coast of
France. According to M. Schinz it has been obtained two
or three times on the large lakes of Switzerland. A young
bird has been taken at Naples; and in November 1824,
a young bird was taken near Pisa ; this species is, there-
fore, included by M. Savi, in his Birds of Italy.

To return to our own country, Mr. Selby notices the
Long-tailed Duck as a winter visitant to the shores of
Durham and Northumberland ; Mr. Heysham has ob-
tained it on the west coast of Cumberland ; and Mr. W.
Thompson mentions having procured specimens four winters
in succession from Belfast Bay.

LONG-TAILED DUCK. 357

Mr. Robert Dunn, in his useful little book, says, " this
species, which is there called ' Calico/ is very plentiful
both in Orkney and Shetland, arriving about the middle
of October, and departing again in March. It is to be
met with in all the inlets or voes, generally in large flocks,
never far from the land, feeding upon small shell-fish and
star-fish. When on the wing it utters a musical cry,
something like ' calloo,' which may be heard to a great
distance ; from this cry it derives its provincial name."

The Long-tailed Duck is well known in Denmark, and
among its numerous islands. Mr. W. C. Hewitson, in
his work on the eggs of our British Birds, says, " we
met with many whilst in Norway ; and although those
which we shot and dissected had every appearance of
being shortly about to breed, yet they were always in
flocks, roving from place to place, and apparently un-
attached to any particular spot; sometimes sweeping
past, within a few yards of us, with great rapidity,
uttering their strikingly-wild and most interesting cries.
Several eggs of this bird were brought home by the
officers of the Arctic expeditions; for the one figured
I am indebted to the liberality of my friend, Mr. G. C.
Atkinson, who, during an excursion in Iceland, had the
good fortune to meet with a nest of the Long-tailed
Duck ; it was placed near the margin of a small lake,
and lined with the down of the female ; the eggs were
six in number, but would most probably have been in-
creased to ten or twelve, the usual number of this tribe
of birds.''1 Mr. Procter, who also visited Ireland, sent
me word that he found this Duck rather common there,
making its nest generally among low bushes, by the
edge of the fresh- water ; the nest, composed of a few
stems of grass, and well lined with down ; the eggs,

358 ANATID^E.

from six to ten in number ; in one instance twelve eggs
were found in one nest. The eggs are of a pale green-
ish white, with a tinge of buff colour; the length two
inches two lines, by one inch and a half in breadth.
These birds are expert divers, feeding in shallow water
on rnollusca, Crustacea, and marine insects. In the
stomachs of two examined by myself, I found the remains
of our common mussel and shrimps. The flesh of this
species is coarse, hard, and fishy.

This Duck is found among the Faroe Islands ; and the
notes of Richard Dann, Esq. in reference to this species in
Scandinavia, are as follows : — " The Long-tailed Ducks
are very numerous on the coasts of Norway and Sweden
during the winter, but are seen in greatest numbers off
the coast of Scona. Towards the middle of March they
begin to draw north, and by the latter end of May
appear in vast numbers on the streams and lakes in the
mountain-range which divides Finmark from Swedish
Lapland. As the season advances they take themselves
to the more elevated and smaller lakes, but in Lapland
are not generally found within the range of the dwarf-
birch. I have seen great numbers on the Calix lakes.
In the Dofre Fiell, a few straggling pairs make their
appearance and breed. They arrived the last week in
May, on the lakes and swamps within the range of the
birch, and continued to increase in numbers until the
14th of June, when I lost sight of them on the lakes
where they had been most abundant. On ascending,
however, to the small lakes in the valleys still higher
up the mountains, and at an elevation where the creeping-
birch and dwarf- willow can only vegetate, I again found
them in pairs the last week in June; the ice had not
then entirely disappeared on these lakes. In July, I again

LONG-TAILED DUCK. 359

lost sight of the females, but frequently found, and shot
the males in the most elevated lakes and small pools
in the snow-mountains. Those I shot were filled with
the larvae of aquatic insects. They, undoubtedly, breed
in the Dofre Fiell. I saw one night as many as twenty
males in a flock fly by. I was not fortunate enough to
find the nest, but got specimens throughout the whole
summer."

This Duck is abundant in Russia, and in summer
visits Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. In reference to
its high geographical range, its most common name in
northern countries is the Arctic Duck. The Long-tailed
Duck was found by our Arctic voyagers at Greenland
and as far as the North Georgian Isles. It was also
particularly noticed by Dr. Richardson, Captain James
Ross, and Mr. King. The first coloured representations
of this species, in two states of plumage, are, probably,
those of our countrymen, Edwards, plates 156 and 280,
both taken from male birds, the first brought from Hud-
son's Bay, in summer plumage : the second from New-
foundland, in the plumage of winter.

It is well known in North America and the United
States; its habits are detailed by the Ornithologists of
that country, Messrs. Wilson, Audubon, and Nuttall, and
it is stated to have been found in winter as far south as
Carolina. Mr. Audubon says, " in the course of one of
my rambles along the borders of a large fresh-water lake,
near Bras d\>r, in Labrador, on the 28th of July, 1833,
I was delighted by the sight of several young broods
of this species of Duck, all carefully attended to by their
anxious and watchful mothers. Not a male bird was
on the lake, which was fully two miles distant from the
sea, and I concluded that in this species, as in many

360 ANATID^E.

others, the males abandon the females after incubation
has commenced.1'' Both sexes are active, noisy, and rest-

The adult male in winter has the nail, and the basal
half of the bill black, the intermediate portion pale red-
dish-brown ; the irides hazel ; the cheeks and ear-coverts,
including the space round the eye, brownish-buff ; below
this on each side of the neck an oval patch of dark brown,
inclining to chestnut-brown at the lower margin ; forehead,
top of the head, back, and front of the neck, and the lower
part of the neck all round, below the dark brown patch,
pure white ; the middle line of the back, the rump, and
the elongated tail-feathers nearly black ; scapulars, tertials,
and short outside tail-feathers white ; wing-coverts and
primaries dark brownish-black; the secondaries reddish-
brown ; the whole of the breast black ; belly, sides, flanks,
vent, and under tail coverts white ; legs and toes pale
bluish-lead colour, the webs almost black. The whole
length, without including the elongated tail-feathers, seven-
teen inches : to the end of the long tail-feathers twenty-
two to twenty-four inches ; from the carpal joint of the
wing to end of the longest primary nine inches ; the first
and second quill- feathers nearly equal and the longest in the
wing.

The winter plumage is generally perfected by the
middle of October : the summer plumage is assumed by
the end of May, and at that time only the space around
the eye is pale buff, mixed with a little white; all the
other parts of the head, neck, back, wings, and breast
black ; the scapulars and tertials black, each feather with
a broad edge of rufous-brown ; belly, and under surface
of the body white, as in winter ; bill, irides, and legs the
same.

LONG-TAILED DUCK. 361

A male killed while intermediate, or in change with
reference to the two states of plumage described, had the
forehead black ; top of the head and the occiput white ;
cheeks brownish buff; all the neck mottled with black
and white ; scapulars and tertials white at the base,
black in the centre, and reddish-brown on the margin;
secondaries distinguished from the coverts and the primaries
by their lighter reddish-brown colour.

Females have the forehead, crown, and back of the
neck, dark brown; the lore, or space between the base
of the bill and the eye, the ear-coverts, and sides of the
neck greyish-white ; below the ear-coverts, on both sides,
a patch of brown ; all the back and wings dark brown ;
primaries and tail-feathers almost black ; neck, in front,
light brown, clouded with darker brown; breast, belly,
and under tail-coverts white ; thighs and flanks pale ash-
brown,

Females measure about sixteen inches in length, and
do not assume the white scapulars or the elongated tail-
feathers.

Young birds for the first twelve months resemble the
females. Young males in their first winter may be distin-
guished from young females by being a little larger in size,
and in having the brown and the white parts about the
head and neck rather more pure in colour, and their limits
better defined.

I am indebted to Richard Dann, Esq., for the use of a
beautiful series of examples of this species, from which the
various descriptions here given were derived. They were
the specimens referred to as shot at various periods through-
out the year in different parts of Scandinavia.

The trachea of the male is about seven inches in length,
and very singular in its structure. At the bottom of the

362

ANATIDJI.

tube four window-like apertures, as well as the kidney-
shaped tympanum, are closed by a delicate membrane.
The vignette exhibits this curious structure in two points
of view. The windpipe of the female is of the common
or ordinary form, yet both sexes are said to have the
same notes.

HARLEQUIN DUCK.

NATATORES.

ANATIDM.

THE HARLEQUIN DUCK.

Fuligula Jiistrionica.

Anas histrionica, Harlequin Duck, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 269, Edit 1812.

„ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 388.

Clangula „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 120.

Garrot, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 371.

„ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 246.

Duck., EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 84.

„ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

Anas „ Canard Histrion., TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 878.

THIS beautiful species, which, from the great variety in
its colours and markings, is called the Harlequin Duck,
is another of the winter visiters to our coast, but is still
more rare than the Long-tailed Duck last described. The

364 ANATID.E.

Harlequin Duck was first noticed as a British Duck in
the Ornithological Dictionary of Colonel Montagu, pub-
lished in 1802. His descriptions were taken from a pair
of birds that had been killed in Scotland, and sent by
Lord Seaforth to Mr. James Sowerby, who published co-
loured figures of them in 1806, in his British Miscellany,
tab. 6, page 11. Mr. Sowerby afterwards received a
young female of the same species from Mr. Simmons, who
shot it on one of the Orkneys. It is, however, a very
rare bird here, and but few occurrences are recorded. Dr.
Edward Moore has noticed one that was obtained in
Devonshire, in the winter of 1830. Some years since I
bought two in the London market during the same winter ;
both of them were young females. Mr. Paget has re-
corded one that was obtained at Yarmouth ; and the
gamekeeper of Sir Philip Egerton shot one, a female, in
Cheshire, in December 1840, during a frost.

It has been taken on the coast of France, according to
M. Vieillot, and occasionally in Germany. M. Nilsson
says it visits Sweden; it is said to be found in Eussia,
and from Lake Baikal to Kamschatka.

The Harlequin Duck breeds in Iceland ; and the egg
figured in Mr. Hewitson's work was brought from that
island by G. C. Atkinson, Esq. of Newcastle, " who found
a nest containing seven or eight eggs, deposited in a bed
of the bird's down, upon the grass, bordering the margin
of a shallow lake." The egg is of a pale buff colour,
tinged with green, and measuring two inches one-eighth
in length, by one inch five-eighths in breadth. This Duck
also inhabits Greenland, and the most northern parts of
the American continent. Dr. Eichardson, in reference to
its habits, says that it haunts eddies under cascades, and
rapid streams. It takes wing at once when disturbed,

HARLEQUIN DUCK. 365

and is very vigilant. It was never seen associating with
any other Duck. Coloured figures of both sexes will be
found in Edwards'1 Gleanings in Natural History, and
these are among the earliest representations of this species.
Plate 99 represents an adult male, brought from New-
foundland, where, on account of its variegated plumage,
it is called the Painted Duck. Plate 157 is a represen-
tation of a female brought from Hudson"^ Bay, where the
male, from his fine appearance, is called the Lord Duck.

This species is well known to American ornithologists.
Mr. Audubon says, " On the 31st of May, 1833, I found
them breeding on White Head Island, and other much
smaller places of a similar nature, in the same part of the
Bay of Fundy. There they place their nests under the
bushes, or amid the grass, at the distance of twenty or
thirty yards from the water. Farther north, in New-
foundland and Labrador, for example, they remove from
the sea, and betake themselves to small lakes a mile or so
in the interior, on the margins of which they form their
nests beneath the bushes, next to the water. The nest
is composed of dry plants of various kinds, arranged in a
circular manner to the height of two or three inches, and
lined with finer grasses. The eggs are five or six, rarely
more, measure two inches and one sixteenth, by one inch
and nine-sixteenths, and are of a plain greenish-yellow
colour. After the eggs are laid, the female plucks the
down from the lower parts of her body, and places it
beneath and around them, in the same manner as the
Eider Duck and other species of this tribe. The male
leaves her to perform the arduous, but, no doubt, to her
pleasant, task of hatching and rearing the brood, and,
joining his idle companions, returns to the sea-shore, where
he moults in July and August."

366 ANATID^E.

The adult male has the bill bluish-black ; the irides
orange ; forehead, crown, back of the neck, around the
eyes, the cheeks, and sides of the neck bluish-black, tinged
with violet colour ; at the base of the bill, and on the
ear-coverts, a patch of white ; over the eyes, and down
the neck behind the ear-coverts, are streaks of white, that
over the eye varied with rufous below, and reaching to
the occiput ; at the bottom of the neck, and again below
across the chest, are bands of white ; beneath the first,
and above and below the second, are narrow bands of
black ; back, wing-coverts, and rump, bluish-black ; pri-
mary quill-feathers and tail dull black ; scapulars and se-
condaries white ; front of neck between the crescentic
bands bluish-grey ; breast below the second band, and the
belly dusky grey, becoming darker towards the vent and
under tail-coverts, which are bluish-black ; sides of the
body and flanks rufous, or chestnut ; legs and toes blue,
the membranes darker. The whole length seventeen inches ;
the wing, from the bend eight inches ; the first quill-
feather the longest. The female is considerably smaller
than the male, and of a nearly uniform brown colour
above, but mottled on the front of the neck and on the
breast with two shades of brown, and with a patch of
more or less pure white on the forehead, as well as before
and behind the eye ; the belly whitish. Whole length
fourteen inches ; of the wing, from the carpal joint, seven
inches.

Young males, during their first winter, like the females,
but, in the second year, according to Mr. Audubon, " are
greyish-brown on the back and wings, light brownish-grey
beneath. The head and neck are of a dull leaden-blue,
the upper part of the head darker. The white spot be-
fore the eye is mottled with grey, the line extending over

HARLEQUIN DUCK. 367

the eye obscure, and the edging of the occiput faint red-
dish-brown. The two white marks exist on the sides of
the neck, but are merely edged with darker blue ; there
are slight indications of the white collar, and the band
before the wing is marked, but much smaller than in the
adult. The quills are dark brown, but the secondaries
are not tipped with white, of which there are but slight
indications on the scapulars. The upper tail-coverts are
blackish, the tail bluish-grey, lighter at the end. The bill
is dusky ; the feet of a leaden tint. The male in the
third year, and after his second moult, has greatly im-
proved in colouring, although the tints are not nearly so
pure as in the old bird. The hind part of the neck is
still brown, as are the wing-coverts ; the sides are dark
brownish-grey, with undulated yellowish-red bars. The
white collar is not yet complete, but all the white mark-
ings on the neck are edged with black ; the fore part of
the breast is dull grey, the middle yellowish-grey, spotted
with bluish-grey. The white bar on the wing is still
wanting ; the rump is glossy bluish-black, the tail nearly
of the same tint."

I have never been able to obtain a specimen of the wind-
pipe of the male of this species ; it is thus described by
Mr. Audubon : " is six inches and a half in length, has
at first a breadth of only three lines, but at the distance
of three-quarters of an inch, enlarges to four and a half
lines, and so continues for two inches , it then contracts to
two and a half lines, and again at the lower part enlarges to
five and a quarter lines, and terminates in a large transverse
bony dilatation or tympanum, of which the length is seven
and a half lines, the breadth one inch two lines ; it pro-
jects as usual to the left side, where it is of a rounded
form."

368

NAT A TORES.

ANATID^E.

AN ATI DM.

THE GOLDEN EYE.

Fuligula clangula.

Anas clangula, Golden Eye Duck,

„ glaucion, The Morillon,
Clangula vulgaris, Golden Eye,

„ „ Common ,, Duck,

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 253.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 381.
„ „ „ 385.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 120.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 367.

„ chrysopthalmos, Golden Eye Garrot, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 245.
„ vulgaris, „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. i.

Anas clangula, Canard Garrot, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 870.

THE GOLDEN EYE is another species of Duck, which
visits this country in small flocks every winter, and is well
known on most parts of our coast, particularly the females
and young birds of the year, which are much more nu-
merous, and more easily procured than adult males. These

GOLDEN EYE. 369

birds resort to, and feed in, the estuaries, or at a short
distance up rivers that fall into the sea ; they are, also,
sometimes obtained on inland waters, both in decoys and
by the gun. They are active in the water, swimming and
diving with great rapidity, and when in pursuit of their
food, which consists principally of small fishes ; if five or
six of these Ducks are together, they do not all dive at
the same time, but some of them remain on the surface,
as sentinels, where they keep a good look-out to prevent
being approached and surprised by an enemy. The flesh
of this species, like that of other Ducks feeding on fish,
is not in much estimation. Young birds are better than
old ones, but the muscular parts are dark and coarse both
in appearance and flavour.

The Golden Eye is a regular winter visiter to Ireland,
as well as to England and Scotland ; it also visits Ork-
ney and Shetland, but all of them leave in spring for
Scandinavia, and countries still farther north. Mr. Hew-
itson, when with his party in Norway, found a nest of the
Golden Eye ; it was in a tree, in a hole lately occupied
by the Great Black Woodpecker, at the height of ten or
twelve feet from the ground ; but though the aperture
inside was about a foot in diameter, and lined with the
soft down of the bird, the external opening was so small
that it was with difficulty the hand could be inserted.
The eggs were green, and measured two inches and three-
eighths in length, by one inch five-eighths in breadth.

The notes supplied me by Richard Dann, Esq., are as
follows : — " The Golden Eye is numerously spread over
the whole of Lapland, as far as the wooded districts ex-
tend, both to the westward range of mountains which se-
parate Norway from Sweden, as well as the eastern parts.
It breeds in small numbers on the coast of Norway, but

VOL. Ill, B B

370 ANATID^E.

not from Stavanger northward, and on the Dofre Fiell
Mountains. It prefers rivers to lakes, particularly the
neighbourhood of falls and rapids. The Laps and settlers
place boxes, with an entrance-hole, in the trees, on the banks
of the rivers and lakes in which the Golden Eye lays its eggs.
Although the birds are always robbed of their eggs, they
gain nothing by experience, but seem to have such a pre-
dilection for holes in trees that if such cavities are to be
found, artificial or natural, they always appear to prefer
them to any other locality. The Golden Eye seems never
to be driven from the north except by the waters freezing
up. During the long and dreadful winter of 18*37, the
Golden Eye did not altogether migrate ; the streams at
Trolhattan, under the falls, and at various rapids and
open parts of the rivers, the Golden Eyes were, in con-
siderable numbers, all the winter, in company with the
Goosander, while all the Ducks, Mallards, and Wigeons,
were starved to death and found dead upon the ice.
There have been speculations and opinions as to the mode
the Golden Eye adopts to carry its young down from the
holes of the trees in which they are hatched, which are
frequently twelve or fifteen feet from the ground, arid at
some distance from the water. That the bird does tran-
sport them is beyond doubt. There is, I believe, but one
person who has ever actually witnessed the manner. M.
Nilsson was not aware of it. The Laps, whom I fre-
quently interrogated, were also ignorant, beyond the mere
fact of the bird carrying them. The clergyman, however,
at Quickiock, in Lulean Lapmark, near the source of that
chain of vast lakes whence the Lulean river flows, was
once a witness. Contrary to the general character of the
Lap clergymen in Lapland, this gentleman, with little to
employ him, took a great interest in natural history and

GOLDEN EYE. 371

botany. While botanizing by the side of the lake near
Quickiock, where Golden Eyes breed in great numbers, he
saw a Golden Eye drop into the water, and at the same
instant a young one appeared ; after watching some time,
and seeing the bird fly backwards and forwards from the
nest five times, he was enabled to make out that the young
bird was held under the bill, but supported by the neck of
the parent."

West of Scandinavia the Golden Eye is found at the
Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland ; and is well known
and described by the ornithologists of North America.
East of Great Britain it is found in winter in Holland and
Germany ; on the coast of France, and also, sometimes, in
the interior. It visits, though rarely, the lakes of Switzer-
land, and has been taken in Provence. M. Savi includes it
in his Birds of Italy, and mentions, that from the circum-
stance of this Duck having a light-coloured patch in addi-
tion to its light-coloured eye on each side of its head, it is,
in different parts of that country, called Quattr-occki, (four
eyes). It is common in Sicily in winter. The Zoological
Society have received specimens, sent by Keith Abbott,
Esq., from Trebizond ; the Russian naturalists found it in
the vicinity of the Caucasus; and M. Temminck says that
the Golden Eye of Japan is identical with the bird of
Europe.

The Ornithological Society of London have preserved a
female Golden Eye on the canal in St. Jameses Park for
the last two years ; she associates constantly with a male
Smew.

The adult male has the bill bluish-black; the irides
golden-yellow ; at the base of the upper mandible a round-
ish white patch ; head, and sides of the neck, rich glossy
green, the feathers on the occiput a little elongated ; chin

B B 2

372 ANATID^E.

and throat black ; lower part of the neck all round white ;
middle line of the back and the rump bluish-black ; tail-
feathers greyish-black ; point of wing black ; both sets of
wing-coverts black at the base, white at the end ; primaries
and tertials black ; secondaries and scapulars white, the
latter edged with black ; breast, belly, and under tail-
coverts white ; flanks and thighs dull greyish-black ; legs
and toes yellow, the connecting membranes black. The
whole length nineteen inches ; from the carpal joint to the
end of the wing nine inches ; the first quill-feather the
longest in the wing.

The female is smaller than the male, and has the bill
brownish-black at the base, orange-brown towards the
point ; the head, and upper part of the neck all round,
hair-brown, below this a broad collar of white ; lower part
of neck, back, rump, and tail-feathers greyish black, edged
with bluish-grey ; smaller wing-coverts edged with white ;
secondaries and greater coverts white ; primaries dusky ;
breast and belly greyish-white ; sides, flanks, and under
tail-coverts mottled with greyish-black ; legs, toes, and
their membranes as in the males.

Young birds, for the first six months, resemble the
female, but young males beginning to assume their proper
colours, have the brown of the head darker ; the occipital
feathers slightly elongated, causing the head to appear
bushy and large ; the white colour on the wings occupies
more surface, and being purer in its tint is more conspicu-
ous ; the scapulars exhibit some white lines ; the back is
darker, almost black ; and the bird is altogether larger in
size ; in this state it has been called the Morillon, and was
considered, for a time, a species distinct from the Golden
Eye, but repeated examinations of the internal parts, par-
ticularly the organ of voice, has proved it to be the young

GOLDEN EYE. 373

of the bird first described. I have seen young males putting
forth n few small white feathers, the commencement of the
white patch at the base of the upper mandible, by the end
of January, but it more frequently begins at a later period,
namely, in March.

The trachea of this species is singular in its form, differ-
ing from the character of those of the Ducks in general, and
bearing some resemblance to those of the Mergansers, both
in the tube and in the labyrinth. The length is about nine
inches, the diameter of the upper half of the tube equal in
size and small ; at the commencement of the second half,
the tube is dilated to four times the previous size, _and the
rings are so arranged as to lay flat upon each other. The
last, or fourth, portion again contracts till it ends in the
labyrinth, of which the vignette below represents the sur-
face nearest the back of the bird. The bronchial tubes are
observed to be unequal in length, to compensate for the
obliquity of the inferior surface of the labyrinth, which, as
usual, is made up partly of bone and partly of membrane.
The voice is said to be very loud, and hence this Duck was
called clangula.

374 ANATID^E.

NATATORES.

ANATWjE.

BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK.

Fuligula albeola.

Clangula albeola, Buffel-lieaded Garrot, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 246.
Fuligula „ Bujfel-lieaded Duck, BONAPARTE, AUDUBON, and others.

THIS species was included by Mr. Donovan in his British
Birds, volume 10, plate 226, but no authority was named
on which it was given, nor any record of the place of cap-
ture. In the winter of 1830, or about that time, a male
was shot near Yarmouth, in Norfolk, which passed into the
possession of Mr. Stephen Miller, a resident there, who
prized it very highly. Of Mr. Miller's bird, Mr. Joseph
Clarke, of Saffron Walden, very kindly sent me a drawing.

BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK. 375

This bird is also referred to by Mr. Paget, in his Sketch of
the Natural History of Yarmouth and its vicinity, page 11.
From a recent conversation with the Rev. Richard Lubbock,
who is well acquainted with the extensive waters near Yar-
mouth visited by numerous birds, I have reason to believe
that other examples of the Buffel-headed Duck have been
seen in winter in that country, but the bird is very shy, and
from its power of diving very difficult to get at. The boat-
shooters there, or some of them at least, call this bird the
true Morillon ; they are well acquainted with the Golden
Eye, or Rattle-wings, as they call it, in every state of its
plumage, and therefore, very properly, consider their Morillon
(this Buffel-headed Duck) as distinct from the Golden Eye.

In the autumn of 1841 Mr. Mummery, the curator of
the Museum of Natural History at Margate, sent me word
that during a visit to Orkney, from which he had then but
recently returned, he had obtained a Buffel-headed Duck
there, which was intended for the Margate Museum.

This species is well known to the naturalists of North
America, and to their histories we must refer for an account
of its habits. Mr. Audubon says " that during autumn and
winter it is to be seen in almost every part of the Union,
frequenting the sea-shore, rivers, and lakes. It feeds on
shell-fish, shrimps, and marine plants, particularly the
species of laver called Ulva lactuca, and the bird being
generally very fat, one of its common names is Butter-
box ; it is also called Spirit Duck, and Conjuror, from the
facility with which it escapes by diving suddenly at the
flash of a gun, or the twang of a bowstring. The Buffel-
headed Duck is a very hardy bird, for it remains during
extremely cold weather on the Ohio, when it is thickly
covered with floating ice, among which it is seen diving
almost constantly in search of food. When the river is

376 ANATID^E.

frozen over they seek the head waters of the rapid streams,
in the turbulent eddies of which they find abundance of
prey. Possessed of a feeling of security arising from the
rapidity with which they can dive, they often allow you to
go quite near them, though they will then watch every
motion, and at the snap of your gun, or on its being dis-
charged, disappear with the swiftness of thought, and, per-
haps, as quickly rise again within a few yards, as if to ascer-
tain the cause of their alarm. When these birds return to
us from the north, the number of the young so much exceed
that of the old, that to find males in full plumage is much
more uncommon than toward the time of their departure,
when I have thought the males as numerous as the females.
Although at times they are very fat, their flesh is fishy and
disagreeable ; many of them, however, are offered for sale
in our markets.

" The note is a mere croak, much resembling that of the
Golden Eye, but not so loud." These birds leave the
United States in spring to breed in more northern regions,
and, like the Golden Eye, are said to make their nests in
hollow trees. Mr. Audubon saw many in flocks in the
Bay of Fundy. The specimen figured by Edwards, plate
100, came from Newfoundland. Dr. Richardson states
that they frequent the rivers and fresh- water lakes through-
out the Fur countries in great numbers, but does not men-
tion having observed them breeding. Dr. Townsend found
this species on the streams of the Rocky Mountains ; and
it has been observed as far westward as Monterey, in New
California. Captain Beechey, during a voyage to the
Pacific and Behring's Straits, found this Duck at San
Francisco.

In the adult male the bill is bluish-black, narrow, and
small; irides hazel; forehead, lore, chin, throat, and sides

BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK. 377

of the neck, bluish-black, tinged with rich purple and
green ; behind the eye, on the ear-coverts, and thence
upwards to the crown of the head, and backwards to the
occiput, a triangular patch of pure white ; the feathers of
the head elongated forming a crest which is elevated at
pleasure ; lower part of the neck white ; back, rump, and
tertials black ; scapulars, wing- coverts, and secondaries
white ; primaries greyish-black ; tail-coverts and tail-fea-
thers pale ash-grey ; breast, belly, and all the under surface
of the body white ; legs, toes, and membranes yellow.
Whole length fifteen inches. From the carpal joint to
the end of the longest quill-feather six inches and three-
quarters.

The female is smaller than the male ; the head and neck
ash-brown, with a patch of white behind the eye ; upper
part of the back greyish-brown, lower part black ; wing-
coverts, primaries, and tertials dark greyish-brown ; se-
condaries white ; tail ash-grey; breast and belly dull
white ; vent and under tail-coverts greyish- white ; legs and
toes bluish-black : whole length thirteen inches ; wing six
inches and one-quarter. Young males in the first autumn
resemble females.

The trachea, described by Mr. Audubon, " is five inches
long, much flattened, its rings unossified, its diameter at the
top two lines and three-quarters, towards the lower part
three lines, having scarcely any appearance of dilatation at
the part which is so excessively enlarged in the Golden-
Eyed Duck, which, in form and habits, is yet very closely
allied."

The specimens from which the figure and descriptions
here given were derived, were obligingly lent me for my
use in this work by Mr. Joseph Clarke of Saffron Walden.

378

NATATORES.

ANATIDJ2.

ANATIDJE.

THE SMEW

Mergm albellus, Smew Merganser ; PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 216.

„ „ The Smeiv, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii.p. 276, male.

„ Lough Diver, „ „ „ „ 278, female.

„ „ White-headed Goosander, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 129.

„ „ Smew, or White Nun, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 385.

„ „ The Smew, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 250.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. i.

„ „ Harle /'iette, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 887.

MERGUS. Generic characters. — Bill about as long, or longer than the head,
straight, slender, rather pointed, the base large, forming an elongated and almost
a cylindrical cone ; point of the upper mandible curved, and, with the horny nail,
forming a hook ; edges of both mandibles furnished with saw-like teeth, the
points directed backwards. Nostrils lateral, about the middle of the beak, longi-
tudinally elliptic. Legs short, placed rather backward ; three toes in front
webbed, hind toe with a pendant lobe or membrane. Wings moderate, the first
and second quill-feathers nearly equal in length.

SMEW. 379

BY reversing the usual order of arrangement of the spe-
cies of this genus, and placing the smallest bird first, the
transition from the oceanic Ducks to the Mergansers is
easy and natural, agreeing as well in general appearance
as they are known to assimilate in habits. The Smew,
or Smee, as it is sometimes called, is a winter visiter here,
and the most common species of the genus, frequenting
our rivers and large pieces of fresh water, as well as most
parts of the coast. The adult male is a handsome bird,
remarkable for the contrast, rather than the variety of
the colours of his plumage. Young birds, frequently
called Bed-headed Smews, are much more common in our
markets than old males. As a species they are shy and
vigilant, taking long flights occasionally. They feed on
small fish, Crustacea, and aquatic insects, which they obtain
without difficulty, as they are excellent divers, but when
walking they appear to labour in their progression from
the backward position of their legs.

Smews are not mentioned as having been known to
breed in this country, but leave us in spring to return to
more northern, or rather, north-eastern localities. Richard
Dann, Esq. tells me these birds are very common in the
Elbe in winter, and that he has seen them at the entrance
of the Stockholm Fiord in November, but nowhere else.
Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says, that in the Russian
Empire Smews frequent the same places with the Goos-
ander ; each of them retiring southward at the approach
of winter ; and are observed returning up the Volga in
February, tending towards the north. The nesting habits
of the Smew are unknown, but the eggs are said to be
eight or ten in number, and the colour whitish.

This bird is not found on the west coast of Norway, on
the Faroe Islands, in Iceland, or Greenland. The species

380 ANATID^E.

was not observed by any of our Arctic travellers either
on the northern parts of the American continent or any
of the numerous islands, and there is reason to believe
that it is only an accidental straggler to the United States.
In this country it is well known on the east, south, and
west coats ; and Mr. W. Thompson mentions having seen
specimens from different parts of Ireland. East of our own
country the Smew is rather common in Holland and
Germany in winter, more rare in France, frequents also
the lakes of Switzerland ; and has been observed there as
late as May ; it visits also Provence and Italy, young
birds have been observed at Corfu and in Sicily. The
Smew has been found as far south as Tinos, in the Grecian
Archipelago. Mr. Strickland saw specimens at Smyrna
in winter. The Zoological Society have received speci-
mens, sent by Keith Abbott, Esq. from Trebizond ; and
the Russian naturalists include it in the catalogue of Birds
found in the country of the Caucasus. It has been ob-
tained in North- Western India, and at Calcutta. Finally,
M. Temminck remarks that specimens received from Japan
do not differ from those killed in Europe.

In the adult male the bill is one inch and a half long,
and of a bluish-lead colour, the nail horny and white ; the
irides reddish-brown ; at the base of the bill on each side
a black patch, which just surrounds the eye ; from the
crown of the head down the line of the occiput, another
dark patch elongated, which is tinged with green, the dark
feathers mixed with others that are white, and all some-
what elongated forming a crest ; the other parts of the
head, the chin, and all the neck white ; the back black ;
rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers ash-grey ; the
point of the wing greyish-black, with two crescentric lines
of black pointing forward, one before and one behind the

SMEW. 381

point of the wing ; the small wing-coverts and scapulars
white, the latter edged with black ; great coverts and se-
condaries black, tipped with white, forming two narrow
white bands ; the primaries nearly black ; tertials ash-grey
passing to lead-grey, the inner feathers being the darkest
in colour ; all the under surface of the body pure white ;
the sides under the wing and the flanks barred with nar-
row ash-grey lines ; legs, toes, and their membranes bluish
and lead-grey. The whole length seventeen inches and a
half; the wing from the carpal joint to the end of the
longest quill-feather, seven inches and three-quarters.

An adult male, belonging to the Ornithological Society
of London, which has lived more than two years on the
canal in St. James's Park, assumes the colours of the
plumage of the adult female before the middle of June,
remaining in that state during the summer, re-assuming
his white plumage at the regular autumn moult. This
bird associates constantly with a female Golden Eye, but
not with any other species.

Adult females have the bill and the irides of the same
colours as those of the males, with a black patch at the
base of the upper mandible ; all the top of the head reddish-
brown ; down the back of the neck a streak of ash-grey,
which extends to form a collar at the bottom, and spreads
thence over the space before the wings and on the upper
part of the back ; centre of the back, the rump, upper
tail-coverts, and tail-feathers greyish-black ; point of the
wing ash-grey ; smaller wing-coverts pure white ; greater
coverts and secondaries black, tipped with white as in the
male, but the two white bands are narrower than those
of the male ; primaries nearly black ; tertials lead-grey ;
chin, throat, and all the under surface of the body pure
white ; legs, toes, and their membranes lead-grey.

382

ANATIDJ3.

Females are considerably smaller than males, measuring
but fourteen inches and a half in their whole length, and
but six inches and a half from the point of the wing to the
end of the longest quill-feather.

Young males resemble females for the first twelvemonths,
and do not assume their white plumage till their second
autumn moult. Young females have no black patch on
the side of the head during their first winter ; the red
colour on the back of the neck covers a larger space ;
the white colour of the smaller wing-coverts is mixed with
ash-grey, and the under surface of the body is of a dull
white. Females probably assume the black patch on the
lore, and the more pure white colour on the wing-coverts
at their second autumn moult.

A portion of the trachea of the male Smew is repre-
sented below on the left hand. The figure on the right is
from the lower portion of the windpipe of the female.

HOODED MERGANSER. 383

NA TA TORES. ANA TIDM.

THE HOODED MERGANSER.

Mergus cucullatus.

Meryus cucullatus^ Hooded Merganser, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 388.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 249.

v „ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 75.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ii.

„ „ Harle couronnt, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 557.

WE are indebted to Mr. Selby for the first notice of the
Hooded Merganser as a British Bird ; the specimen was
obtained at Yarmouth, in Norfolk, during the winter of
1829, and passing into the possession of Mr. Selby, the
occurrence was recorded in the first volume of the Trans-
actions of the Natural History of Northumberland, Dur-
ham, and Newcastle- upon-Tyne, page 292. A short no-
tice appears also in Messrs. Paget's sketch of the Natural
History of Yarmouth and its vicinity ; and an early ac-
count appeared in the third volume of the Edinburgh

384 ANATID^E.

Journal of Natural and Geographical Science, page 238,
by Mr. Selby, who was informed that other instances of
the capture of birds of this species had occurred.

Since that period T. C. Eyton, Esq. has obtained a
specimen which was killed in the Menai Straits, near
Bangor, in the winter of 1830-31 ; Mr. Hoy of Stoke
Nayland, in Suffolk, obtained an adult male as recorded in
the Naturalist ; and I have heard of another example that
was shot at Benton Park, the estate of Anthony Ralph
Biddulph, Esq.

Though only an accidental visiter to this country, or
even to Europe, the Hooded Merganser is well known in
North America, and to the ornithologists of that extensive
continent we must refer for an account of the habits of this
species. Mr. Audubon writes as follows : — " Excepting
the Smew, or White Nun, the Hooded Merganser is the
handsomest of its family. Its broad and rounded crest of
pure white, with an edging of jetty black, and which it closes
or spreads out at pleasure, renders the male of this species
conspicuous on the waters to which it resorts. The
activity of its motions, the rapidity of its flight, and its
other habits, contribute to render it a pleasing object to
the student of nature, not less than to the sportsman. Its
flesh, however, has a fishy taste and odour, although it is
relished by some persons. It seems to prefer fresh water,
and is by no means very frequent along the sea coast.
Long, narrow, and moderately deep creeks, or small ponds,
are more frequented by it than large rivers or lakes. On the
waters of the western and southern States these Mergan-
sers are seen to arrive from the north early in October,
but, generally, later than many species of Ducks, although
sooner than either the Red-breasted Merganser, or the
Goosander. At the approach of night, a person standing

HOODED MERGANSER. 385

still on the banks of a river as the Ohio, first hears the
well-known sound of wings whistling through the air,
presently after, a different noise, as if produced by an
Eagle stooping on her prey, when gliding downwards
with the rapidity of an arrow, he dimly perceives the
Hooded Mergansers sweeping past. Five or six, perhaps
ten, there are ; with quick beats of their pinions, they
fly low over the waters in wide circles. Now they have
spied the entrance of a creek ; they shoot into it, and in a
few seconds you hear the rushing noise which they make
as they alight on the bosom of the still pool. Up the creek
they proceed, washing their bodies by short plunges, and
splashing the water about them. Now they dive for
minnows, which they find in abundance, and which no
doubt prove delicious food to the hungry travellers. At
length having satisfied their appetite, they rise on wing,
fly low over the creek with almost incredible velocity,
return to the broad stream, rove along its margin until
they meet with a clean sand-beach, where they alight,
and where, secure from danger, they repose until the
return of day. This bird ranges throughout the United
States during winter, content with the food it meets with
in the bays and estuaries of the eastern coast, and on the
inland streams. The dam of the Pennsylvania miller is
as agreeable to it as that of the Carolina rice-planter ; even
the numerous streams and pools of the interior of the
Floridas are resorted to by this species, and there I have
found them full of life and gaiety, as well as on the
Missouri, and on our great lakes. When the weather
proves too cold for them they go southwards, many of
them removing towards Mexico."

" The Hooded Merganser is a most expert diver, and so
vigilant that at times it escapes even from the best percus-

VOL. in. c c

386 ANATID^E.

sion gun. As to shooting at it with a flint-lock, you may
save yourself the trouble, unless you prevent it from seeing
the flash of the pan. If you wound one, never follow it ;
the bird, when its strength is almost exhausted, immerses
its body, raises the point of its bill above the surface, and
in this manner makes its way among the plants, until find-
ing some safe retreat along the shore, it betakes itself to it,
and there remains, so that you may search for it in vain,
unless you have a good dog. Even on wing it is not
easily shot. If on a creek ever so narrow, it will fly
directly towards its mouth, although you may be standing
knee-deep in the midde. It comes up like a ball, rises
and passes over head with astonishing speed, and if you
shoot at it, do not calculate upon a hit. You may guess
how many one may shoot in a day."

" Like all the rest of the tribe, which, when far north,
for the want of hollow trees, breed on the moss or ground,
the Hooded Mergansers that remain with us nestle in the
same kind of holes or hollows as the Wood Ducks; at
least I have found their nests in such situations seven
or eight times, although I never saw one of them alight on
the branch of a tree, as the birds just mentioned are wont
to do. They dive as it were directly into their wooden
burrows, where, on a few dried weeds and feathers of
different kinds, with a small quantity of down from the
breast of the female, the eggs are deposited. They are
from five to eight, measure one inch and three-fourths, by
one and three-eighths, and in other respects perfectly
resemble those of the Red-breasted Merganser. The eggs
are laid in May, and are hatched some time in June.
The young, like those of the Wood Duck, are conveyed
to the water by their mother, who carries them gently in
her bill ; for the male takes no part in providing for his

HOODED MERGANSER. 387

offspring, but abandons his mate as soon as incubation
has commenced. The affectionate mother leads her young
among the tall rank grasses which fill the shallow pools,
or the borders of creeks, and teaches them to procure
snails, tadpoles, and insects. On two occasions the parents
would not abandon the young, although I expected that
the noises which I made would have induced them to do
so ; they both followed their offspring into the net which I
had set for them. The young all died in two days, when
I restored the old birds to liberty.

" The Hooded Mergansers which leave the United States,
take their departure from the first of March to the middle
of May ; and I am induced to believe that, probably, one-
third of them tarry for the purpose of breeding on the
margins of several of our great lakes. When migrating,
they fly at a great height, in small loose flocks, without
any regard to order. Their notes consists of a kind of
rough grunt, variously modulated, but by no means
musical, and resembling the syllables croc, croo, crook.
The female repeats it six or seven times in succession,
when she sees her young in danger. The same noise is
made by the male, either when courting on the water,
or as he passes on wing near the hole where the female is
laying one of her eggs."

In the adult male the bill is dull reddish-brown ; the
irides yellow; head, and upper part of the neck black;
top of the head ornamented with a half circular crest, the
posterior half of which is white edged with black ; back
and wing-coverts black ; primaries, secondaries, rump, and
tail-feathers dark brown ; scapulars and tertials elongated,
slender, and white, edged with black ; lower part of neck
in front white, with the points of two crescentic bands
descending from the upper part of the back, and directed

cc2

388 ANATID.E.

forwards ; belly, vent and under tail-coverts white ; sides
waved with yellowish-brown ; legs and feet dull red.
The whole length of the bird nineteen inches; the wing,
from the point to the end of the longest quill-feather seven
inches and a half.

The female is rather smaller in size; the head, neck,
back, and wings dark brown ; top of the head reddish-
brown, the feathers elongated; chin white; neck in front
pale brown, the edges of the feathers lighter in colour ;
under parts white; bill, irides, and feet, as in the males.
The young birds resemble the female for the first year ;
during the second the black and white about the head
appears in young males ; in the third spring they are
complete.

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 389

NATATORES. ANATID/K.

THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.
Mergus serrator.

Mergus serrator, Red-breasted Merganser, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 214.
„ „ ,, „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ ,, „ ,, BEWICK, Brit. Birds.

„ „ „ „ Goosander, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 129.

„ „ „ „ Merganser, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 379.

„ „ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 249.

„ „ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iii.

Hark Huppe,

TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 884.

THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER is one of the species of
the genus now under notice, that may be said to breed
annually in some parts of the British Islands, and various
localities will be quoted ; though by far the larger portion

390 ANATIDJ!.

of these birds which are found in this country may be con-
sidered but as winter visiters, which arrive here late in
autumn, and retire in spring to various parts of Scandinavia
and other high northern localities. In winter, particularly
during severe weather, they are not uncommon on our
coast, appearing to prefer bays and estuaries, but some-
times pursuing the course of rivers and visiting inland
waters. They do not confine themselves, in their visits,
to any particular counties. They frequent the eastern
coast as mentioned by Mr. Selby, in his catalogue of the
Birds of Northumberland and Durham, Holy Island, and
the Fern Islands, being favourite localities. Thence they
pursue a course southwards by Yorkshire, Norfolk, and
Suffolk. The Rev. L. Jenyns told me that a female had
been killed in Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire, in summer.
They are more rare on the shores of Kent, but visit
the Thames, where they are called Sawbills, in reference
to their conspicuously toothed beak ; and Mr. Jesse sent
me a fine specimen that was shot during severe weather above
Putney Bridge. The Red-breasted Merganser is included
in the catalogues of the Birds of Dorsetshire ; I have had
specimens sent me from Devonshire. It has been killed in
Cornwall, and as high up the Severn as the vicinity of
Worcester. Mr. Dillwyn has noticed its occurrence at
Swansea, and it has been obtained on the coasts of North
Wales and Lancashire.

In reference to the breeding stations of this species, Mr.
Thompson says it is indigenous to Ireland, nestling on
islets both of marine and fresh-water loughs. Pennant
has recorded its breeding in the Isle of Islay. Sir W.
Jardine and Mr. Selby found nests of this species when on
a fishing excursion upon Loch Awe, in Argyleshire. One of
these nests was upon a small wooded island, placed among

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 391

thick brush-wood, under the covert of a projecting rock,
and completely surrounded with nettles, long grasses, and
fern. It was carefully made of moss, plucked from the
adjoining rocks, mixed with the down of the bird ; both in
structure and materials resembling that of the Eider
Duck. It contained nine eggs, of a rich reddish-yellow, or
fawn colour. The bird was remarkably tame, sitting until
nearly taken with a small hand-net. Sir W. Jardine
very kindly sent me one of these eggs for my collection ;
it measured two inches and a half in length, and one inch
and three quarters in breadth. The male leaves the
females as soon as incubation commences. Mr. J. Mac-
gillivray, who visited the outer Hebrides in the summer of
1840, says, that a few remain there during the breeding
season, and he took a nest with eggs on a small island
between Killigray and Ob, in the sound of Harris. Pen-
nant mentions that the Bed-breasted Merganser had been
found breeding at Loch Maree in Ross-shire ; and Mr.
Selby, when with a party exploring Sutherlandshire,
in June 1834, says it was very plentiful upon all the
lochs, but only a few at that time had commenced incuba-
tion.

Mr. Robert Dunn, in his " Ornithologist's Guide to the
Islands of Orkney and Shetland," says, this wary bird is
very plentiful in both countries, and is a constant resident ;
it is extremely shy at all times. In the summer season the
male loses his beautiful plumage, and approaches in colour
to that of the female. This bird is seldom seen far from
land, but frequents the inlets and inland lakes.

Mr. Hewitson, during his trip to the west coast of
Norway, observed that the Red-breasted Merganser was
frequent upon most of the lakes and rivers; the eggs
were laid under shelter, either upon their margins or their

392 ANATID^l.

numerous woody islands. Richard Dann, Esq. sent me word
that the Merganser is far more numerously spread over
Norway and Sweden than the Goosander ; it breeds on all
the coasts, and is also found in the Dofre Fiell and Lapland
mountains as high as the birch grows. This species is
found in Iceland and at the Faroe Islands ; in Russia, and
on the great rivers of Siberia and Lake Baikal. Its food
is fish, obtained by diving, which its serrated beak, with
the horny nail depending at a right angle from the upper
mandible, enables it to catch and hold with certainty.
M. Temminck says this species is abundant on the shores
of Holland, and sometimes on the marshes of the interior :
it is found also in Germany, Switzerland, Provence, and
Italy. A few are seen at Corfu, in Sicily and at Malta in
winter. According to M. Temminck birds from Japan
exactly resemble European examples.

The Red-breasted Merganser is found in Greenland,
Newfoundland, and Hudson's Bay. Dr. Richardson ob-
tained specimens in the fur-countries of North America ;
and interesting accounts of its habits in the United States
are given by the ornithologists of those countries.

In the adult male the upper mandible is dark reddish-
brown, except the edges, which are of a brighter red,
under mandible wholly red ; irides red ; all the head and
the upper part of the neck dark, but shining green, the
feathers on the crown and occiput elongated; middle of
neck all round white, except a narrow line of black de-
scending from the occiput to the upper part of the back,
which, with the shoulders, is also black ; the short
scapulars white, those more elongated are black ; before
the point of the wing on each side are several roundish
white feathers, margined with broad and rich velvet-
black ; point of the wing dark brown ; small wing-coverts

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 393

white ; great coverts and secondaries black at the base,
the outer halves white, forming with the smaller coverts
three conspicuous white bands on the wing ; primary
quill-feathers brownish-black ; tertials white, edged with
black ; lower portion of the back, the sides, flanks, rump,
and upper tail-coverts grey ; tail-feathers stiif, rather
pointed, and of a uniform brownish-ash colour ; lower part
of the neck on the front and sides pale chestnut-brown,
streaked, and otherwise varied with black ; breast, belly,
and under tail-coverts white ; legs and toes reddish-orange,
the membranes darker reddish-brown. The whole length
full twenty-two inches. From the carpal joint to the
end of the longest quill-feather ten inches.

Females are rather smaller than males, and have the
head and the neck behind reddish-brown, darkest on the
crown of the head, the occipital feathers elongated ; all the
back, scapulars, and small wing-coverts umber-brown ;
greater coverts and secondaries dark brownish-black,
ending with white, forming two white bands ; primaries
and tertials dark brownish-black ; upper tail-coverts and
tail-feathers brown-ash colour ; neck in front mottled with
reddish and pale brown, on a white ground ; all the under
surface of the body white. Whole length about twenty-
one inches.

Young birds resemble adult females during their first
winter. Males, however, in any state of plumage may
be ascertained by passing the finger and thumb down the
neck, feeling along the line of the trachea ; the male has an
enlargement of the tube before it passes into the body ; the
tube of the trachea in the female is uniform in its size
throughout its whole length. Young males do not obtain
their fine plumage till after their second autumn moult,
and old males from the time they desert the females till

394

ANATID^E.

their autumn moult begins " lose the rich glossy green of
the head and neck, which degenerates into an obscure
brown, and the fine chestnut colour of the breast entirely
disappears." — Gould.

NATATORES.

THE GOOSANDER,

395

AN ATI DM.

THE GOOSANDER.

Mergus Merganser.

Mcrgus merganser,

„ castor,

„ merganser,

„ castor,

„ merganser,

„ castor,

„ merganser,

The Goosander,
„ Dundiver,
„ Goosander,
„ Dundiver,
., Goosander,
„ Dundiver,

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 21 1.
„ „ « „ 213.

MONT. Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 266.
269.

Green-headed Goosander, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 128.
„ „ „ Goosander, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 375.

„ „ „ „ JKNYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 248.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. i.

„ „ Grand Harle, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 881.

THE GOOSANDER, the largest of the British Mergansers,
a male and female of which are figured ahove, is rather to
be considered as a winter visiter only to our islands,
although a small number remain to breed annually among

396 ANATID.E.

the lochs in some northern localities to be hereafter pointed
out. These birds usually make their appearance in Novem-
ber, especially in severe weather, and remain till the end of
March; but the greater proportion of them are females,
or young birds of the year : the fully adult male may be
considered as the most rare. All of them frequent fresh-
water lakes as well as the sea-shore and estuaries, but if
severe frost occurs they are driven to the shelter of deep
bays, where, by their powers of diving, they are able to
obtain a supply of fish, the principal object sought after as
food. Possessing strong tooth-like processes on the bill,
by which it is enabled to hold a slippery prey, this bird,
like the Red-breasted Merganser, is also called Sawbill and
Jacksaw.

Goosanders in any state are rare visiters to the southern
counties of England, but have been killed during hard win-
ters in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and eastward
to Sussex, Kent, and Essex. A few are occasionally ex-
posed for sale in winter in the London markets, and
specimens are obtained in Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire,
and northward to Durham, and Northumberland. In
Sutherlandshire, Mr. Selby mentions that two or three
birds of this species were seen in June 1834, during the
Natural History excursion, but no nest or breeding station
was detected. Mr. J. Macgillivray, in his recently published
notes on the Zoology of the Outer Hebrides, says the
Goosander is pretty common, breeding close to the larger
lakes, and occasionally by the sea, as near Loch Maddy
in North Uist. In Ireland, Mr. Thompson, of Belfast,
observes, that the Goosander is only a regular winter
visiter. The Rev. Mr. Low, in his Natural History of
Orkney, says, " With us the Goosander continues the
whole year, and may be seen every day in numbers on the

THE GOOSANDER. 397

lakes and in the sea ; builds on the small holms of the
loch of Stenness, along with other birds ; in harvest and in
winter fly in flocks, in summer in pairs ; the male and
female are then strict companions, but, like many other
birds, when breeding-time is over, part company, and lose
acquaintance." The nest, according to Mr. Selby, is con-
structed " near to the edge of the water, of a mass of grass,
roots and other materials, mixed and lined with down. It
is placed sometimes among stones, sometimes in long grass,
or under the cover of bushes, and, when the locality
affords them, in the stumps or hollows of decayed trees."
The eggs are of a uniform buff-coloured white, measuring
two inches and a half in length, by one inch and eight
lines in breadth. Six or seven young are considered a
large brood, and the careful mother has been seen, like
the Wild Duck, to carry some of her offspring, occasionally,
on her back when in the water, as the parent Swan is
known to do.

Mr. Hewitson, in his notes on the ornithology of Nor-
way, says, "of the Goosander we frequently observed small
flocks, almost entirely male birds, accompanied rarely by
one or two females. The females must have been breeding
somewhere in the neighbourhood, but it was in vain that
we made every search for the eggs.

Professor Nilsson says the Goosander is not uncommon
on the lakes and rivers of Sweden ; and Mr. Dann tells me
that it is widely dispersed from Scona to Lapland, as far
as the woody districts extend ; and that it breeds at Gelli-
vara. Linnaeus, in his tour in Lapland, describes a male
Goosander which had been caught in a net set for pike,
near Lycksele ; and Acerbi in his travels, when on the
banks of a river near Kardis, in Lapland, says "the
Mergus merganser, instead of building a small nest, like

398 ANATH^E.

the Ducks, on the banks, or among the reeds and rushes,
chooses to lay her eggs in the trunk of an old tree, in
which time, or the hand of man, has made such an excava-
tion as she can conveniently enter. The person that way-
lays the bird for her eggs, places against a fir or pine tree
somewhere near the bank of the river, a decayed trunk,
with a hole in its middle ; the bird enters and lays her
eggs in it : presently the peasant comes, and takes away
the eggs leaving, however, one or two. The bird
returns, and, finding but a single egg, lays two or three
more ; she is again robbed as before — but a few are left at
last for the increase of her family. As soon as the eggs are
hatched, the mother takes the chicks gently in her bill,
carries and lays them down at the foot of the tree, where
she teaches them the way to the river, in which they
instantly swim with an astonishing facility."

The Goosander is well-known in Russia, and frequents
the large 'inland waters of Germany; it is found also in
winter in Holland, France, Switzerland, Provence, Italy,
and Sicily. It has been observed in the vicinity of the
Caucasus, in North- West India, and Nepal. M. Temminck
says it is found in Japan. It is well known to the
naturalists of the United States ; and is found in North
America, Hudson's Bay, Greenland, and Iceland.

In the adult male the bill is vermilion red, the superior
ridge of the upper mandible and the nail black ; the irides
red ; the head and upper part of the neck rich shining
green, with the occipital feathers elongated ; upper part of
the back and the scapulars black ; lower part of the back,
upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers ash-grey ; point of the
wing, and all the wing-coverts white ; wing-primaries
nearly black ; secondaries and tertials white ; lower part of
neck in front, and all the under surface of the body delicate

GOOSANDER.

399

reddish-buff; legs and toes orange-red, the webs rather
darker; the whole length of the bird twenty-six inches
and a half ; from the point of the wing to the end of the
longest quill-feather eleven inches.

In the female the bill and irides like those of the male,
but not so bright in colour ; head and upper part of the
neck reddish-brown ; the occipital feathers elongated ; the
back, scapulars, tertials, wing-coverts, rump, upper-tail-
coverts and tail-feathers ash-grey ; wing-primaries lead-
grey ; the secondaries white ; chin and lower part of the
neck in front white ; breast, and under surface of the
body tinged with buff; sides and flanks ash-grey ; legs
and "feet orange-red. The female is rather smaller than
the male.

The young birds in their plumage resemble the female,
but young males in this state may be readily ascertained
by feeling down the neck in the line of the windpipe with
the finger and thumb ; males have two enlargements on
the tube, which females do not possess, their windpipe
being uniform in size throughout its length. Young males
do not assume the plumage by which that sex is distin-
guished till the second year.

400

NATATORES.

COLYMBID^E.

COLYMBID^E.

THE GREAT-CRESTED GREBE.
Podiceps cristatus.

Podiceps cristatus. Great-crested Gre

„ „ „ tippet „

, crested „

urinator,
cristatus,

tippet
crested

Grebe huppe,

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 130.
„ „ „ „ 134.

MONTAGU. Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 161.

» « v « 163-

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 131.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 394.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 251.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol ii. p. 7 17.

PODICEPS. Generic Characters. — Bill of moderate length, straight, hard,
slightly compressed, pointed, forming an elongated cone. Nostrils lateral, con-
cave, oblong, open in front and perforate, closed behind by a membrane. Legs
and feet long, attached behind the centre of gravity ; tarsi very much compressed ;
three toes in front, one behind ; anterior toes very much flattened, united at the
base, surrounded by an extended membrane ; hind toe also flattened, articulated
on the inner surface of the tarsus ; claws large, flat. No true tail. Wings
short, first three primaries nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing.

GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 401

OF the true Divers among our British Birds the Grebes
and Dabchicks belong to that division which more particu-
larly frequent fresh water, and the Great-crested Grebe,
the largest of the genus, is resident all the year in several
parts of this country, which afford extensive surfaces of
water, partly overgrown with reeds and other luxuriant
aquatic vegetation, in which they find the required security.
They breed, and remain all the year, or by far the greater
part of it, on some of the lakes of Wales, on the meres of
Shropshire and Cheshire ; on the broads of Norfolk, and in
the fens of Lincolnshire. They are seldom seen to fly or
walk. Their wings are short and small, and the thighs
and legs placed so far behind the centre of gravity, and so
closely attached to the posterior part of their body, that
they sit upright on the whole length of the tarsus, and
their walk is constrained. If the bird is seen on land it is
generally close to the edge of the water, into which, if
disturbed, it passes with little or no noise to attract obser-
vation. They are mostly seen on the water ; the form of
the whole bird being that of an elongated cone, is ad-
mirably adapted for diving, and their habits can only
be observed by those who live in the vicinity of their
favourite pools.

I have been favoured by the Rev. Richard Lubbock
with notes on the habits of some of the various divers, as
observed on the broads of Norfolk, where the Great-
crested Grebe is called a Loon, and of which species it is
stated that they are persecuted from a double motive ; for
the beauty of their plumage, and because they are con-
sidered to be enemies to fish. A pair or two are to be
found on most of the extensive pools during spring, sum-
mer, and autumn, but they move over towards the arms of
the sea as winter approaches, not remaining to be frozen

VOL. III. D D

402 COLYMBID^E.

out, and return early in spring. The nest is frequently
built in an exposed situation, before the young reeds have
sprouted sufficiently to conceal it. When the nest is
plundered the bird immediately makes another in the vicinity
and lays again. The birds are more prone to take flight
in spring than at other seasons of the year, but as soon as
the eggs are deposited in the nest, both male and female
seem to trust entirely to their powers of diving for preser-
vation, and very seldom show themselves. They generally
dive away from their nest on being disturbed, and thus
frequently escape observation ; a slight vibration among
the reeds being the only sign of their departure. The nest
is composed of half-rotten decaying water-plants, nearly
level with the surface of the water, and is generally very
wet. The eggs are usually four in number, white, and two
inches two lines long, by one inch and six lines in breadth.
The parent birds are very careful of their young, taking
them down with them for security under their wings
when they dive. They feed them with young eels, and
other small fish, some small Crustacea, and a portion of
vegetable food. Tadpoles and small frogs are favourite
diet with them.

A fine adult specimen belonging to the Ornithological
Society, has been kept on the canal in St. Jameses Park
more than twelve months. This bird has carried a good
crest, unaltered throughout the whole of last winter ; and
at this time, May 1842, the crest is of large size and fine
in colour. Unfortunately the Society possess but a single
example of the species, apparently a fine and old male.
This bird does not associate with any of the other nume-
rous water-fowl on the canal, he swims low in the water,
and generally keeps out in the middle of the widest
part, frequently diving for food, occasionally preening his

GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 403

plumage, and sometimes sleeps in mid-day, the head
turned half round with the beak inserted and hid among
the feathers on the back.

Of several examples of the Great-crested Grebe which I
have examined internally, I never remember to have
opened one, the stomach of which did not contain a portion
of feathers which appeared to have been taken from the
white under surface of their own bodies. The same thing
has been noticed and recorded by others in the Magazine
of Natural History.* This habit of swallowing feathers
alone appears to be peculiar to the Grebes only, but from
fish bones being occasionally found mixed up with the
feathers, there is cause to suspect these birds bring up at
will, from the stomach, the more indigestible parts of their
last meal as hawks, owls, shrikes and some other birds
are known to do.

The Great-crested Grebe is rather rare in some parts of
the south of England, but has been seen occasionally in
Devon and Cornwall ; Mr. Dillwyn has noticed it in Glamor-
ganshire ; and Mr. Eyton in Shropshire and North Wales.
A young bird in its first winter was shot on the Thames
at Penton-hook near Laleham, Middlesex, in February
1844. Mr. Thompson says it is resident in Ireland on the
larger lakes ; Mr. Heysham has recorded the capture of
both old and young in Cumberland; and Mr. Macgillivray,
now of Aberdeen, in his recently published Manual of the
Water-birds of Great Britain and Ireland, says it is more
numerous in Scotland during winter than summer.

Of the Grebes in Scandinavia, Mr. Dann sends me
word, that, with the exception of the Red-necked species,
next to be described, they are confined to the south of
Sweden. In Norway they only appear as stragglers, and

* Volume vi. page 519, and vol. ix. pp. 202 and 326.

404 COLYMBID.E.

then generally on or near the coast. M. Nilsson, the
Swedish naturalist, says the Great-crested Grebe breeds in
their lakes ; it is found on some of the large reeded lakes
of Russia and Siberia; it is abundant in Germany, Hol-
land, and France, in Provence, and Italy, at Corfu, Sicily
and Malta; it is found also at Tangiers, and Dr. Smith
brought examples from South Africa. The Zoological
Society have received specimens from Smyrna and Tre-
bizond; it has been observed about Mount Caucasus and
in several parts of Asia.

The under surface of the body of this bird being of a
delicate silvery whiteness, and of a shining silky appear-
ance, one of the names of this well known bird is that of
Satin Grebe ; and skins, from the beauty of their appear-
ance, are in great request for making into muffs for ladies,
or more frequently to cut up into narrow strips as trim-
ming for pelisses. A good skin sells for six or eight
francs on the continent, and in the vicinity of the Lake of
Geneva, which is frequented in autumn by these birds, it
is usual for sportsmen to make parties on the lake to
obtain specimens by shooting. This sport, called La
cJiasse du Grebe, is referred to by M. Necker, in his
paper on the birds of Geneva, and has been described
to me by an English gentleman who had pursued the
amusement.

A party of four, as shooters, hire a boat with able
rowers, and on a calm day, when the surface of the lake is
smooth, they put off, and look out with telescopes for a
large Grebe, towards which the men row ; on their ap-
proach the bird dives, and the boatmen pull with vigour
in the direction the bird has taken, in order to be near it
when it comes up to the surface to breathe. One of
the shooters stations himself in the bow of the boat, one at

GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 405

the stern, and the others are at each side, about the mid-
dle, in order that one or the other may be in a position
to take the shot as soon as the bird is visible. At the
commencement of the pursuit, when the bird is strong, it
frequently comes to the surface of the water, out of
shooting distance, and has perhaps altered its course, but
a good look-out being kept by the shooters at their differ-
ent posts, the bird is soon descried, and the rowers again
urge the boat in chace ; the bird dives again, and is again
pursued, and on rising is perhaps shot at, but at too great a
distance to be effectual, and the bird dives again. In this
way the chace is kept up for a time ; the bird, partly ex-
hausted by the necessity of maintaining its exertions, and
perhaps slightly wounded, is unable to remain so long
under water, but the boat is close at hand, the exertion
must be continued, and the Grebe still rises and dives
again with so much rapidity that several unsuccessful
shots are frequently made. The rowers from practice
calculating the length of time the chace has lasted, can
tell very nearly whenever the bird dives how many strokes
of the oars will bring the boat near the place where it may
be expected to rise, and by giving out this notice and
counting aloud, the interest is kept up throughout the pur-
suit, till a fortunate shot gives the fatal blow, when the
prize is handed into the boat, and the telescopes again put
into requisition to find out a new victim.

Dr. Richardson found this bird during summer on most
of the lakes of the fur-countries of North America, and
the species is included in the histories of the Birds of the
United States.

In the adult male the bird is brownish-red ; the irides
red ; the top of the head, and the elongated feathers of
that portion of the crest on the crown of the head, rich

406 COLYMBID.E.

dark brown ; the cheeks white ; the long feathers forming
together the tippet, and part of the crest standing out
from the sides of the neck are reddish-chestnut at the
base, becoming dark chestnut at the end ; the neck behind,
as also the back, wings, rump, and the short tuft-like tail,
dark brown ; the secondaries white, but this colour is
little seen unless the wings are extended ; front of neck,
and all the under surface of the body delicate and shining
silky white, from which, as before mentioned, this species
is sometimes called the Satin Grebe ; sides beneath the
wing and the flanks pale chestnut-brown ; legs and toes
dark green on the outer flat surface, lighter pale yellow-
ish-green on the inner surface ; the whole length twenty-
one to twenty-two inches. From the carpal joint to the
end of the longest feathers eight inches. The crest is borne
constantly throughout the year.

Adult females do not differ much from old males, ex-
cept that they are not quite so large in size ; the crest is
also a little smaller, and the general colours of the whole
plumage less pure.

Young birds in their first winter, and during part of
their second year, have but small crests, and little or no
reddish-chestnut colour. For some time after they are
hatched the young chicks have their bills mottled black
and white : the head and neck ornamented with long
dark stripes on a ground-colour of dull greyish-white ;
the upper surface of the body dark brown, with longitudi-
nal stripes of light brown ; the whole under surface
white. A young bird of this species is figured at page 416.

RED-NECKED GREBE. 407

NA TA TORES. coL YMll m.K.

-*

THE RED-NECKED GREBE.

Podiceps rubricollis.

Podiceps rubricol/is, Red-necked Grek, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 139.

„ ,, „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 169.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 131.

„ „ SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 392.

,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 252.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. vii.

G'rtbe jou-gris, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 720.

THE RED-NECKED GREBE is not found in this country so
frequently as the Grebe last described ; it is, moreover, a
winter visiter only, arid with this further difference, that
young birds of the year are of much more frequent occur-
rence than adult specimens. It is easily distinguished,
being intermediate in size between the Great-crested
Grebe and the Horned, or Sclavonian Grebe, and differs
from the other species found in this country, in having a
much longer and stronger bill in proportion to the bulk of

408 COLYMBID^E.

the bird, and the base of the bill is mostly yellow ; this
species is also considered to be more decidedly marine
in its habits. Like the other Grebes it is an expert diver,
and very difficult to obtain when at sea, or in other exten-
sive waters where there is ample space to exercise its
powers. It feeds on small fish and aquatic insects. The
stomach of one examined by Montagu was found to be
distended with its own feathers and small seeds. I am
not aware of any record of the Red-necked Grebe breed-
ing in this country. The nest is described as placed among
aquatic herbage and reeds, being built of similar decayed
materials ; an egg, which I obtained from Hamburgh, is of
a dull white colour tinged with green; two inches in length
by one inch and four lines in breadth.

Mr. W. Thompson mentions that the Red-necked Grebe
has been taken at Belfast, and in different parts of Ireland.
It has been obtained in Cornwall, Devonshire and Dorset-
shire. It has been killed more than once in East Kent ;
and Mr. Joseph Clarke sent me notice of one killed re-
cently in Essex, near Saffron Walden, which is now pre-
served in the Museum there. Both old and young have
been killed in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, and on the
broads of Norfolk, but only in winter. Mr. Selby says it
is not uncommon in winter on the coasts of Northumber-
land and Durham ; and Mr. Macgillivray mentions having
obtained it in the Frith of Forth.

M. Temminck states that this species is nowhere more
abundant than in Holstein. It breeds on the lakes of
Sweden ; and I have been favoured by Mr. Dann with
the following notes from his own observations of its habits
still farther north in that direction. " The Red-necked
Grebe is common during the breeding season on many of
the shallow reedy lakes at the head of the Bothnian Gulf,
particularly between Pitea and Lulea. They seem to be

RED-NECKED GREBE. 409

confined to the vicinity of the coast of the Baltic. I have
never met with them anywhere in the interior of the
country, except in Scona, and in the southern provinces of
Sweden, although the whole of Northern Scandinavia
abounds with lakes. The character of those lakes where
alone I have seen and procured specimens of the Red-
necked Grebe, so far north as latitude 66, is precisely
similar to that of the broads in Norfolk and the meres
of Holland, where some of the Grebes are so numerous.
Swedish ornithologists have confined the locality of this
Grebe to the southern parts of Sweden, but having pro-
cured the old and young birds in August, and seen them
in considerable numbers two years in succession in the
same localities, no doubt can exist but that they are
regular visitants. The eggs I did not see, but the peasants
on finding a nest are in the habit of leaving one egg, and
the female will continue to lay, as long as one is left, until
nature is exhausted. These Grebes are by no means
shy, and when undisturbed amongst the reeds and grass,
keep up an incessant croaking.

" They do not, like many of the divers, use their wings
under water, but glide through it, however, with equal
swiftness, and dart through thick entangled masses of
weeds and grass with the ease and rapidity of a fish.
From the very weedy nature of the waters they inva-
riably frequent, using their wings in diving would impede
their progress. I have had repeated opportunities of ob-
serving them when under water."

The Red-necked Grebe is found in the eastern parts of
Europe, and in Germany, Holland, France, Switzerland,
Provence, and Italy. Messrs. Dickson and Ross sent the
Zoological Society specimens from Erzeroom. M. Tem-
minck says the same species is found in Japan ; it is found
also in North America.

410 COLYMBHLE.

The adult bird has both mandibles of the beak black, ex-
cept at the base, where it is yellow ; the i rides red ; top of
the head, and back of the neck, rich dark brown, almost
black ; cheeks, chin, and throat, fine bluish-grey, margined
with white ; back, wing-coverts, tertials and rump, dark
brown; wing-primaries nearly black; the secondaries white ;
neck in front rich chestnut-red ; breast and belly silky
white; sides under the wing, the flanks, and under tail-
coverts greyish-brown ; legs and toes dark greenish-brown
on the outer surface, the inner surface greenish-yellow ;
the whole length sixteen inches and a half. From the
carpal joint to the end of the primaries seven inches.

Young birds have the head and neck behind dusky-
brown ; the back and wings neither so dark in the brown
colour, nor so uniform in the tint, as in the adult birds,
the margins of the feathers being ash-brown ; chin, throat,
and neck in front greyish-white ; other parts as in the
more adult birds. I have seen young birds more than half
grown which exhibited longitudinal dark stripes on a light
ground-colour down the neck.

The figure below represents the form of the foot in the
Grebes.

SCLAVONIAN GREBE.

NATATORES.

411

COLYMB1D/F..

THE SCLAVONIAN GREBE.

Podiceps cornutus.

Podiceps cornutus, Sdavonian Grebe, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 141.

obscurus, Dusky

cornutus, Sdavonian

obscurus, Dusky
•>i w

cornutus, Horned

•>•> «

„ Sdavonian
Horned

136.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 167.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 131.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 397.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 252.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt viii.

„ „ Grtbe cornu ou Esclavon, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 721.

THE SCLAVONIAN GREBE, called also, as shown by the
synonyms, the Horned and Dusky Grebe, is rather a rare
bird here in summer, but occurs occasionally in the winter
months in the state of plumage under which it is called the

412 COLYMBID.E.

Dusky Grebe. The species was first described as British
by Colonel Montagu, from an example obtained at Truro,
in May, 1796. It frequents the coast and the few fenny
districts that yet remain in some parts of this country. It
is not uncommon in several parts of Ireland in winter. Mr.
Dillwyn has noticed a specimen that was shot at Penrice,
near Swansea, by C. R. M. Talbot, Esq., M.P. for Gla-
morganshire. It has been killed in Cornwall and Devon-
shire. I have notes sent me of several killed in Sussex,
and have met with it in the London market, but only in
winter, or very early in spring. The finest specimen I
ever saw was purchased when fresh killed by my friend
Mr. John Morgan, in May, 1826, of a dealer from Yar-
mouth, who, if I recollect rightly, obtained it from one of
those boatmen that fish and shoot on the broads in that
neighbourhood. This specimen was preserved by Mr.
Leadbeater, and was given to me by Mr. Morgan in July,
1827, when he gave up collecting. The Rev. Mr. Lubbock
sends me word that this species is not uncommon on the
Norfolk broads in winter. It occurs, as might be expected,
in Lincolnshire ; and Mr. Selby has obtained it on the
coasts of Durham and Northumberland. Dr. Fleming
considered that this species was resident all the year in
Scotland, but I can find no record of its having been found
breeding there ; they appear to go to higher northern
latitudes. Mr. Dunn, in his useful little book, says, u this
beautiful species is extremely rare both in Orkney and
Shetland. I cannot say whether it is a constant resident
in these countries or only migratory. During my stay in
the former place I saw seven or eight, three of which I
shot ; this was in the month of April, and they were then
in bad plumage. I have only seen one in Shetland, which I
fortunately killed ; it was on my last visit, about the latter

SCLAVONIAN GREBE. 413

end of May, and was in the most perfect plumage ; indeed I
never saw so fine a specimen. This Grebe differs from any
other in having the irides of two colours. It is a very shy
bird, and a most expert diver, frequenting the sea, but
always remaining close to the rocks, where the sea- weed
which is attached to the land floats on the surface of the
water. When once alarmed it dives to a great distance,
and on coming to the surface immediately takes wing.
The young of this bird, known by the name of the Dusky
Grebe, is very rare in both countries. I have seen very
few, and these only in spring, on the lakes near to, or com-
municating with, the sea. Two or three pairs used to fre-
quent the Loch of Stenness, in the neighbourhood of Strom-
ness.1"

Mr. Proctor, subcurator of the Durham University Mu-
seum, visited Iceland in the summer of 1837, and observed
that, " this bird frequents the fresh waters there, and
breeds amidst the reeds and other rank herbage. The
nest is large, and floats on the surface of the water, with
which it rises, and falls. It is composed of a mass of
reeds and other aquatic plants. The eggs vary in number
from two to four, and are, when just laid, of a bluish white ;
but they soon become stained by the materials of which the
nest is composed. The size of the egg is one inch and
three-quarters long, by one inch and one quarter in breadth.
The young birds, when first hatched, are covered with
grey coloured down. No sooner does the old bird perceiv*
danger from any intruder, than she instantly dives, and
emerges at thirty or forty yards' distance. One day
during my sojourn in Iceland, having observed one of these
birds dive from its nest, I placed myself with my gun
at my shoulder, waiting its re-appearance. As soon as it
emerged I fired and killed it, and was surprised to see

414 COLYMBIDJE.

two young ones, which it seems had been concealed beneath
the wings of the parent bird, drop upon the water. I
afterwards shot several other birds of this species, all of
which dived with their young under their wings. The
young were placed with their heads towards the tail, and
their bills resting on the back of the parent bird."

M. Nilsson says this species is not very common in
Sweden, but breeds there in the reedy parts of shallow
waters. M. Temminck says it is rare in Holland, but
more common in Germany and the eastern parts of Europe ;
it is found also in France, Switzerland, Provence, Italy,
Sicily and Malta, but only in winter, and that rarely.
It is said to have been found in the vicinity of the Caspian
Sea.

This species also inhabits North America. The bird
figured by Edwards, plate 145, was sent from Hudson's
Bay, where, Pennant says, it appears on the fresh waters
in June, and lays its eggs among the aquatic plants. Dr.
Richardson says it is very common in the Fur- countries,
frequenting every lake with grassy borders. The species
is included also in some of the histories of the birds of the
United States.

Mr. Morgan's bird killed in May, in the plumage of the
breeding-season, has the beak black, both mandibles of
horn-coloured white at the tip ; forehead and crown black ;
irides vermilion-red ; from the base of the upper mandible
to the eye, and from thence for the space of an inch behind
the eye, the feathers are of a rich yellowish-chestnut, the
latter elongated forming a tuft ; from the chin the feathers
on the throat, cheeks, and sides of the neck, are also
elongated, forming a ruff of rich dark brown ; back of the
neck, and all the upper surface of the body dark brown ;
the secondaries of the wings alone are white, but scarcely

SCLAVONIAN GREBE. 415

seen unless the wings are extended ; neck in front rich
reddish-chestnut, becoming rather darker towards the
bottom ; breast and belly shining silvery-white ; sides
under the wings, and the flanks dusky, mixed with some
chestnut streaks ; legs and toes dark greenish-brown out-
side, varied with yellowish-green on the edges and inner
surface. The whole length of the bird rather more than
thirteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the
wing five inches and a half.

In winter the beak and irides as described in summer ;
the upper part of the head dark brown ; the lower part
with the chin pure white, a line from the gape to the eye,
and from thence along the lower edge of the ear-coverts,
being the line of division between the two colours ; back of
neck and upper surface of the body dark brown ; lower
part of the neck in front greyish- white ; under surface of
body and legs as in summer.

The figure of the male in summer plumage in the illus-
tration at the head of this subject, was taken from the
specimen given me by Mr. Morgan, and my note made on
an examination of the internal parts of this specimen,
as mentioned by the Rev. L. Jenyn's, in his " Manual of
the British Vertebrate Animals," page 253, was, stomach
membrane-muscular, csecal appendages each one inch and a
half in length. The other figure, in the state, as to
plumage, in which it is called the Dusky Grebe, was taken
from a specimen obtained in the London market in March
1825, and now also in my own collection. My note of
the internal appearance of this bird was, stomach muscu-
lar, a true gizzard, contained insects,* two long caecal

* Dr. Fleming, in his History of British Animals, page 132, says, "In the
stomach of n young mule, shot 18th January, 1809, I found a concretion upwards,
of half an inch in diameter, consisting of its own belly feathers, closely matted

416 COLYMBID^E.

appendages from four to five inches each. From the dif-
ference in the substance of the parieties of the stomach in
these two specimens, and particularly in the comparative
length of the cascal appendages, I was at first induced to
suppose that Montagu and the Editor of the last edition of
Pennants British Zoology were correct in considering the
Sclav onian Grebe distinct from the Dusky Grebe, but I am
now inclined to believe that though the specimen killed
in summer plumage was adult, the other was still an older
bird. I find the csecal appendages in Podiceps cristatus,
killed in its first winter, when six months old, only half an
inch long ; but in an old bird these appendages measure
two inches in length.

The figure below is that of the young of the Great-
crested Grebe.

together. Montagu, in his Supplement, states that he has observed the same oc-
currence in the Red-necked and Crested species. Are these to be considered as
analogous to bezoars?"

;;::^itf^r^! '

EARED GREBE.

NATATORES.

417

COLYMBW&.

THE EARED GREBE.

Podiceps auritus.

Podiccps auritus, Tlie Eared Grebe, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 135.

« „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

M „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii p. 165.

„ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 1 32.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 399.

« „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 253.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. i.

„ „ Grebe oreillard, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 725.

OF the five species of Grebes found in the British Islands,
the Eared Grebe appears to be the most rare. Colonel
Montagu mentions that during the many years he devoted
attention to ornithology he only obtained one specimen, and

VOL. III.

E E

418 COLYMBID.E.

the opportunity of examining a recently-killed bird is quite
accidental. This species is distinguished from the Grebe
last described by being a little smaller in size ; in having
the bill bent slightly upwards, the curve being most con-
spicuous in the lower mandible ; and in the lore, or part
between the base of the bill and the eye, never carrying
any ferruginous feathers at any age or season. The
reddish, or golden-yellow feathers, when present, arise
behind the eye, covering the orifice of the ears. In its
habits it appears to resemble the Sclavonian Grebe ; it
feeds on small fishes, aquatic insects, and some fresh-water
plants; hiding itself and making its nest among thick
herbage. The eggs are mostly three or four in number, of
a dull yellowish-white, one inch nine lines in length, by
one inch and three lines in breadth.

Mr. Thompson says this species occurs, though but
rarely, in Ireland. Colonel Montagu obtained one in
Cornwall ; and it has been killed in Dorsetshire, and in
Sussex. The bird figured by Edwards in his Gleanings,
plate 96, figure 2, was taken in a pond at Hampstead,
near London ; and Mr. Bond gave me notice of two that
were killed in 1841, on the Kingsbury reservoir. Mr.
Joseph Clarke sent me an account of one that was taken
alive on Duxford common field, and it is included in the
catalogues of the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk. Pennant
states that in his time it inhabited the fens near Spald-
ing, in Lincolnshire. Mr. Selby obtains it occasionally in
winter on the coast of Northumberland ; it is found also
occasionally in the lake counties on the western side of
England. Mr. Macgillivray says he has rarely met with
it in Scotland, and it is not included among the birds
found in Orkney or in Shetland.

Faber describes it in his account of the Birds of Iceland ;

EARED GREBE. 419

M. Nilsson says it breeds in Sweden, but only rarely.
Linnaeus, in his tour in Lapland, mentions having met
with it near Lycksele, and in other parts of the north of
Europe it is said to inhabit lakes, rivers, and pools, where-
ever aquatic herbage is abundant. It is found in Russia,
Siberia, and Germany ; it is rare in Holland and France,
but visits the lakes of Switzerland, Provence, Italy, Corfu,
and Sicily. M. Temminck, in the 4th part of his Manual
says it is rather common in the Adriatic, and in the Bay
of Cagliari, one of the ports of Sardinia. Messrs. Dickson
and Eoss sent the Zoological Society a specimen from
Trebizond. Finally, this bird is said to inhabit the
Falkland Islands and some parts of the United States.

The adult male in summer has the beak of a dusky-
lead colour, almost black, the tip of the lower mandible
only being horny- white ; the irides red ; head and neck
all round nearly black ; chin speckled with grey ; from
behind the eye over the ear-coverts a triangular patch of red-
dish-chestnut; back, and all the upper surface of the body,
dark brown ; secondary wing-feathers white, but scarcely
seen unless the wing is extended ; breast, and under
surface of the body, pure and shining silvery-white ; sides
under the wings, and the flanks, chestnut, mixed with
dusky lines ; legs dark green on the outside, lighter green
within. The whole length twelve inches. From the
carpal joint to the end of the wing five inches.

Females and young birds in winter so nearly resemble
those of the so-called Dusky Grebe, figured and described
in the account given of the last species, except in size, and
in the form of the beak, as to make another description un-
necessary.

EE 2

420

NA TA TORES.

COLYMBID^E.

COLYMBIDJE.

THE LITTLE GREBE, OR DABCHICK.

Podiceps minor.

Podiceps minor, 77ie Little Grebe,

„ hebridicus, Black-chin „

„ minor, Little „

„ hebridicus, Black-chin .,

minor,

Little

Black-chin

Little

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 137.
„ „ „ * 138.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

»> » M

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 171.
„ „ „ 172.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 13'2.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 401.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 254.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ii.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. voL ii. p. 727.

THE LITTLE GREBE, or DABCHICK, as it is more gene-
rally called, is the smallest, as well as the most commoD,
of the British Grebes. It remains here throughout the
whole year, inhabiting rush-grown lakes or fish-ponds, and

LITTLE GREBE. 421

the reedy parts of most rivers during summer, but in
winter it is more frequent on small streams. In some
of these situations, depending on the season, it may be
frequently observed busily engaged on the surface in search
of food, or diving to shelter itself for security if disturbed
by too close an approach. Though occasionally seen to
use its wings when flapping along the top of the water,
its powers of flight appear to be limited, and in walking
its progression is still more embarrassed ; it is, therefore,
very seldom found on land, except close to the edge of
the water, into which it returns on the slightest alarm,
perfectly conscious that water alone affords it the required
protection.

Its food consists of small fishes, aquatic insects, with
some vegetable substances ; and a few of its own soft
feathers from the under part of the body are usually found
in its stomach. Mr. Selby remarks, " During winter,
when the ponds and brooks become frozen, Dabchicks
betake themselves to the mouths of rivers and small retired
bays, where they feed upon shrimps, fry of fish, and marine
insects. At this season I have several times caught them
in Budle Bay, on the coast of Northumberland, when they
happen to be left in small pools after the recess of the tide.
Having first dived, they afterwards invariably endeavoured
to conceal themselves among the fronds of the algae,
rarely attempting to escape by flight." Nares, in his
Glossary, says that the term Didapper, applied to the
Dabchick in some counties, means a little diver.

Like the other species of this genus, the Little Grebe
breeds among the reeds and coarse herbage of the waters
it inhabits, and, considering the small size of the birds,
forms a large flat nest of aquatic plants, in which from
four to six eggs are usually deposited. These are one

422 COLYMBID.E.

inch seven lines in length, by one inch three lines in
breadth. When first laid they are perfectly white, but
soon become stained with greenish-yellow and brown,
from being in contact with decaying vegetable matter, and
the soil from the feet of the bird ; by hatching-time they
are frequently of a dirty clay-brown. The female is very
careful of her eggs, and seldom leaves them without cover-
ing them over with some of the vegetable substances by
which she is surrounded, and I quite agree with Mr.
Selby, that the object in thus covering the eggs is conceal-
ment, and not for the purpose of preserving temperature
during incubation. The young when first hatched are
dark brown on the head, neck, and upper surface, streaked
longitudinally with light yellowish-brown on the neck and
back, the under surface of the body silvery-white. They
take to the water very soon, swimming about with the
parents in pursuit of aquatic insects and other food : or
diving to avoid danger with all the apparent facility and
confidence that usually attend long practice.

The Little Grebe is common and resident in Ireland,
and too universally distributed in localities suited to its
habits in England, to render particular enumeration neces-
sary. In Scotland this small species is not considered to be
so plentiful as with us in the south. Mr. Selby mentions
that it was met with occasionally upon the smaller lochs
of Sutherlandshire during the natural-history excursion
through that county in the summer of 1834. It is found
also in Orkney and in Shetland.

M. Nilsson considers the Little Grebe to be rather rare
in Sweden ; it is found in some other parts of the north of
Europe, and in Germany, but it is not common, M. Tem-
minck says, either in Holland or France. It is said by
M. Schinz to be abundant on the ponds and lakes of Swit-

LITTLE GREBE. 423

zerland all the year ; it is found also in Provence and in
Italy ; at Corfu, Sicily and Malta.

Our Little Grebe is included in catalogues of the birds
of several parts of India ; but, according to M. Temminck,
the small species found in Africa and at the Philippine
Islands is not identical with the Podiceps minor of Eu-
ropean authors ; nor is this species found in North
America.

The adult bird in summer, represented in the illustration
by the one which is swimming, has the beak black, the tip
of a light horn colour, the upper mandible straight, the
under mandible brought to a point by a line directed
obliquely upwards from the symphysis, or junction of the
two portions ; the soft part of both mandibles, forming the
angle at the gape, yellowish- white ; irides reddish brown ;
head, back of the neck, and all the upper surface of the
body, very dark brown, almost black ; the secondary
quill-feathers white, but these are not seen when the wings
are closed ; chin black ; cheeks, sides and front of the
upper part of the neck reddish-chestnut ; under surface of
the body dull greyish-white ; sides under the wings and
the flanks dusky brown; legs and toes dark greenish-
brown. The whole length nine inches and a half. From
the carpal joint to the end of the wing four inches and one
quarter. In this state of plumage it is the Podiceps hebri-
dicus, or Black-chin Grebe of authors, which is now known
to be only the summer appearance of Podiceps minor,
the Little Grebe.

Adult birds in winter have the under mandible lighter in
colour than the upper ; the latter being dark brown ; head,
back of the neck, and all the upper surface of the body,
clove-brown ; some of the primary quill-feathers, as well as
the secondaries, grey ish- white, but only seen when the

424

COLYMBIDJ!.

wing is extended ; chin white ; front of the neck ash-
brown ; breast and belly shining greyish- white ; sides under
the wing and the flanks, ash-brown. Young birds of the
year, in their first winter, have the beak yellow-brown ; the
head and back of a still lighter brown colour than old birds
in winter ; chin white ; sides of the neck pale wood-brown ;
under surface of the body and the sides clouded with brown,
on a ground colour of greyish- white.

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 425

NA TA TORES. COL YMBID^E.

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.

Colymbus glacialis.

Colymbus glacialis, Great Northern Diver, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 165.

„ immer, Imber

„ glacialis, Great Northern

„ immer, Imber

„ glacialis, Great Northern

Plongeon imbrim,

167.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 196.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 132.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 406.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 255.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiii.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 910.

COLYMBUS. Generic Characters. — Bill about as long as the head ; strong,
straight, rather compressed, pointed ; upper mandible the longer of the two, edges

426 COLYMBID^E.

of both curving inwards. Nostrils basal, lateral, linear, perforate and partly closed
by a membrane. Legs thin, the tarsi compressed, placed very far backwards, and
closely attached to the posterior part of the body ; toes three in front, united by
membranes, one toe behind, with a small membrane, articulated upon the tarsus ;
the claws, or nails flat. Wings short, the first primary quill-feather the longest.
Tail short and rounded.

OF the genus Colymbus there are three British species,
called Divers, par excellence, since they possess this power
in a most marked and perfect degree. Of these three, the
Northern Diver, frequently called also the Great Northern
Diver, is the largest in size, but of the specimens procured
young birds are much more common than old matured ex-
amples, and even the former are only obtained in winter.
Sir Thomas Browne says that in his time the Divers bred
on the broads of Norfolk, but this is not the case at the
present day, nor is it very certain that the Northern Diver
breeds in any part of the British Islands now, even in
Orkney or Shetland ; but what has been ascertained on
this subject will be adduced when enumerating the different
localities in which it has been found.

Except during their breeding-season all the Divers live
chiefly at sea, where they obtain their living by following,
or keeping in the vicinity of shoals of herrings, sprats, and
other species of fishes of moderate size, which they catch
seemingly with great ease and certainty while diving, re-
maining under water a very considerable time without any
apparent inconvenience, and have been taken, while thus
submerged, by a baited hook.

Montagu, in the Appendix to the Supplement to his
Ornithological Dictionary, says, " A Northern Diver taken
alive, was kept in a pond for some months, which gave us
an opportunity of attending to its manners. In a few days
it became extremely docile, would come at the call from
one side of the pond to the other, and would take food

(JKKAT NORTHERN DIVER, 427

from the hand. The bird had received an 'injury in the
head, which had deprived one eye of its sight, and the
other was a little impaired ; but, notwithstanding, it could,
by incessantly diving, discover all the fish that was thrown
into the pond. In defect of fish it would eat flesh. It is
observable that the legs of this bird are so constructed and
situated, as to render it incapable of walking upon them.
This is probably the case with all the Divers, as well as
the Grebes. When this bird quitted the water, it shoved
its body along upon the ground like a seal, by jerks, rub-
bing the breast against the ground ; and returned again to
the water in a similar manner. In swimming and diving,
the legs only are used, and not the wings, as in the Guil-
lemot and Auk tribes ; and by their situation so far be-
hind, and their little deviation from the line of the body,
it is enabled to propel itself in the water with great ve-
locity in a straight line, as well as turn with astonishing
quickness."

Mr. Thomas Nuttall, of Boston, who kept one for some
time, gives the following account of its manners while in
his possession : — " A young bird of this species which I
obtained in the Salt Marsh at Chelsea Beach, and trans-
ferred to a fish-pond, made a good deal of plaint, and would
sometimes wander out of his more natural element, and
hide and bask in the grass. On these occasions he lay
very still until nearly approached, and then slid into the
pond and uttered his usual plaint. When out at a dis-
tance he made the same cautious efforts to hide, and would
commonly defend himself in great anger, by darting at the
intruder, and striking powerfully with his dagger-like bill.
This bird with a pink coloured iris, like albinos, appeared
to suffer from the glare of broad daylight, and was inclined
to hide from its effects, but became very active towards

428 COLYMBIM.

the dusk of the evening. The pupil of the eye in this in-
dividual, like that of nocturnal animals, appeared indeed
dilatable ; and the one in question often put down his head
and eyes into the water to observe the situation of his prey.
This bird was a most expert and indefatigable diver, and
remained down sometimes for several minutes, often swim-
ming under water, and as it were flying with the velocity
of an arrow in the air. Though at length inclining to
become docile, and showing no alarm when visited, it con-
stantly betrayed its wandering habits, and every night was
found to have waddled to some hiding-place, where it
seemed to prefer hunger to the loss of liberty, and never
could be restrained from exercising its instinct to move
onwards to some secure or more suitable asylum."

During their breeding -season the Northern Divers fre-
quent islands, in lakes and pools of fresh water, forming a
flattened nest of dead herbage, among reeds and flags, from
eight or ten yards to a distance of forty yards from the
water's edge. The frequent passage of the birds to and
from their nest to the water, produces a path or track, by
which the nest is sometimes discovered.

The eggs are usually two in number, but Mr. Audubon
mentions, in his account of this species, that three eggs are
sometimes deposited. These are of a dark olive-brown,
with a few spots of umber-brown ; the length of the egg
three inches six lines, by two inches and three lines in
breadth. The female when on her nest lies flat upon her
eggs, and if disturbed by the too near approach of an in-
truder, makes her way to the water by scrambling, sliding,
and pushing herself along, occasionally running with the
body inclined forwards, the thighs being closely attached
to the hinder part of the body, the motion is principally
confined to the tarsi and toes. The water gained she

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 429

immediately and invariably dives, rather than flies off,
sometimes using the wings under water. Though its wings
are short, the flight of the bird is strong and rapid, yet it
always resorts to diving to effect an escape. Sir William
Jardine says, " the Great Northern Diver is very frequent
in the Frith of Forth, and there I have never been able
either to make up with, or cause one to fly from the sea.
I have pursued this bird in a Newhaven fishing-boat, with
four sturdy rowers, and, notwithstanding it was kept
almost constantly under water by firing as soon as it
appeared, the boat could not succeed in making one yard
upon it. They are sometimes caught in the herring-nets,
and at set lines, when diving." Their voice is loud and
plaintive, varied occasionally from a high note to a deep
croak.

Mr. W. Thompson, of Belfast, says, the Northern Diver
is a constant visiter to Ireland in winter, and it is on the
coast at that season of the year that these birds are prin-
cipally seen; but Dr. Fleming mentions having seen one
of this species off the coast of Waterford, in the month of
July, 1816. Mr. Eyton has noticed its appearance in
North Wales ; and Mr. Dillwyn has recorded the occur-
rence of this species in the vicinity of Swansea ; they are
not unusual also in winter on the coasts of Cornwall,
Devon, and Dorset, in the south, and off the coasts of Kent
and Essex on the east. From Suffolk to Northumberland
young birds are common in winter, but old birds are rare,
and all very difficult to obtain.

Mr. Heysham has recorded the capture of young birds
in winter in Cumberland, on the rivers near the Sol way,
and in January, 1835, one was killed on Talkin Tarn, near
Brampton. In his remarks on the Zoology of the Outer
Hebrides, Mr. J. Macgillivray mentions that the Northern

430 COLYMBIDvE.

Diver was plentiful until the beginning of June, when
they all disappeared. In Sutherlandshire, Mr. Selby says,
" that a single pair was seen in the Bay of Balnikiel,
mouth of the Durness Frith, both adult birds, and in
perfect summer plumage. It is probable that they had
their nest upon one of the numerous islets that abound in
the bay.'"

The Rev. George Low says, " the Great Northern Diver
is very frequent around all the Orkneys, but especially in
the bays and harbours, which it enters in pursuit of small
fish, its only sustenance. The natural history of this and
the following species (another Diver), is something para-
doxical. Though they continue among these islands the
whole season, I can find none to inform me how or where
they breed." Mr. Robert Dunn, who has visited these
islands several seasons in succession, says, " this beautiful
bird is plentiful both in Orkney and Shetland, in winter
and spring. It leaves about the latter end of May, by
which time it has acquired its perfect summer plumage.
It is extremely shy, and very difficult to get within shot
of ; it generally congregates in parties of four or five ; it
dives with the utmost facility, can remain a long time
under water, and rises again at a great distance. In the
act of diving it does not appear to make the least exertion,
but sinks gradually under the surface without throwing
itself forward, the head being the last part that disappears.
It frequents the narrow inlets and sounds where there is
a sandy bottom, and the best way to procure it is to
secrete yourself amongst the rocks near the water's edge ;
by this means you will frequently get a shot at it, as it
swims pretty close to the land in shallow water when feed-
.ing. It must be shot dead, for if only wounded your
chance of getting it is very small. On my last visit to

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 431

Shetland, I saw a Northern Diver in Hammer Voe, in the
parish of Northmaven, on the 28th of June ; it was in
perfect plumage, and I was informed it had been there
all the summer. I presume it must have been wounded,
or it would have left in the spring. It was remarkably
shy ; I tried several times to get a shot at it, but was un-
successful."

Mr. Hewitson, when in Norway, saw the Great North-
ern Diver, though rarely, in the fiords of the west coast.
Richard Dann, Esq. sent me word that the Northern Diver
occasionally appears on the lakes and rivers in Tornea and
Lulea Lapmark early in spring, on the first breaking up of
the ice, but is a rare visitant. Although well known to
the Laps, all agreed it appeared but seldom. It, in all
probability, traverses Lapland on its passage east from the
north-west coast of Norway. It breeds on some of the
islands of Finmark, but is rarely seen in Sweden, except in
winter. The Northern Diver breeds on the Faroe Islands,
and Mr. Proctor thus notices what occurred to him, in
reference to this species, on his recent visit to Iceland. It
breeds on the lochs of fresh water about a day's journey
from Myvatn ; a single egg was deposited on the bare
ground, but just out of water-mark, rather under a rugged
bank on some broken ground. I was successful in finding
two nests. I allowed the single egg to remain in one of
them, in the expectation that another egg would be laid
to it, but was disappointed. The old bird was very shy,
and always left the egg on our approach, when at a great
distance off, taking to the water and keeping so far from
the side as not to be within shot.

The Great Northern Diver visits Spitzbergen and Green-
land in summer ; it was observed by Dr. Richardson and
others on all the lakes of the interior of the Fur-countries

432 COLYMBHLE.

of North America, and is said to breed as far north as the
latitude of 70°, going southward for the winter season, and
is well known and described by the ornithologists of the
United States. Its flesh is dark, tough, and unpalatable.

The Northern Diver, in its adult state, is a rare bird in
Germany, France, or Switzerland. M. Savi says that one
only, and that a young bird, had been taken in Italy in his
knowledge. Mr. Gould states that it has been found as
far south as latitude 36°. Young birds migrate farther
than old ones.

The bird in its fully adult plumage has the beak black ;
the irides red ; head, cheeks, and back of the neck black,
the first with some tints of green and blue ; the back also
black, but most of the feathers ornamented with spots of
white upon the black, those on the back with small square-
shaped spots, the scapulars and tertials with larger white
spots, which are also square, one on each side the shaft of
the feather, forming transverse lines, the tertials also end-
ing in white ; on the wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-
coverts, the white spots are small ; primaries and tail-
feathers uniformly black without spots ; chin, and neck in
front black, varied with two collars of white, spotted with
black ; from these marks this species is sometimes called
the Ring-necked Diver ; lower part of the neck in front
white, with short longitudinal stripes of black, upon white
on the sides ; breast and under surface of the body white ;
sides under the wing and the flanks greyish-white ; legs,
toes, and their membranes nearly black. The whole length
from thirty to thirty-three inches. From the carpal joint
to the end of the wing thirteen inches and three-quarters to
fourteen inches. Females are smaller than males.

A young male, nearly full grown, killed in the winter,
has the beak of a brownish- white horn colour ; irides red-

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.

433

dish-brown ; head, back of the neck, and all the upper
surface of the body greyish-black ; all the feathers on the
back broadly edged with ash-grey : chin, neck in front,
and all the under surface of the body dull white ; outer
surface of the legs and toes dark greenish-brown ; edges
and inner surface lighter greenish-brown ; the whole length
thirty-one inches ; of the wing thirteen inches and a half.

Mr. Audubon says " the young are covered at birth with
a kind of black stiff down, and in a day or two after are
led to the water by their mother ."

The figure below represents the form of the foot in this
genus of birds.

VOL. III.

F F

434 COLYMBID^E.

NA TA TORES. COL YMBIDJE.

THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER.

Colymbus arcticus.

Colymbus arcticus, Black-throated Diver, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 170.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 203.

The Lesser Irnber, ,, ,, ,, ,,198.

„ „ Black-throated Diver, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 133.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 411.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 256.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xii.

„ „ Plongeon a gorge noir, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 913,

BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 435

OF the three species of the genus Colymbus, known in
this country, the Black-throated Diver is the most rare,
occurring but seldom on the southern shores. Young birds
have been taken in winter in Cornwall and Devonshire.
In the London market young birds are occasionally to be
met with, and during the winter of 1836, Mr. Bartlett
purchased two, one of which was an adult bird with a fine
black throat, this specimen was obtained in the month of
January ; the other was a young bird ; Mr. S. Mummery,
of Margate, has just sent me notice that a beautiful speci-
men was captured on the 2nd of June last, 1842, in Sand-
wich Haven, and this being a very fine male bird has
been preserved, and deposited in the museum at Margate.
I learn from the Rev. Richard Lubbock that in the year
1832, a fine pair were killed on one of the broads of
Norfolk, which birds are now in the collection of Mr. Pen-
rice ; but that in Norfolk most of the examples of this
species have been obtained in winter, and these were young
birds. Mr. Willoughby has procured this species near
Spilsby in Lincolnshire. On the shores of Durham
and Northumberland, Mr. Selby considers the Black-
throated Diver a rare winter visitant. In 1830 a fine
mature specimen was killed at the mouth of the Tweed,
and several young birds on different parts of the coast, and
upon the river Tyne. Mr. Selby having had an opportu-
nity of examining the bird from which Thomas Bewick
engraved the figure of his Lesser Imber, has no doubt that
it is the young of the year of this species.

In its habits the Black-throated Diver closely resembles
the Northern Diver, last described ; and we learn also
from Mr. Selby some of the localities in Scotland in which
the species has been found during summer. This gentle-
man observes " that it dives with the same ease and as

F F 2

436 COLYMBID^E.

perseveringly as the other species, and can remain long
submerged, making very great progress during its sub-
marine flight, as was experienced by Sir William Jardine
and myself, when in chase of this bird in a light and handy
boat upon Loch Awe. Our utmost exertion could never
bring us within range, and we were often foiled by its
returning on its former track, and re-appearing in a direc-
tion contrary to that in which it seemed to have dived.
During this pursuit it was frequently lost for several
minutes together, and came up nearly a quarter of a mile
ahead, and its progress could not, I should think, have
been much under the rate of eight miles in the hour.
It lives upon fish, aquatic insects, and such other food as it
procures under water. I have seen a pair upon Loch Awe
towards the end of June, but did not succeed in detecting
their place of nidification. When in Sutherlandshire we
found this species upon most of the lochs of the interior.
The first we noticed was at the foot of Loch Shin, where
we were so fortunate as to find the nest, or rather the
two eggs, upon the bare ground of a small islet, removed
about ten or twelve feet from the waters edge. The
female was seen in the act of incubation, sitting horizon-
tally, and not in an upright position, upon the eggs. In
plumage she precisely resembled the male, and when fired
at immediately swam, or rather dived off to him at a short
distance. Our pursuit after them was, however, inef-
fectual, though persevered in for a long time, as it was
impossible to calculate where they were likely to rise after
diving. Submersion frequently continued for nearly two
minutes at a time, and they generally re-appeared at
nearly a quarter of a mile's distance from the spot where
they had gone down. In no instance have I ever seen
them attempt to escape by taking wing. I may observe
that a visible track from the water to the eggs was made

BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 437

by the female, whose progress upon land is effected by
shuffling along upon her belly, propelled by her legs behind.
On the day following, Saturday the 31st of May, Mr. J.
Wilson was fortunate enough to find two newly hatched
young ones in a small creek of Loch Craggie, about two
and a half miles from Lairg. After handling and ex-
amining them, during which the old birds approached
very near to him, he left them in the same spot, know-
ing that we were anxious to obtain the old birds. Ac-
cordingly on the Monday morning we had the boat con-
veyed to the loch, and, on our arrival, soon descried
the two old birds attended by their young, and appa-
rently moving to a different part of the loch. Contrary
to their usual habit at other times, they did not
attempt to dive upon our approach, but kept swim-
ming around their young, which, from their tender age,
were unable to make much way in the water, and we
got sufficiently near to shoot both of them through the
'neck and head, the only parts accessible to shot, as they
swim with the whole body nearly submerged. The female
could only be distinguished from the male by a slight
inferiority of size, and both were in the finest adult, or
summer plumage. We afterwards saw several pairs upon
various lochs, and upon Loch Kay a pair, attended by two
young ones nearly half grown. When swimming, they
are in the constant habit of dipping their bill in the water,
with ti graceful motion of the head and neck." The egg,
measuring two inches and three-quarters in length, by one
inch and ten lines in breadth, is of a dark olive-brown,
thinly spotted with dark umber brown.

Mr. Thompson has recorded the occurrence of the Black-
throated Diver in the north of Ireland ; and Mr J. Mac-
gillivray states it as ascertained that it breeds in North
Uist, one of the Outer Hebrides. The Rev. Mr. Low says

438 COLYMBIDJ1.

that it is to be found in the sounds and bays of Orkney at
all seasons, but Mr. Dunn who has visited both Orkney
and Shetland several times lately, considers it now to be a
rare bird at both places.

M. Nilsson says this species is common in Sweden in
summer, breeding among grass and reeds on the margins
of islands in lakes ; leaving those places for the open sea
in winter. Mr. Hewitson and his friends saw the Black-
throated Diver occasionally in the fiords on the west coast
of Norway. Richard Dann, Esq. sent me the following
note : — " This beautiful Diver is widely and numerously
dispersed over the whole of Scandinavia during the summer
months, but it is most abundant in the northern parts. It
breeds generally in the interior of the country on small
islands, in the most secluded and retired lakes. In Lap-
land and in the Dofre Fiell mountains, it is found as high
as the birch-tree grows. It makes its first appearance in the
spring with the breaking up of the ice on the lakes. With-
in twelve hours of open water being seen, this bird never
fails to show itself. The eggs are generally two in number.
They are of a very rank fishy taste, but much sought after
by the Laps. After the young are hatched both male and
female are very assiduous in bringing them food, and at
that period are much on the wing, and may be seen flying
at a vast height, with fish in their beaks, from one lake to
another ; on arriving over the lake where they intend to
alight, they descend very suddenly in an oblique direction.
The cries of this Diver are very peculiar during the breed-
ing season, and may be heard at a great distance. This
bird is very quick-sighted and difficult to approach, it
takes wing with great reluctance, but dives incessantly,
taking care to come up far out of shot. On the approach
of winter the old birds retire to the west coast of Norway.
They make their appearance in the southern parts but

BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 439

rarely. The young birds, however, migrate in considerable
numbers to more temperate climes, and are found at that
period in the open parts of the Baltic, in the Elbe, and on
the coast of Holland."

Linnaeus, in his Lapland tour, mentions having seen this
bird at Lycksele, Lulea, and Tornea ; caps are made of the
skin of it, which is very tough when properly prepared.
Linnaeus observes, also, that this bird uttered a melancholy
note ; and Sir Arthur de Capel Brooke says its voice re-
sembles that of a human being in distress. A few of this
species are said to be found in Russia, and on the inland
lakes of Siberia ; it is not uncommon in winter in Holland,,
and some parts of Germany ; is very rare in France, but
young birds in winter have been sometimes by chance
taken as far south as Switzerland, Provence, and Italy.
M. Temminck says that specimens from Japan exactly
agree with those found in Europe.

The Black-throated Diver is found in the United
States. The bird figured from by Edwards was brought
from Hudson's Bay, on the shores of which it is common.
Sir Edward Parry brought home specimens from Melville
Peninsula ; and Dr. Richardson says that the skins of
this and the other species of Divers, being tough and
impervious to wet, are used by the Indians and Esquimaux
as an article of dress.

In the adult bird the beak is dark bluish-black ; in form
slightly inclining upwards ; the irides red ; forehead dark
grey, top of the head, and back of the neck light ash-grey ;
back, rump, and tail-feathers nearly black ; inter-scapular
and tertial-feathers with a square patch of white on each
side of the shaft, forming a series of transverse bars; wing-
coverts black, with a few specks of white ; primary quill-
feathers black ; chin and throat black, divided by a half
collar of short white lines ; sides and bottom of the neck

440 COLYMBIDjE.

streaked longitudinally with black and white lines ; breast,
belly and all the under surface of the body, pure white ;
flanks and under tail-coverts dusky ; legs and toes dark
brown outside, lighter pale brown within. The whole
length about twenty-six inches ; wing from the carpal
joint to the end of the primaries, eleven inches and a half.
Females are but little smaller than males, and both sexes,
when mature, have the throat black, as repeated internal
examinations have proved. The Divers undergo a partial
moult in the spring, and on the first assumption of the
Black-throat it is generally varied with a few white
feathers.

Young birds measure twenty-three or twenty-four inches
in length, and closely resemble the young of the Northern
Diver, except in size.

The form and structure of the legs and feet in these
Divers, and also in the Grebes, are worthy of particular
examination. Though almost useless on land, these mem-
bers are most efficient instruments in the water. The
bones are broad and flat, and almost as thin as the
blade of a knife ; when the backward stroke in swimming
is given, the whole surface of all these bones and their
investing membranes is brought to bear against the water ;
but when the leg is to be brought forward again to renew
the impulse, the sharp edges only are opposed to the
fluid, and the position, as well as the partially rotatory
motion, remind the observer of the action of oars in
rowing when used by skilful hands. Those who have
the opportunity of examining the legs of a Diver, in a
recently-killed specimen, while all the parts retain their
perfect flexibility, will find a beautiful example of animal
mechanics.

NATATORES.

RED-THROATED DIVER.

441

COLYMBIDM.

•~*.>.

THE RED-THROATED DIVER.

C'olymlus septentrionalis, Red-throated Diver,

„ stellatus, Speckled „

„ septentrionalis, Red-throated „

„ stellatus, Speckled „

„ septentrionalis, Red-throated „

„ stellatus, First speckled „

„ Second speckled „

„ septentrionalis, Red-throated „

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 1 69.
w » »» « 168.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

S» 11 n

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 1 99.
201.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 133.
„ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 4 1 4.

„ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 257.

„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. v.

Plongeon a gorge rouge, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 91 6.

442 COLYMBID^E.

THE RED-THROATED DIVER is the smallest species of
the genus, as well as the most common ; and the occur-
rence of specimens with white throats in winter is so
constant and so frequent, while those with red throats, at
the same time of the year, are so rare, that the question
has been asked, and with some reason, is not the dark-
coloured throat in the three species of the genus Colymbus,
an appearance peculiar to the breeding-season ; but to this
part of the subject I shall return before concluding the
account of the Diver with the red throat.

Mr. William Thompson, of Belfast, considers this species
a regular winter visitant to Ireland, and records it as
having been killed at places on the north, the east, the
west, and also at Youghal in the south. It has been
killed on the coast of South Wales, as noticed by Mr.
Dillwyn ; it is very frequently observed and obtained in
winter on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon. Colonel
Hawker notices them on the coasts of Dorsetshire and
Hampshire ; specimens have been shot on the coast of
Sussex ; it is common about the estuary of the Thames,
both on the Kentish and Essex sides, where these birds
follow the numerous shoals of sprats, and are in consequence
called the Sprat Loon. They are frequently caught in the
nets. The term Loon, or Loom, appears to be a modifica-
tion of the Laplanders' name, Lumme, which is said to
mean lame, in reference to the bird's hobbling mode of
progressing on land. In Norway the name of Lumme
refers more particularly, almost exclusively, to the Black-
throated Diver ; but M. Nilsson in his Fauna of Scandi-
navia, calls all the three species by the name of Lorn, dis-
tinguishing the Red-throated Diver, on account of its com-
parative want of size, by the name of Sma Lorn. This
species is very commonly exposed for sale in the London

RED-THROATED DIVER. 443

markets throughout the winter. The Bev. Richard Lub-
bock sends me word that on the broads of Norfolk many
are seen, but very few are procured, the boat shooters
leaving them unmolested ; the diving powers of the bird
causing only loss of time and labour.

Mr. Selby mentions that young birds in the plumage of
their first winter, are much more common than older birds
on the coasts of Durham and Northumberland, perhaps in
the proportion of fifty to one ; but that in Sutherlandshire
adult birds were seen in June 1834, and though no eggs
or young were obtained, it was evident from the conduct
of the birds that they were breeding. On the western-
side Mr. Heysham of Carlisle mentions " that an adult
Bed-throated Diver, in nearly full summer-plumage, was
caught in a stake-net on the coast on the first of May,
1834. Notwithstanding the period of the year, the bird
was very much in moult.11 Pennant notices having seen a
pair in July in the Hebrides, and Mr. J. Macgillivray, on
his visit to the Outer Hebrides in the summer of 1840,
observed this species on several of the lakes. The Bev.
Mr. Low, in his <; Natural History of Orkney,11 says, " this
bird continues with us the whole season ; builds on the
very edge of a lake in the hills of Hoy ; lays two eggs ;
its nest is placed so as it can slip from it into the water, as
it can neither stand nor walk on land, but can make very
quick way at sea ; flies well, and commonly very high ;
makes a vast howling, and sometimes croaking, noise,
which our country-folks say prognosticates rain, whence
its name with us of the Bain-goose.11 Mr. Salmon, who
visited Orkney with his brother in the summer of 1831,
for the purpose of collecting the eggs of the different birds
that resort there annually to incubate, mentions that " a
few pairs of the Bed-throated Diver annually breed on the

444 COLYMBID./E.

margins of the small lochs that are to be found amid the
hills in the island of Hoy. Although we visited every
loch in the island, we were not fortunate enough to meet
with its egg ; and are indebted to the son of the Rev.
Mr. Hamilton, who very kindly presented us with a
specimen that he had taken from a nest the preceding
summer. He informed us, at the same time, that they
were becoming very scarce ; and although he had, at
different times, found their eggs, he never saw two in one
nest, which is always placed close to the water's edge, and
composed merely of a few loose rushes and dried grass
that may happen to be near, without any down or feathers
whatever." Mr. Robert Dunn finds this species, as Dr.
Fleming had previously observed, breeding in Shetland,
and in reference to their habits says, " On the banks of
the lakes they lay their eggs close to the water's edge, so
close, indeed, that the bird can touch the water with its
bill while sitting on its eggs ; perhaps these birds have the
power of removing their eggs from their proximity to the
water ; for were it to be swollen only two or three inches
in height the eggs would be destroyed. I have taken their
eggs several times, and invariably found them not more
than two or three inches from the water's edge. The
female lays two eggs, which in general are deposited
amongst a few loose stones. The birds are remarkably
shy, particularly during the breeding-season, and if any
one approaches the lake, instantly leave their nests and
take to the water. To procure these birds two or three
persons should go together, never less than two; one
should secrete himself close to the water, and the other
move round to the opposite side, and letting himself be
seen, may, by great caution, drive the birds towards the
person in ambush. I have practised this method repeatedly

RED-THROATED DIVER. 445

with success. It requires more patience and caution in
shooting these birds than any others I know of, excepting
the Northern Diver ; for in general they select such a place
for the site of incubation, as from its natural situation will
admit of their perceiving any one that approaches ; and
very often after creeping a great distance on your hands
and knees towards a lake, believing yourself unobserved,
on arriving there you have the mortification to find the
object of your search is on the side exactly opposite to
you." Mr. Hewitson, when on the west coast of Norway,
saw this species often, upon almost every piece of water,
and frequently heard their loud singular scream in an
evening at a great distance. My friend, Richard Dann,
Esq., sent me the following note : " This Diver is far more
common here than the Black-throated. On the west coast
of Norway it is very abundant from the Naze to the North
Cape. In the Lapland Alps, in the Dofre Fiell, and in
the interior of Sweden, it is equally numerous. In August,
1838, I saw on the great Tornea Lake, the source of the
Tornea river, thirty in a flock, and all old birds. Although
so common, it is rarely one sees the young before they are
able to fly ; their habits and mode of feeding their young
are similar to those of the Black-throated Diver. Their
cries are very mournful and melancholy. During the
breeding-season, while on the wing, they utter frequently
a sound like the word kakera^ Jcakera, by which name they
are called in many parts of Scandinavia. The red neck dis-
appears in the winter, a darker hue only marking the space
occupied by the red. The eggs are of a dirty greenish
hue." The eggs of this bird in my own collection measure
two inches eight lines in length, by one inch ten lines in
breadth ; of a dark greenish-brown when fresh laid, rather
thickly spotted with dark umber-brown ; but the ground

446 COLYMBIM.

colour changes a little and assumes a chestnut, or dark red-
dish-brown tint when the egg has been long incubated.

It will thus be seen that in its habits and food this spe-
cies very closely resembles the other two already described.
It is found at the Faroe Islands and at Iceland. At the
latter place Mr. Proctor saw small flocks of twenty or
twenty-five together, but not a White-throated bird among
them. Mr. Proctor suspected they were all old males ;
the females were then engaged in incubation. The Red-
throated Diver has been seen as far north as Nova Zembla,
and was found, as stated by Captain James C. Ross, at
Boothia, and in every part of the Arctic regions visited by
the late expeditions.

Of this bird Mr. Audubon says, " the Bed-throated
Diver is found, in tolerable abundance, on the sea-coast of
the United States during autumn, winter, and early spring,
from Maryland to the extremities of Maine. The younger
the birds the farther south do they proceed to spend the
winter, and it is rare to see an old bird, of either sex, at
any season to the south of the Bay of Boston. Farther
eastward they become more common, and they may be
said to be plentiful towards the entrance of the Bay of
Fundy, in the vicinity of which a few remain and breed.
I found some in December, January, and February, at
Boston, where I procured males, females, and young birds.
The old had the red patch on the throat darker than in
the breeding-season ; the delicate grey and white lines on
the neck were as pure as I observed them to be during
summer in Labrador ; and I have since been convinced
that birds of this family undergo very little if any change
of colouring after they have once acquired their perfect
plumage, the Loon and the Black-throated Diver being
included in this remark."

RED-THROATED DIVER. 447

East of our own shores the Red-throated Diver, in its
immature state, or winter dress, is taken on the coasts of
Holland and Picardy ; it has been taken also in Switzer-
land, Provence, and Italy. A single example is sometimes
taken in winter in Sicily and Malta. M. Temminck states
that this species also occurs in Japan.

In the adult bird the beak is of a bluish horn colour ;
the irides red ; the front and top of the head, chin, cheeks,
and sides of the neck ash-grey, varied with lighter grey
lines and spots ; back of the neck almost black, with short
longitudinal lines of white ; the scapulars, wing-coverts,
back and upper tail-coverts nearly black, speckled with
white ; quill-primaries black, without spots or streaks ; on
the throat the red colour forms a conical patch, the point
of which is directed upwards, the base resting on the
breast, which is white ; all the under surface of the body
white ; flanks greyish-black ; legs, toes, and their mem-
branes dark brown on one surface, pale wood-brown on the
other. Male birds measure twenty-four inches in length,
and sometimes rather more ; from the carpal joint to the
end of the longest quill-feather eleven inches and a half.
Females are usually smaller, some measuring only twenty-
one inches in length, and but ten inches and a quarter from
the wrist to the end of the quill-feather. A female speci-
men in my own collection, killed in April 1822, has the
red feathers on the throat mixed with some that are
white.

Colonel Sabine, in his Supplement to the Appendix of
the first Arctic voyage of Sir Edward Parry, says of the
Red-throated Diver, " that it breeds in the neighbourhood
of fresh- water ponds on the shores of BafnVs Bay, and
Davis1 Straits. The young birds, killed in September,
were in the plumage in which they have been called

448 COLYMBID.E.

C. stellatus ; but when nestlings, the feathers of the back,
scapulars, and wing-coverts, were margined with white."
This is precisely the case in the young bird from which the
upper figure in our illustration was taken, and is the
smallest specimen I possess. The white border is first
interrupted at the extreme end of the feather, leaving the
white marks as two long lateral lines. These lines of white
diminish in length by degrees, leaving only one white spot
on each outer edge of the feather ; the term striatus, used
by some authors, would therefore appear to refer to an
earlier stage of plumage than the word stellatus, and of the
Speckled Divers of Bewick, the second Speckled Diver is,
I believe, the younger bird of the two.

Montagu, in his Supplement, says that both sexes have
been killed in winter with the red throat ; and Mr. Au-
dubon and Mr. Dann mention that the throat remains of
a dark colour during winter, apparently confirming the
opinion that having once acquired a dark-coloured throat
they do not afterwards lose it at any season. M. Tem-
minck, in the 4th part of his Manual, states it as now
ascertained that the Divers have a double moult in the
year ; and Mr. HeyshanTs specimen, as well as others,
have been found to be in moult in the spring. This is
certainly in favour of a temporary assumption of colour.
Mr. Selby mentions that, of the numbers which visit our
shores in winter, adult specimens might perhaps be esti-
mated at not more than one in fifty ; this seems a very
large proportion of young birds, when we consider that
these Divers breed but once in a summer, and seldom bring
up more than two young birds ; sometimes only one. Mr.
Proctor saw flocks of Divers when at Iceland, in the middle
of summer, but not one of them had a white throat, nor
can I find any record of the capture of Divers with a white

RED-THROATED DIVER.

449

throat in summer, except very late in that season in Nor-
way, and these were two small and young birds of the
year, only two or three months old. The few Divers ob-
tained with dark-coloured throats in winter, compared to
the number of those taken having white throats, seem to
make the former rather the exception than the rule, and I
have known a specimen of our common Tern, killed in
December, with a black head, thus, perhaps from some
morbid cause, carrying the strongest mark of its breeding-
plumage through the winter.

Pft"

i;,1 >

VOL. HI.

G G

450

NA TA TORES.

ALCAD^E.

ALCADM.

THE COMMON GUILLEMOT,

WILLOCK, OR TINKERSHERE.

Uria troile.

Uria troile, Foolish Guillemot, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 160.

„ „ „ „ 162.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 188.
190.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 134.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 420.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 258.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.
Guillemot a capuchon, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 921.

URIA. Generic Characters. — Bill of moderate length, strong, straight, pointed,
compressed ; upper mandible slightly curved near the point, with a small indenta-

n

99

Lesser

99

99

n

Foolish

n

„

minor,

Lesser

n

99

troile,

Foolish

99

99

minor,

Lesser

„

99

troile,

Foolish

n

99

99

99

n

•>•>

99

99

»i

99

»

99

V)

99

n

Guillemot a CA

COMMON GUILLEMOT. 451

tion or notch in the edge on each side. Nostrils basal, lateral, concave, pierced
longitudinally, partly closed by membrane, which is also partly covered with fea-
thers. Feet short, placed behind the centre of gravity in the body ; legs slender,
feet with only three toes, all in front, entirely webbed. Wings short, first quill-
feather the longest. Tail short.

THE birds of this genus, and of the Alcadae in general,
bear considerable resemblance to the Divers both in form
and habits ; they are oceanic birds that can swim and dive
well, and in this way obtain small fishes of various sorts, or
still smaller Crustacea, as food.

The Common Guillemot, or Foolish Guillemot, as it is
frequently called, is one of the best known of the species,
and may be seen in the tide- way of the open sea all round
our coast at any season ; but as their numbers are there
dispersed over an extensive surface, these birds are best
observed during their breeding-season, when they assemble
by hundreds, or thousands more frequently, on many of the
most extensive and highest rocks and cliffs that bound our
sea-girt islands.

About the beginning of May the Common Guillemots,
with many other species of birds, frequenting rocks at that
season, to be hereafter described, converge to particular
points, where, from the numbers that congregate, and the
bustle apparent among them, confusion of interests and lo-
calities might be expected ; but on the contrary, it will be
found that the Guillemots occupy one station, or line of
ledges on the rock ; the Razorbills another ; the Puffins a
third ; Kittiwake Gulls a fourth : whilst the most inac-
cessible pinnacles seem to be left for the use of the Lesser
Black-backed and the Herring Gulls. Two distinct species
scarcely ever breed close by the side of each other.

The Common Guillemot lays only a single egg, but this
is of large size, and very variable in colour, scarcely two
being found precisely alike, but generally of a fine bluish-

G 02

452 ALCAD.E.

green, more or less blotched and streaked with dark red-
dish-brown, or black ; sometimes these markings are dis-
tributed over a white ground colour, and I have seen the
eggs of this species of a plain green or white colour, with-
out any secondary markings ; the form of the egg is that
of an elongated handsome pear, measuring three inches and
a quarter in length, by one inch and eleven lines in breadth
at the larger end. The eggs of the Guillemot are readily
distinguished from those of the Razorbill, with which they
are most likely to be mixed, by the length to which the
smaller end of the former is drawn out. Large quantities
of these and various other rock-birds1 eggs are collected at
different parts of the coast by fishermen and their sons,
who let themselves down, or are let down by others, over
the edge of the cliff with one or two ropes fixed to a strong
iron crow-bar driven into the ground above. These men,
from practice, traverse narrow ledges of the rock, picking
up the eggs along a path of only a few inches in breadth
with steadiness and certainty. The Guillemot makes no
nest, and the female sits in an upright position upon her
single egg during incubation, which lasts for a month.
The young birds, at first covered with down, or bristly hair
rather, from the manner in which it resists saturation with
water, are fed for a time on the rocks by the parent birds
with portions of fish. Mr. Waterton, in his account of his
visit to the rock-bird-breeding localities about Flamborough
Head, says, " the men there assured me that when the
young Guillemot gets to a certain size, it manages to climb
upon the back of the old bird, which conveys it down to
the ocean. Having carried a good telescope with me,
through it I saw numbers of young Guillemots diving and
sporting on the sea, quite unable to fly ; and I observed
others on the ledges of the rocks as I went down among

I

COMMON GUILLEMOT. 453

them, in such situations that, had they attempted to fall
into the waves beneath, they would have been killed by
striking against the projecting points of the intervening
sharp and rugged rocks ; wherefore I concluded that the
information of the rock-climbers was to be depended upon."
In further proof of the truth of their statement, I may
mention that I have seen on the sea, at the base of the
very high cliffs at the Isle of Wight, between the needle-
rocks and Freshwater gate, the young of the Guillemot
. and Razorbill so small, that they could not have made the
descent by themselves from the lofty site of their birth-
place without destruction ; yet these little birds knew per-
fectly well how to take care of themselves, and at the
approach of a boat would swim away, and dive in various
directions like so many Dabchicks. By the end of August,
or early in September, both parents and offspring have
quitted the rocks for that year, and for a time remain both
night and day on the open water, far from land, till the
circle of seasons induces another visit to the rocks.

This species remains also about the rocks and bays of
Orkney and Shetland all the year, and has been found in
summer in various parts of Scandinavia, at the Faroe Is-
lands, Iceland, in the Arctic Seas as far north as Nova
Zembla, Spitzbergen, and by Sir Edward Parry, and
Captain James C. Boss, when on their perilous journey
northward over the ice, as high as latitude 81 °. East and
south-east of England the Common Guillemot is found on
the coasts of Holland and France ; it is not included
among the birds of Nice or Italy, by M. Risso or Savi.
The Prince of Canino, in his catalogue of the birds found
at Rome, only considers its occurrence there as accidental,
and it very rarely appears so far south as the Mediter-
ranean.

454 ALCAD.E.

These birds have a partial moult in the spring, besides
the entire moult in autumn, and while changing the wing-
primaries they are said to be for a time wholly incapable of
flight. When killed here in summer the bill is black ; the
inside of the mouth orange ; the irides very dark brown ;
head, neck all round, at the upper part, and on the sides
and hind part below, the back, tail, and wings, except the
tips of the secondaries, sooty black ; lower part of neck in
front, and all the under surface of the body pure white ;
legs, toes, and their membranes dark brownish-black ; the
whole length of a male bird about eighteen inches ; the
wing, from the wrist to the end of the longest quill-
feather, seven inches and a half. Females are rather
smaller than males.

The young Guillemot, on its first appearance, has the chin
and the throat in front white, the neck in front below
slightly varied with a few black hairs, which are lost on the
bird's gaining its first true feathers.

The figure on the left hand in our illustration was taken
from a young bird of the year, killed in its first winter ; in
this state of plumage they resemble the winter plumage of
adult birds in higher northern latitudes, but are distin-
guished from old birds by their smaller beak ; the throat
remains white till the spring-moult produces the ap-
pearance observed in our other figure, the ordinary plumage
of summer.

BRUNNICII'S GUILLEMOT.

NA TA TORES

455
ALCADJE.

BRUNNICtTS GUILLEMOT,

THE THICK-BILLED GUILLEMOT.

Uria BrunnicMi.

Uria Brunnichii, Brunnicli's Guillemot, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 134.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 258.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxii.

„ „ Guillemot a gros bee, TEMM. Man. cTOrnith. vol. ii. p. 924.

THIS species was first described by Brunnich, in his Orni-
thologia BorealiS) page 27, species 109, under the name of
Uria Troile, the author having previously called our com-
mon Guillemot Uria Lorn via. An alteration of the specific

456 ALCAILE.

term being thus rendered necessary, Colonel Sabine very
properly devoted this Guillemot to the memory of Brun-
nich by name, and some interesting remarks on the early
history of this species will be found in Colonel Sabine's
" Memoir of the Birds of Greenland,'1 published in the 12th
volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society.

Brunnieh's Guillemot is at once distinguished, at any
season of the year, from our Common Guillemot, by the
shortness, the stoutness, angularity, and greater depth of
its bill ; and our present subject has been called the Thick-
billed Guillemot in reference to this peculiarity.

Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast, in his published Report on
the Vertebrata of Ireland, mentions that the Uria Brun-
nicMi is noticed by Colonel Sabine as seen by him in the
month of July on the coast of Kerry, where it may be pre-
sumed to breed. Captain James C. Boss, in his last
Natural History appendix, published in 1835, says he met
with this species at Unst, the most northern of the Shet-
land Islands, and in several parts of Scotland ; and Pro-
fessor Macgillivray refers, in the second volume of his
Manual, to a specimen now preserved in the Edinburgh
University, which was received with other skins from
Orkney.

Professor Nilsson includes this species in his Fauna of
Scandinavia, and considers it the Alca pica of Fabricius ;
it is found also at the Faroe Islands and Iceland, at Spitz-
bergen, Greenland, Davis1 Straits, Baffin's Bay, and the
Arctic Seas. Southward in Europe, one example, a young
bird, according to M. Temminck, has been killed in the
vicinity of Naples, and is there preserved.

In its habits and food, as far as known, Brunnich's
Guillemot does not differ from the Common Guillemot, and
I am not aware of distinctions in the eggs, if any exist.

BRUNNICII'S GUILLEMOT. 457

A specimen of the bird now before me, brought from
Iceland by Mr. Proctor, agrees exactly with Colonel Sa-
bine's description of this species in its summer-plumage.
The beak is black, its shape has been referred to, the
posterior half of the marginal portion of the upper man-
dible nearly white, extending from the corner of the mouth
to the point where the feathers project on the bill ; the
irides dark ; head, throat, neck behind, back, wings, and
tail sooty black ; secondaries tipped with white ; belly,
and all beneath pure white, running up to a point on the
front of the neck ; in the Common Guillemot the white
colour ends here in the form of a rounded arch ; legs, toes,
and their membranes brownish-black. The whole length
eighteen inches. From the wrist to the end of the longest
quill-feather eight inches and a quarter. The sexes are
alike in plumage.

This species undergoes the same changes of plumage
from season as the U. troile. Colonel Sabine remarks that
specimens killed early in June had the throat and neck
white, unmixed with black ; towards the end of June the
change was in progress, and by the second week in July,
as many were found in perfect summer-plumage, with
black throats and necks, as were still in change. M. Tem-
minck says the young assume, in March, their first sum-
mer-plumage. Adult birds lose their black throat at the
autumn moult.

458 ALCAD.E.

NA TA TORES. A LCA DJE.

THE RINGED GUILLEMOT,

OR THE BRIDLED GUILLEMOT.

Uria lacrymans.

Uria Iacrymans9 Bridled Guillemot, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxii.
„ „ Guillemot bridt, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv p. 577.

OF this Guillemot Mr. Gould observes, in his Birds of
Europe above-quoted, " although we have figured this bird
under the name of lacrymans, we are doubtful of its specific
value, bearing as it does so close a resemblance to the
common species, Uria troile, and from which it differs only
in the white mark which encircles the eyes, and passes
down the sides of the head. It inhabits the same lo-
calities, and is often found in company with the common
species, and that too on various parts of our coast, par-
ticularly those of Wales, where, we have been informed,
both kinds are equally numerous. It was first described
as distinct by Choris, who states that it is abundant at

RINGED GUILLEMOT. 459

Spitzbergen, and the neighbouring seas. By M. Temminck
and the French naturalists the two birds are considered to
be distinct, and as such we have figured them."

Examples of the Ringed Guillemot have been taken in
Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Durham, on the east coast,
and in Cornwall and Wales in the south.

In the fourth part of his Manual, page 577, M. Tem-
minck says, "MM. Faber et Graba, qui ont sejourne en
Islande et a Feroe, assurent que le Guillemot bride et celui
ct gros bee ne sont que des varietes du Guillemot a ca-
puchon (Uria troile). Je suis tres-porte a admettre leur
opinion, basee sur des observations faites sur les lieux par
des juges competens. Toutefois, il se pourrait que ses
races voisines fussent melees et confondues exactement par
les memes causes et de la meme maniere que celles des
Corvus corax et leucopJioeus ; Comix et Corone ; Monedula
et Spermogulus ; Fringilla domestica et cisalpina" etc.

In reference to the first part of this paragraph, it may
be stated, that since the true specific distinctions of Brun-
nich's Guillemot have been pointed out, namely, the form
and greater size of the anterior portion of the bill, and the
broad light-coloured stripe along the posterior half of the
margin of the upper mandible, no one that I am aware
of has considered it to be only a variety ; and if it is in-
tended that the claims of the Bridled Guillemot to be
ranked as a species, are equal to that of the Brunnichii,
then will both be entitled to be considered as species and
not as varieties.

The meaning of the latter part of the paragraph is to me
also somewhat doubtful ; but that the Ringed Guillemot is
not a hybrid produced between the Common Guillemot and
the Brunnichii, seems proved by two circumstances ; first,
that the beak of the Ringed Guillemot is even rather more

460 ALCAD.E.

slender than that of the Common Guillemot, which would
scarcely be expected to happen if the Brunnich's Guillemot
were one of the parents ; and secondly, by the well-known
fact that the Ringed Guillemots are abundantly fertile,
breeding by themselves.

But M. Temminck, in his fourth part already cited, fur-
ther says : — " M. Thieneman, qui a egalement parcouru
Flslande et le Nord, dans le but d'etudier les productions
de ces contrees, est d'avis que ces oiseaux forment trois
especes distinctes ; il indique meme des differences con-
stantes dans la couleur des ceufs." In reference to the
value of the opinion of M. Thieneman, I can quote that of
Mr. Proctor of Durham, who, having visited the breeding-
stations of these birds at Iceland, agrees with him pre-
cisely.

I am indebted to Mr. Proctor, the subcurator of the
Durham University Museum, for the opportunity of ex-
amining specimens of these three Guillemots, all brought
from Iceland, and obtained at the same time. Mr. Proc-
tor went to Iceland a few summers since to collect birds,
and on enquiring for the Ringed Guillemot, was told by
fishermen that they knew the bird very well, and that it
would be found breeding at Grimsey, an island about forty
miles north of Iceland. An arrangement to visit Grimsey
was made, and on reaching the island the species of Guille-
mots were found then breeding on the different rocks, and
were considered by the inhabitants of the island to be
distinct species. Brunnich's Guillemot was the most nu-
merous, and was called by them Stutnefia. The Common
Guillemot was the next in order of quantity, and was
called Langnefia. The Ringed Guillemot was the least
numerous, and its name was Hringlangnefia. The eggs of
all the three species were obtained, and the distinctions

RINGED GUILLEMOT. 461

between them well known to these fishermen, who sepa-
rated them, when put together, without difficulty or hesi-
tation. The eggs of the Ringed Guillemot were the most
rare, not so much on account of the smaller number of the
parent birds, as from the circumstance of these birds breed-
ing away from the others, far lower down on the rocks,
and they were consequently much more difficult to obtain
by those lowered down from the top of the rocks. The
natives of Grimsey further testified, not in words, but by
placing the birds in pairs together, and by separating others
when one of each were placed together as a pair, that the
Common Guillemot, and the Hinged Guillemot do not breed
one with the other, but each sort by themselves.

M. Nilsson, professor of Natural History at Lund, in his
Fauna of Scandinavia, considers the Ringed Guillemot only
as a variety of the Common Guillemot ; but as it appears
that the most weighty evidence is in favour of its being a
species, rather than a variety, I have given it a place in
this work.

An adult bird in its breeding-plumage, obtained at
Grimsey Island, has the beak black, rather more slender in
form than that of the Common Guillemot obtained at the
same locality ; the irides dark ; all round the eye a narrow
ring of pure white, and a line of the same colour about an
inch and a half long, passing from the eye backwards and
downwards on the neck ; head, chin, throat, upper part
of neck all round, lower portion of neck behind, back,
wings, and tail dull greyish-black ; tips of secondaries,
and all the under surface of the body white ; legs, toes,
and membranes brownish-black. The whole length about
eighteen inches ; the wing, from the joint to the end eight
inches.

462

NATATORES.

ALCAD^E.

ALCADM.

THE BLACK GUILLEMOT.

Uria grylle, Black Guillemot,

Spotted „
Black

Spotted „
Common Scraber,
Black Guillemot,

Ceplms
Uria

Uria grylle.

PKNN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 1C 3.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

•>•> » »»

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p 1 92.
„ „ „ 194.

FLKM. Brit. An. p. 134.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 426.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 258.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xv.

„ „ Guillemot a miroir blanc, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 925.

THE BLACK GUILLEMOT, a well-known species, is smaller
in size than the Common Guillemot, and more confined to

BLACK GUILLEMOT. 463

the northern parts of the British Islands; but like the
other species of this genus, it is an open sea bird, frequent-
ing the rocks only for a limited period, during the season
of incubation, and is seldom or ever found inland. It is
local, remaining all the year in such situations as suit its
habits. I have seen this bird at the end of summer in
Christchurch Bay, on the Hampshire coast ; it is also
occasionally procured on the coasts of Dorsetshire, Devon-
shire, and Cornwall. Pennant mentions that in his time it
was known to breed at several places on the coast of
Wales. Mr. W. Thompson includes it, at this time,
among the resident species of Ireland. Mr. J. Macgil-
livray says it is found on all the rocky coasts of the islands
of the Outer Hebrides, but nowhere numerous ; and Mon-
tagu mentions that Mr. Henry Boys saw both old and
young in the month of August at Fowlesheugh, near
Stonehaven. On the coasts of Durham and Northumber-
land Mr. Selby considers it a rare bird, but it breeds upon
the Isle of May, at the mouth of the Frith of Forth, and
was seen by some of the natural history party in Suther-
landshire about the caves of the mouth of the Durness
Frith. Professor Macgillivray says " the Black Guillemot
sits lightly on the water, paddles about in a very lively
manner, dives with rapidity, opening its wings a little, like
the other species, and moves under water with great speed."
Mr. Salmon, in his notes on eggs and birds found in
Orkney in 1831, says, this species, which is there called
the Tyste, differs from the Common Guillemot, in not
resorting to the same spots for the purpose of incubation ;
and its principal place of breeding is upon a small holm,
lying to the eastward of Papa Westra, where it is very
numerous, and would scarcely move off the rocks when
approached. In every instance two eggs were invariably

464 ALCAD.E.

found together, and they were deposited upon the bare
ground. The egg is white, slightly tinged with green,
blotched, spotted, and speckled, with ash-grey, reddish-
brown, and very dark brown ; the length two inches three
lines, by one inch and a half in breadth. The first cover-
ing of the young bird is a greyish-black down, through
which its first feathers make their way, and these are
mottled black and white. The old birds, as well as the
young, have a considerable portion of white in their
plumage during winter, and in high northern latitudes still
more white than with us. The summer-plumage is black,
and in reference to the time of its assumption in Zetland,
Dr. Fleming says that their summer appearance was com-
pleted by the end of March, but that they began to assume
the black by the end of February. Mr. Dunn, from obser-
vation in Shetland, adds, " that the young of this species
never leave the nest until perfectly fledged, and able to
provide for themselves ; as soon as this takes place the at-
tendance and care of the parents cease ; they do not even
continue in the company of their young, which associate
together for some time afterwards. Their food is small
fish and Crustacea.""

This species is found on the coasts of Scandinavia, the
Faroe Islands, and Iceland ; it has also been found as far
north as Nova Zenibla, Spitzbergen, and Greenland, and
has been called the Greenland Dove. It was found by our
Arctic voyagers in most of the high northern latitudes
visited by them, and is well known in North America.

In summer the beak is black ; inside of the mouth red-
dish-orange ; the irides brown ; the whole of the plumage
black, except the patch on the wing, which is white ; legs
vermilion red ; whole length of the bird fourteen inches ; of
the wing from the wrist six inches and a half.

LITTLE AUK.

465

NATATORES.

ALCAD^E.

THE LITTLE AUK,

OR COMMON EOTCHE.

Mergulus melanoleucos.

Alca alle, Little Auk, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 158.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 185.

Merguhis melanoleucos, Common Botch, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 135.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol ii. p. 430.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 259.

„ „ Little Auk, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

Uria alle, Guillemot nain, TEMM. Man. d'Omith. vol. ii. p. 928.

MERGULUS. Generic Characters. — Bill shorter than the head, thick, broader
than high at the base ; culmen arched ; upper mandible indistinctly grooved ;
under one with the symphisis very short and oblique ; tips of both mandibles
notched. Commissure arched. Nostrils lateral, round, situated at the base of
the bill, and partly covered with small feathers. Legs abdominal, short ; feet of
three toes, all directed forwards, and united by a membrane. Wings and tail
short.

VOL. III.

H H

466 ALCAD^E.

THE LITTLE AUK, or Common Rotche, as it is also called,
though in its habits very similar to the Guillemots and the
true Auks, is only a winter visiter to the British Islands,
and is more frequently met with among those of Orkney
and Shetland than farther south. Somewhat intermediate
in its characters between the Guillemots and the Auks,
with the last of which it was long associated in ornitho-
logical works, it has been considered worthy of generic dis-
tinction, and separated accordingly.

Truly oceanic in its habits, and unless forced by neces-
sity, rarely seen on land except in the breeding-season, this
species seldom makes its appearance on our coasts, but
with, or soon after, the stormy weather which usually fol-
lows each autumnal equinox, when they are forced by
violent and long continuing winds to leave the rougher sea
and take shelter in land-locked bays, where they are easily
shot ; or, are not unfrequently driven while on wing over
the land itself, far from their natural marine haunts, to
situations where they are generally found either exhausted
or dead.

A remarkable instance of this sort occurred in the month
of October, 1841. Dr. Edward Clarke, of Hartlepool, sent
me word that after a violent storm of wind from N.N.E.
which lasted several days, his attention was directed by
pilots and fishermen on the look out to various flocks of
small black and white birds, then close in shore. There
were several hundreds of them, which were unknown to
these seafaring men, but which proved to be the Little
Auk. Many were obtained, five or six being killed at
each shot, the birds were so numerous. The same thing
happened at the same time at Bedcar, on the Yorkshire
coast, but after two or three days, the wind abating, they
were seen no more. About the same time I heard from
various friends of other examples being taken in many

LITTLE AUK. 467

different counties. In Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Es-
sex, Kent, and Sussex. On the other side of the channel,
on the coasts of Holland and France, the Little Auk is
taken in severe winters. During the early part of No-
vember, 1841, a few of these birds were sent for sale to the
London markets. Some were taken at unusual distances
inland. Mr. Thrale, a collector in Hertfordshire, sent me
notice of one, now in his possession, that was obtained on
the mill-head at Wheathainstead. Another was picked up
alive between Baldock and Koyston, and is now preserved
in the Museum at Saffron Walden. I heard of others
taken near Birmingham. Mr. Strickland recorded nine
taken in Worcestershire ; three in Shropshire ; some at
Bristol, and other parts near the Severn. The Little Auk
is, however, a rare bird in the counties of Devon and Corn-
wall. Mr. W. Thompson has noticed its occurrence in Ire-
land at Wexford, and at Kerry ; at the latter it is sus-
pected that it may breed in the same locality as Brunnich^s
Guillemot. It has been shot in winter in Cumberland.

North of Shetland it is found in different parts of Scan-
dinavia. It breeds on the most northern of the Faroe
Islands ; and Mr. Proctor tells me that it breeds also at
Iceland ; he found the eggs laid under stones on Grimsey
island. Some writers say this little bird lays but one egg ;
others say two ; they are very rarely to be seen in col-
lections ; the length is one inch seven lines, the breadth
one inch one line, and the colour a uniform pale blue, not
unlike in colour the eggs of our Common Starling.

The Little Auk goes as far north as Nova Zembla,
Spitzbergen, and Greenland. Sir Edward Parry, while
accompanied by Captain James C. Eoss, obtained one
specimen as far north as latitude 81°, with the Common
Guillemot that has already been referred to, and these
were the only two species of birds seen in that high

H H 2

468 ALCAD^E.

latitude, and their only food there was small thin-skinned
Crustacea. The Little Auk was, however, found in great
quantities by our Arctic voyagers in some situations. In
his Memoir on the Birds of Greenland, published soon after
one of the Voyages of Discovery, Colonel Sabine observes :
" This species was abundant in Baffin's Bay, and Davis1
Straits ; and in latitude 76° was so numerous in the chan-
nels of water separating fields of ice, that many hundreds
were killed daily, and the ship's company supplied with
them. The whole of the birds in the breeding- season, the
sexes being alike., had the under part of the neck an
uniform sooty black, terminating abruptly, and in an even
line against the white of the belly ; the young birds, which
we saw in all stages from the egg, as soon as they were
feathered, were marked exactly as the mature birds ; but
in the third week in September, when we were on our
passage down the American coast, every specimen, whether
old or young, was observed to be in change ; and in the
course of a few days the entire feathers of the throat and
cheeks, and of the under part of the neck, had become
white."

In the adult bird the beak is black ; the irides hazel,
with a small white spot over the eye ; the head, hind neck,
back, wings, and tail black, but the ends of the secondaries
and the sides of the tertials are margined with white ; the
colour of the chin, throat, and neck in front, depend on the
season, being black in summer and white in winter, but
mottled with black and white in spring and autumn ;
under surface of the body white ; legs and toes yellowish-
brown, the membranes between the toes darker brown.
Whole length of the bird about eight inches and a half;
of the wing from the wrist four inches and a half. M.
Temminck says the young birds of the year may be dis-
tinguished by having their cheeks shaded with grey.

PUFFIN.

NATATORES.

469
ALCADM.

THE PUFFIN,

SEA PARROT, AND COULTERNEB.

Fratercula arctica.

Aka arctica, The Puffin, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 152.

., „ ., „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

,, „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 181.

Fratercida,, Common Coulterneb, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 130.

„ „ „ Puffin, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 439.

„ „ The „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 260.

Mormon fratercula, „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ii.

„ ., Macareau moine, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 933.

FRATERCULA. Generic Characters. — Bill shorter than the head, higher than
long, very much compressed, both mandibles arched, transversely grooved, notched
towards the point ; the culmen as high as the top of the head, and with a cutting
edge. Nostrils lateral, marginal, linear, naked, almost entirely closed by a naked
membrane. Legs short, abdominal ; feet with three toes only, all in front,
united by membranes ; claws curved. Wings and tail' short.

470 ALCAD^E.

THIS singular looking bird, whose aspect is rendered so
peculiar by the form and colours of its bill, is only a sum-
mer visiter to the British Islands, making its appearance
early in April, and departing by the end of August. High
rocks or cliffs on the sea coast, or the short turf frequently
to be found on the table land above, are the places selected
by Puffins for the great object of their visit, the repro-
duction of their species, and various localities about which
they assemble in vast numbers may be enumerated. In
Ireland, Mr. W. Thompson says, the Puffin is a regular
summer visitant, having breeding-haunts around the coast.
This bird visits the Isle of Man ; the coast of Anglesey ;
the Scilly Islands, where it is more common than in Corn-
wall ; the high cliffs of the Isle of Wight, between the
needle rocks and Freshwater gate ; the Yorkshire coast ;
the Fern Islands ; Puffin island in the Frith of Forth, and
others of the numerous Scottish islands.

In reference to the Scilly Islands, Frederick Holme,
Esq., of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to whom I am
indebted for many interesting notices on our British Birds,
sent me the following. The Scilly Isles were held in the
14th century, under the king as Earl of Cornwall, by
Ranulph de Blancminster for an annual payment of six
shillings and eight pence, or three hundred Puffins at
Michaelmas.

Early in May these birds deposit their single large egg,
sometimes in crevices and fissures on the perpendicular sur-
face of the cliffs, at the depth of three or four feet from the
front. Rabbit warrens are not unfrequent on our coast,
and where this happens the Puffins often contend with the
rabbits for the possession of some of the burrows. Many
Puffins, Mr. Selby observes, " resort to the Fern Islands,
selecting such as are covered with a stratum of vegetable

PUFFIN. 471

mould ; and here they dig their own burrows, from there
not being any rabbits to dispossess upon the particular
islets they frequent. They commence this operation about
the first week in May, and the hole is generally excavated
to the depth of three feet, often in a curving direction, and
occasionally with two entrances. When engaged in dig-
ging, which is principally performed by the males, they
are sometimes so intent upon their work as to admit of
being taken by the hand, and the same may also be done
during incubation. At this period I have frequently ob-
tained specimens, by thrusting my arm into the burrow,
though at the risk of receiving a severe bite from the
powerful and sharp-edged bill of the old bird. At the
farther end of this hole the single egg is deposited, which
in size nearly equals that of a Pullet. The length two
inches three lines, by one inch and seven lines in breadth.
Its colour when first laid is white, sometimes spotted with
pale cinereous, but it soon becomes soiled and dirty from
its immediate contact with the earth, no materials being
collected for a nest at the end of the burrow. The young
are hatched after a month's incubation, and are then
covered with a long blackish down above, which gradually
gives place to the feathered plumage, so that, at the end
of a month or five weeks, they are able to quit the burrow,
and follow their parents to the open sea. Soon after this
time, or about the second week in August, the whole
leave our coasts." Pennant mentions that when the time
for migration arrives, such young birds as cannot then fly
are deserted. Puffins when on land rest on the whole
length of the foot and heel, as represented in the illus-
tration, and walk in consequence with a waddling gait, but
they fly rapidly for a moderate distance, and can swim and
dive well. They feed on marine insects, small Crustacea,

472 ALCAD.E.

and young fish. I have seen old birds when they had a
young one to feed, returning to the rocks with several
small fish hanging by the head from the angle of the gape
of the mouth. Mr. John Macgillivray says that at St.
Kilda many Puffins are taken when sitting on the rocks,
by means of a noose of horse-hair attached to a slender
rod of bamboo-cane. This mode is most successful in
wet weather, as the Puffins then sit best upon the rocks,
allowing a person to approach within a few yards, and as
many as three hundred may be taken in the coarse of one
day by an expert bird-catcher. They are caught for their
feathers.

The Puffin visits various parts of Scandinavia, the Faroe
Islands, and Iceland ; it has been found as far as Nova
Zembla, and other high northern latitudes. East of this
country it is taken on the coasts of Holland and France.
A single specimen is recorded to have been taken at Genoa
in the winter of 1823, and M. Savi includes it in his his-
tory of the Birds of Italy. An example of this species
wanders occasionally, as if by accident, to Sicily and
Malta.

The beak has the basal ridge yellow, the space in ad-
vance of the base bluish-grey, with three grooves and four
ridges of orange ; the naked skin at the gape is yellow ;
the irides grey, eyelids orange ; lore, chin, cheeks, and
ear-coverts white ; forehead, crown, occiput, a collar round
the neck, all the back, wings, and tail black, the wing-
primaries rather the lightest in colour ; all the under sur-
face of the body white ; legs, toes, and their membranes
orange ; the whole length twelve inches, of the wing six
inches. Both sexes alike in plumage. Varieties in colour
have been known to occur.

NATATOIfES.

RAZOR-BILL.

473
ALCA DM.

THE RAZOR-BILL.

Alca torda.

Alca torda, The Razor-bill Auk, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 148.

„ „ * „ 150.

MONTAGU. Ornith. Diet.

» 11 »

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 176.
„ „ „ 179.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 130.
Auk, SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 435.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 260.
„ „ „ „ billed Auk, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xii.

„ „ Pinyouin macroptere, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol ii. p. 936.

ALCA. Generic Characters. — Bill straight, large, compressed, very much curved
towards the point, basal half of both mandibles covered with feathers, grooved
towards the point, the superior mandible hooked, the under one forming with it a

w w

„ Black-billed,,

*)) *A

„ Razor-Mil

„ pica,

„ Black-billed,,

„ torda,

„ Razor-bill

„ pica,

„ Black-billed,,

„ tur./a,

„ Razor-bill,

„ „ „ Au}

474 ALCAD^J.

salient angle. Nostrils lateral, marginal, linear, near the middle of the beak, the
aperture almost entirely closed by a membrane covered with feathers. Legs
short, abdominal ; only three toes, all in front, entirely united by membrane ;
claws but slightly curved. Wings short, tail pointed.

THE RAZOR-BILL so closely resembles the Common Guille-
mot in the localities it frequents ; in the time of its move-
ments ; in its manners, habits, and food ; in its general
colours and appearance, and the seasonal changes of its
plumage ; that the history of the one species, given at page
450, is the history of the other, and repetition would be
useless. The egg of the Razor-bill, however, differs in size,
form, and colour ; it wants the lengthened pear shape of
that of the Guillemot, as well as its agreeable green colour ;
it measures only two inches and three-quarters in length,
by one inch and ten lines in breadth ; the ground colour is
white, blotched and spotted with red-brown, and blackish-
brown. The bird is abundant on most of the islands of
the Arctic Seas, and the Zoological Society have received a
young bird in its first winter-dress from Tangiers ; it also
appears occasionally in winter on the shores of Italy and
Sicily, but this is the farthest southern range I am able to
quote for it.

Both sexes are alike in plumage, and in summer the beak
is black, with three transverse grooves, and one white line
on the upper mandible, two transverse grooves and a white
line on the lower mandible ; from the top of the beak to
each eye there is a well-defined streak of pure white ; irides
dark brown ; the whole of the head, chin, throat, hind
neck, back, wings, and tail black ; the tips of the secon-
dary quill-feathers, the breast, and all the under surface of
the body pure white ; legs, toes, and their membranes
brownish-black ; whole length about seventeen inches ;
wing, from the wrist seven inches and a half.

RAZOR-BILL. 475

A young bird of the year killed in December, repre-
sented by the central figure in the illustration, has the beak
smooth and black, as yet without ridge, groove, or white
line on either mandible ; the white line from the top of the
beak to the eye very observable, but not very pure in
colour, being mixed with a little black ; chin, throat, neck
in front, and on the side at the upper part, cheeks, and
ear-coverts, white ; in other respects like the old bird in
summer.

A young bird about a week old, obtained from the rocks
at the Isle of Wight, has the beak smooth and black, no
white line to the eye, but the chin and throat are white,
with a few greyish-black hairs about the middle of the neck
in front ; the head and hind neck black, with a few white
hairs ; body above and the wings dull sooty-black.

The young bird of the year at Christmas only differs
from the adult bird in winter in the character of the beak,
which is smaller and has not then acquired the grooves or
lines so conspicuous in the old bird. The young bird re-
tains its white throat till the spring moult, when it assumes
the black throat peculiar to the breeding-season.

It is matter of surprise that Colonel Montagu, who was
so good an observer, should have remained mistaken on the
subject of his Lesser Guillemot and Black-billed Auk.
Had he obtained a young bird of the Common Guillemot,
or the Razor-bill from the rocks on our coast, in June, and
kept it alive in his garden till Christmas, the riddle would
have been solved for him.

476

NAT A TORES.

ALCAD^.

ALCADJE.

THE GREAT AUK.

A lea impennis.

Alca impennis, The Great Auk, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 146,

„ „ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 174.

„ „ „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 129.

„ „ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 433.

„ „ „ ,, „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 261.

„ „ „ „ ., GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiii.

„ „ Pingouin tracliiptere, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 939.

THE GREAT AUK is a very rare British Bird, and but
few instances are recorded of its capture. " The natives in

GREAT AUK. 477

the Orkneys informed Mr. Bullock on his tour through
these islands several years ago, that only one male had made
its appearance for a long time, which had regularly visited
Papa Westra for several seasons. The female, which the
natives call the Queen of the Auks, was killed just before
Mr. Bullock1 s arrival. The King, or male, Mr. Bullock
had the pleasure of chasing for several hours in a six-
oared boat, but without being able to kill him, for though
he frequently got near him, so expert was the bird in its
natural element that it appeared impossible to shoot him.
The rapidity with which he pursued his course under
water was almost incredible." About a fortnight after
Mr. Bullock had left Papa Westra, this male bird was
obtained and sent to him, and at the sale of his collection,
was purchased for the British Museum, where it is still
carefully preserved.

Dr. Fleming has noticed one taken at St. Kilda, an
island of the Outer Hebrides, in the winter of 1822.
Another was taken there in 1829, but afterwards escaped
from confinement. Mr. John Macgillivray, who visited
the islands of the Outer Hebrides in July, 1840, says,
" The Great Auk was declared by several of the inhabi-
tants to be of not unfrequent occurrence about St. Kilda,
where, however, it has not been known to breed for many
years back. Three or four specimens only have been ever
procured during the memory of the oldest inhabitant."

The authors of the catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk
Birds include a notice of one specimen killed near South-
wold, on the authority of Sir William Jackson Hooker.
Mr. Bullock told Dr. Fleming some years ago that a speci-
men was taken in a pond of fresh water, two miles from
the Thames, on the estate of Sir William Clayton, near
Marlow, in Buckinghamshire. Dr. Edward Moore, in his
catalogue of the web-footed birds of Devonshire, refers to a

478 ALCAD^E.

specimen of this bird which was picked up dead near
Lundy Island in the year 1829, which Professor Jameson
suggested might have been the one which had been ob-
tained by Mr. Stevenson in St. Kilda, and which had
escaped from the Light-house keeper of Pladda. Lastly,
Mr. W. Thompson states that one of these birds taken in
1834, off the coast of the county of Waterford, has been
presented by Dr. Robert Burkitt to the collection in
Trinity College, Dublin.

These are the notices I am acquainted with in refer-
ence to the appearance of the Great Auk near the British
Islands. It is said to be very rarely seen out of the water,
and the female lays her single large egg close above the
sea- tide mark. The egg measures four inches ten lines
in length, by two inches and nine lines in breadth ; of a
soiled white colour, tinged with yellow, blotched and
streaked, principally over the larger end, with black.

M. Nilsson says this species is very rare in Sweden and
Norway. In a volume of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library,
containing a historical and descriptive account of Iceland,
Greenland, and the Faroe islands, it is said, page 405,
" The Great Auk, which is the size of a Goose, used for-
merly to be found in these countries. In Landt's time it
had, however, become scarce, and at present is almost
unknown even by name. According to Graba none have
been seen in Greenland, Iceland, or Faroe of late years, so
that the race may now be regarded as extinct." No speci-
men was obtained by our Arctic voyagers upon either of
the Northern expeditions. The specimen represented by
Edwards, plate 147, was obtained at sea, over a fishing
bank, about one hundred leagues from Newfoundland.
Mr. Audubon says " Mr. Henry Havell, brother of my
engraver, when on his passage from New York to Eng-
land, hooked a Great Auk on the banks of Newfoundland,

GREAT AUK. 479

in extremely boisterous weather. On being hauled on
board it was left at liberty on the deck. It walked very
awkwardly, often tumbling over ; bit every one within
reach of its powerful bill, and refused food of all kinds.
After continuing several days on board it was restored to
its proper element. When I was at Labrador, many of
the fishermen assured me that the Penguin, as they name
this bird, breeds on a low rocky island to the south east of
Newfoundland, where they destroy great numbers of the
young for bait ; but as this intelligence came to me when
the season was too far advanced, I had no opportunity of
ascertaining its accuracy. In Newfoundland, however, I
received similar information from several individuals. An
old gunner residing on Chelsea Beach, near Boston, told me
that he well remembered the time when the Penguins were
plentiful about Nahant, and some other islands in the bay."

In summer-plumage the bill is black, very strong, com-
pressed, and marked with several lateral furrows ; the
irides reddish brown ; between the beak and the eye an
oval patch of white ; head, chin, and throat, hind neck,
back, wings, and tail black ; the ends of the secondary
wing-feathers white ; breast, and all the under surface of
the body white ; legs, toes, and their membranes black.
The whole length of the bird thirty-two inches ; the wing
from the wrist to the end of the longest quill-feather seven
inches ; of the longest feather alone but four inches and
one quarter.

Dr. Fleming^ specimen obtained in winter, had the
chin, throat, and front of the neck white. Mr. Fox, in
reference to the specimen in the Newcastle Museum, says,
" Our bird is apparently a young one, the neck black,
spotted, or mottled with white ; upper mandible of the bill
with one large sulcus at the base, none at the tip."

480

TELECANID.E.

NATATORES.

PELECANID^E.

THE COMMON CORMORANT.

Phalacrocorax carbo.

Pelecanus carlo. The Common Corvorant, PKNN. Brit. Zoo], vol. ii. p. 281.

„ carbo, „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ carb(\ „ Cormorant, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii p. 397.
„ Crested „ „ ,, „ ,, 403.

Phalacrocorax „ Common „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 117.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Oraith. vol. ii. p. 446.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 262.

„ „ „ ,, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.

Carbo cormoranus^ Grand Cormoran, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 894.

COMMON CORMORANT. 481

I'IIALACROCOKAX. Generic Characters. — Bill moderate, or long, straight, com-
pressed, culmen rounded ; upper mandible very much curved at the point, hooked ;
the base connected with a membrane which extends to the throat. Face and
throat naked. Nostrils basal, linear, hid. Legs strong, short, abdominal ; three
toes in front, one behind, the hind toe articulated on the inner surface of the
tarsus ; all four toes united together by membranes ; claw of the middle toe
serrated on the inner edge. Wings of moderate length, the third quill-feather
the longest. Tail feathers stiff and rigid.

THE GREAT CORMORANT, or Black Cormorant as it is
sometimes called, to distinguish it from the green- coloured
species next to be described, is found in considerable num-
bers on most of the rocky parts all round the coast. So
common indeed is it as to make an enumeration of the
localities it frequents unnecessary ; yet the bird has given
rise to some mistakes, and the new appearance assumed by
the adult Cormorant when it has acquired in spring the
crest and further change peculiar to the breeding-season,
has induced some authors to consider that we had in this
country, besides the green species already referred to, a
second Cormorant.

Our illustration represents two birds killed at the Isle of
Wight. The bird in front is in the plumage of the breed-
ing-season ; the other is a younger bird, not yet suffi-
ciently matured to assume the breeding-dress. Some ob-
servations made upon living Cormorants in the Gardens
of the Zoological Society will afford further explanation.
Some white feathers on the side of the head and neck
began to appear on an old bird on the 4th of January,
1832, and arrived at their greatest perfection by the 26th
of February. They remained in this state till the 2nd of
April, when they began gradually to disappear, and by the
12th of May were wholly lost, having been fifty-three
days arriving at perfection ; thirty-six days stationary, and
forty days disappearing; making together a period of
1'io'hteen weeks three days. These white feathers are new

VOL. in. r i

482 PELECANID^E.

ones, much longer than the black feathers of the same part,
rounded in form, and in some degree resembling bristles.
Some white feathers began to appear on the thighs of the
same bird on the 25th of January, and the patch was
completed in five weeks. These white feathers began to
disappear about the 16th of June, and by the 20th of July
were almost entirely gone. Both sexes assume summer plum-
age. The female has the longest crest, and is the brightest
in colour, but is the smallest in size. A young Cormorant
brought to the Garden in the autumn of 1830, did not go
through any change during the summers of 1831 or 1832.

Cormorants, when at their breeding-stations, seem to
prefer the higher parts of the rocks or cliffs,* and many
birds congregate harmoniously together. They make a
large nest, composed of sticks, with a mass of sea-weed
and long coarse grass ; they lay four, five, and sometimes
six eggs, which are small compared to the size of the bird.
The eggs are oblong, similar in shape at both ends, rough
in texture externally, of a chalky white colour, varied
with pale blue ; the length two inches nine lines, by one
inch and seven lines in breadth. Mr. Selby says, <c The
young when first excluded are blind, and covered with a
bluish-black skin ; in the course of a few days they ac-
quire a thick covering of black down, and are sufficiently
fledged to take to the water, though still unable to fly, in
the space of three weeks or a month." The old birds fly
well, generally low over the surface of the water ; they
swim rapidly, and dive in perfection ; their food is fish,
which they appear to catch with great ease and hold with
certainty, by the sharp, hooked, horny point of the upper
mandible ; their dilatable throat enabling them to swallow

* The Rev. Richard Lubbock says that Cormorants have in some seasons
nested in the trees around the decoy at Fritton in Norfolk ; M. Malherbe states,
also, that in Sicily the Cormorants make their nests on trees in the marshes.

COMMON CORMORANT. 483

a large prey. When fishing they are frequently observed
to carry their heads under water, perhaps that vision may
not be interfered with by the ripple on the surface. They
are frequently seen sitting on posts, rails, or leafless trees
by the water side, when, if a fish should move on the
surface within their sight, it is pounced upon, and caught
to a certainty. An eel is a favourite morsel with him,
and a Cormorant has been seen to pick up an eel from
the mud, return to the rail he was previously sitting
upon, strike the eel three or four hard blows against the
rail, toss it up into the air, and catching it by the head
in its fall, swallow it in an instant. Cormorants on the
wing frequently follow the course of a river many miles
inland ; sometimes, perhaps, mistaking stone buildings
for rocks, as a few years ago a Cormorant was shot on
King^s College Chapel, in Cambridge.

That Cormorants possess considerable intelligence is
shown by several circumstances. They are easily re-
conciled to confinement; and Montagu, in his Supple-
ment, relates an interesting account of one that very soon
became so tame and attached, that it seemed to be never
so happy as when permitted to remain by the side of its
owner. They were formerly trained to catch and bring
fish to their masters. Whitelock tells us, says Pennant,
that he had a cast of them manned like hawks, and which
would come to hand. He took much pleasure in them,
and relates, that the best he had was one presented him
by Mr. Wood, Master of the Cormorants to Charles I.
The Chinese are said to use them at the present time ; the
bird is taken to the water side ; a metal ring, or leather
strap, by way of collar is put on his neck, and he is then
set at liberty to catch a fish, which he brings to hand
when called, a small cord being attached to him, while in

i i 2

484 PELECANID^E.

training, to insure his return; having satisfied the wants
of his master, the collar is taken off, and the bird is then
allowed to fish for himself. On other occasions, when
well trained, two birds are taken by the fishermen upon
the water on a raft to fish, as shown in the representa-
tion used as a vignette at the end of this subject. The
Cormorants appear to fish and rest by turns, and are as-
sisted in gaining a footing upon the raft by the fisherman
using a short pole.

Sir Robert Shafto Adair told me that a pair of Cormo-
rants took to, fed, and brought up a nest of young Ravens,
the natural parents of which had both been destroyed.
The game-keeper was desired to watch the proceedings,
and reported that the Cormorants brought a constant sup-
ply of fish. Cormorants are found at Corfu, Sicily, and
Malta. Mr. Drummond observed that they were numerous
on both lakes at Biserta, near Tunis ; and Mr. Strickland
says Cormorants abound in the harbour of Constantinople,
and roost on the roofs of the houses.

The Cormorant inhabits the North-western portions of
India, Calcutta, and China.

The adult bird during spring, and the early part of sum-
mer, has the bill pale brown, the point horny, hooked,
and sharp ; irides green ; forehead, crown, nape, and part
of the neck black, mixed with many white hair-like fea-
thers, the black feathers on the occiput elongated, forming
a crest ; base of the upper mandible, and the gular pouch
yellow, the pouch margined with white ; the back and
wing-coverts dark brown, each feather margined with
black ; quill-feathers and tail black ; lower part of the
neck all round with the breast and all the under surface of
the body a rich velvet-like bluish-black, except a patch on
the thigh, which is white ; the legs, toes, and their con-

COMMON CORMORANT.

485

necting membranes black ; whole length of a male about
three feet ; of the wing fourteen inches and a half. Of
the female the length is about thirty-three inches, the wing
thirteen inches and a half.

A young bird has the upper mandible dark brown, the
lower one pale brown ; irides brown ; forehead, hind neck,
back, wings, and tail dark brown ; chin, throat, and neck
in front dull white, mixed with pale wood brown ; lower
part of neck in front darker brown, mottled with white ;
under surface of body dull white ; varied with a little
brown ; sides and flanks dark brown ; legs, toes, and
membranes nearly black.

486

NA TA TORES.

TELECANID^.

PELECANIDJE.

THE SHAG, OR GREEN CORMORANT.

Phalacrocorax graculus.

Pelecanus cristatus, Shag Cormorant, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 285.

„ Crested „ . „ ,, 284.

„ gracuhts, The Shag „

„ cristatus, Crested Shag,

„ graculus, The „

Phalacrocorax „ Common „

„ cristatus, Crested „

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

Carbo

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 405.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 117.
„ „ „ US.
„ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 450.

„ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 262.
„ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. x.

Cormoran largup, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 900.

THE adult Shag is immediately distinguished from the
Cormorant at any season by its prevailing green colour,
as well as its smaller size, and this difference in size is a

SHAG. 487

sufficient distinction between them, when as young birds
they are more alike in colour. The matured Cormorant
and the Shag both bear crests in spring, and the early
part of summer, but neither of them have a crest in winter,
while the young and immature birds of both these species
have no crest either in winter or summer. It is also com-
mon to find the crested mature birds associating and breed-
ing in one locality, and the non-crested immature birds
congregating, but not breeding, in another.

In the localities visited, or in the habits of the Small,
or Green Cormorant, as compared with those of the larger
and darker-coloured bird, there are but few points of dif-
ference. The Shag, it is said, never quits the salt water
to follow the course of a river, nor does it settle on trees
like the Cormorant. They generally build lower down on
the rocks, nearer the water, than the Cormorants, but in
companies like them ; and Montagu says he has seen
thirty nests close together on a small rock. The nest is
formed of sea-weed, the eggs, three or four in number, in
shape and colour like those of its generic companion, but
they measure only two inches five lines in length, by one
inch and five lines in breadth. These birds live on fish,
in pursuit of which they exhibit all the skill of the Cor-
morant, and have a similarly serrated claw, but as neither
of them are observed to attempt to catch, or to hold fish
with their feet, it would seem that their serrated claw is
not used to enable them to retain a slippery prey ; while
from some remains of down and feather found adhering
to the serrations in one of the Bitterns, it would rather
appear that the pectinated claw was used to dress and
arrange the plumage.

The depth of water to which marine diving-birds will go
in pursuit of prey, is greater perhaps than is generally sup-

488

PELECANID^!.

posed. The Shag has been caught in a crab-pot fixed at
twenty fathoms (one hundred and twenty feet) below the
surface.

The geographical range of this bird in the north is very
similar to that of the Cormorant, but the Cormorant goes
to the eastward, and is found at the Caspian Sea and in
India, where the Green species is not seen, but has been
brought from South Africa by Dr. Andrew Smith.

In the adult bird the bill is dusky black, the base of the
under mandible and the naked skin about the gape yel-
lowish green ; the irides green ; the head crested in the
spring ; the crown, neck, breast, and all the under surface
of the body a uniform rich dark green ; back, and wing-
coverts dark green, each feather with a narrow, but darker
margin ; wing and tail-feathers black ; legs, toes, and
their membranes black. The whole length of the male
twenty-seven inches ; of the wing from the wrist ten
inches and three-quarters.

Young birds have the upper plumage brown, tinted
with green ; the under surface brownish-ash, mingled with
white.

GANNET.

AM TA TOftES.

489

PELECANII* /

/^:%^^^^ }

alba

THE GANNET,

OR SOLAND* GOOSE.

Sula alba.

The Gannet, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 286.

„ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 408.

Common „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 118.

Solan „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 455.

Common „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 263.

Solan „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

Fou de ftassan, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 905.

Solent or Channel Goose.

490 PELECANID^E.

SULA. Generic Characters. — Bill strong, long, forming an elongated cone very
large at its base, compressed towards the point, which is slightly curved ; edges
of the mandibles serrated ; the angle of the gape behind the line of the eyes.
Face and throat naked. Nostrils basal, linear, hidden. Legs short, strong,
placed rather backward ; three toes in front, one behind, articulated to the inner
surface of the tarsus, all four toes united by membrane ; claw of the middle toe
pectinated. Wings long, first quill-feather the longest. Tail cuneiform.

THE GANNET is a constant resident on our coast, but
with considerable change of locality depending on the sea-
son of the year. The breeding stations at which the
largest quantities congregate during spring and autumn
are, Lundy Island, off the coast of Devon, where one spot
is called Gannet Cove, from the numbers which resort
there ; the Skelig Isles, off the county of Kerry, west of
Ireland , the Isle of Ailsa, at the mouth of the Frith of
Clyde ; St. Kilda in the Outer Hebrides ; Souliskerry
near the Orkneys ; and, on the east coast, the Bass Rock
in the Frith of Forth. These stations are inhabited by
many thousands.

This last-named precipitous rock, Mr. Selby says, " is
rented from the proprietor at sixty or seventy pounds per
annum, and as the proceeds chiefly depend upon the pro-
duce of the Gannets, great care is taken to protect the old
birds, which the tenant is enabled to do from the privi-
lege possessed by the proprietor, of preventing any person
from shooting, or otherwise destroying them within a cer-
tain limited distance of the island. From the accounts I
have received from the resident there, it appears that the
Gannet is a very long-lived bird, as he has recognised, from
particular and well-known marks, certain individuals for
upwards of forty years, that invariably returned to the
same spot to breed. He also confirmed to me the time re-
quired for this bird to attain maturity, namely, four years ;
and pointed out several in the different garbs they assume
during that period, stating also, that until fully matured,

GANNET. 491

they have never been known to breed. During incuba-
tion, in consequence of being unmolested, they become
very tame ; and, where the nests are easily accessible upon
the flat surface of the rock on the south-west side of the
island, will allow themselves to be stroked by the hand
without resistance, or any show even of impatience, except
a low guttural note."

The birds form their nests of a mass of weeds and grass,
upon which they deposit a single egg, which, when first
laid, is of a chalky white, tinged with pale blue, but soon
becomes soiled ; the length is three inches three lines, by
one inch and ten lines in breadth. The changes between
black and white these birds undergo are very curious.
From the white egg the young one is excluded with a
smooth and naked bluish-black skin, which soon becomes
covered with a white down ; this growing rapidly is soon
very thick, giving them the appearance of large powder
puffs, or masses of cotton. Through this white down their
first true feathers issue, and these are black, to be fol-
lowed by the adult plumage which is again white. Gan-
nets feed exclusively upon fish, and being birds of great
powers of flight, they take a very wide range over the sea
in search of food. Shoals of herrings, pilchards or sprats,
appear to have the greatest attraction for them, and all the
species of the genus Clupea, it will be recollected, swim
near the surface. On quitting their northern breeding-
stations in autumn, many of these birds take a southern
direction. Off the Cornish coast, Mr. Couch says in his
Fauna, " Adult birds are most abundant in autumn, and
winter, fishermen learning by the actions of these birds
when shoals of pilchards are present, and the direction they
are pursuing. The Gannet takes its prey in a different
manner from any other of our aquatic birds ; for traversing
the air in all directions, as soon as it discovers the fish it

492 PELECANIDJ5.

rises to such a height as experience shows best calculated
to carry it by a downward motion to the required depth ;
and then partially closing its wings, it falls perpendicularly
on the prey, and rarely without success, the time between
the plunge and emersion being about fifteen seconds.11
Gannets attracted to the same shoal, and fishing in com-
pany, are frequently caught in considerable numbers by
becoming entangled in the meshes of the fishermen's long
sea nets.

North of the British Islands, the Gannet is found in the
Baltic, as high as the Gulf of Bothnia ; on the west coast
of Norway ; at the Faroe Islands and Iceland ; while from
the coast of Labrador they are said to go as far south as
Carolina. Southward from England the Gannet is included
among the birds of Madeira and South Africa.

In the adult bird the bill is of a horny greyish- white ;
the edges serrated ; the naked skin of the face blue ; irides
pale straw yellow ; the head and neck buff colour ; all the
rest of the plumage white, except the wing primaries,
which are black; the line of the bones of the legs and
toes in front green, the other portions of the bones and the
connecting membranes almost black. The whole length of
the bird about thirty-four inches ; from the wrist to the
end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, nineteen
inches.

In the immature bird the beak is almost black ; the
naked skin of the face bluish-black ; the general plumage
black, varied with lines and triangular spots of dull white,
giving the bird very much the appearance of the young of
the Red-throated Diver, in one of its stages, but the struc-
ture of the foot will prevent them being mistaken for each
other.

CASPIAN TERN.

\ATATORES.

493

LAR1DM.

THE CASPIAN TERN.

Sterna caspia.

c<a</riu, Caspian Tern, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 463.
•>•> „ „ „ JKNVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 264.

„ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 66.

,. „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xviii.

„ „ Hirotiddlv-de-mer Tsclieyrava, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 733.

STERNA. Generic Character. — Bill as long, or longer than the head ; nearly
straight, compressed, slender, tapering, with the edges sharp, and the end pointed ;
the mandibles of equal length, the upper one slightly curved towards the point.
Nostrils near the middle of the beak, pierced longitudinally, pervious. Legs
sU-nder, naked for a short space above the tarsal joint ; tarsi short ; toes four, the
three in front united by intervening membranes deeply concave in front, or semi,
palmated ; the hind toe free ; claws small, curved. Wings long, pointed, the first
({iiill-feather the longest. Tail forked in various degrees.

To this family, the L&rid*, the last among British Birds,
belong about thirty-four species, of which the Terns and

4.94 LARID.E.

Gulls are remarkable for the elegance of their forms ; the
great length of their wings ; the small comparative size of
their bodies, and the quantity of feathers with which they
are covered. They are incessantly on the wing, yet sus-
tain their flight with great apparent ease to themselves;
swim buoyantly on the water, but never dive. Their food
consists principally of fish, obtained alive from the sur-
face, or animal matter left by the retiring tide, which is
sought for by these birds at the water's edge. Besides
the regular moult in autumn, a partial change in their
plumage takes place in spring, soon after which they
frequent rocks, sandy flats, or marshes, for the purpose of
incubation. All the species belonging to the first genus, or
the Terns, Sea-swallows, as they are frequently called, are
summer visiters to this country, and the north of Europe.

Several specimens of this fine large Tern, called the Cas-
pian Tern, have been killed within the few last years on
our eastern coast, particularly in the counties of Suffolk and
Norfolk. Two early examples are those mentioned by
the Messrs. Paget, in their " Sketch of the Natural History
of Yarmouth and its neighbourhood," one of which was
killed in October, 1825 ; another was presented to the
Norwich Museum, by the Rev. G. Steward of Caistor,
near which place it was shot. Three or four were seen at
Aldborough, in Suffolk, and one of them shot, which is now
preserved in the Museum of the Philosophical Society of
Cambridge, as mentioned by the Rev. L. Jenyns, in his
Manual of British Vertebrata. Mr. Heysham sent me
notice of a Caspian Tern, shot in Norfolk in 1839, and I
have received other communications on this subject which
might possibly refer to some of those instances already
mentioned, but enough has been said to entitle this species
to a place in our catalogues of British Birds.

CASPIAN TERN. 495

The Caspian Tern is reported to breed annually at Sylt,
an island of Denmark, on the west coast of Jutland. M.
Nilsson says it visits also the mouth of the Baltic, and is
seen in the vicinity of the Elhe. It is included by several
naturalists in their birds of Germany. M. Temminck men-
tions that he has himself killed it, though rarely, on the
coast of Holland, and it visits the coasts of France. M.
Necker and Professor Schinz include this species among
their birds of Switzerland ; the former quoting four in-
stances of its capture in the vicinity of Geneva ; the latter
calls it the King of the Sea-swallows, in reference to its
very large size. M. Temminck says it has been met with
and killed on the extensive rocks near Bonifacio, a sea-port
of Corsica. M. Savi includes it in his work on the birds of
Italy ; it is rare in Corfu and Sicily : it inhabits the
Grecian Archipelago ; and the Russian naturalists who
have lately visited the Caucasus found it in the vicinity of
the Caspian Sea, where it was originally discovered, and
from whence it received its first name from Pallas. The
Caspian Tern has been found at Senegal, and at the Cape
of Good Hope. Mr. Blyth has obtained examples in the
vicinity of Calcutta.

M. Temminck tells us that the Caspian Tern feeds on
fish, and lays its two or three eggs in a hole in the sand, or
on the bare rocks near the edge of the sea. Eggs of this
species, obtained from Hamburgh, in my own collection,
are two inches six lines in length, by one inch and eight
lines in breadth ; of a yellowish stone colour, spotted with
ash-grey, and dark red-brown.

When in their summer-plumage the bill is vermilion-red,
lightest in colour at the point ; the irides reddish-brown ;
forehead, all the top of the head, and the nape of the neck
rich black, the feathers of that colour on the occiput elon-

496 LARID.E.

gated ; lower part of the neck all round white ; the back,
and all the upper surface of the body, the wings and tail-
feathers ash-grey ; the first six wing-primaries of a much
darker grey, a slate-grey, with white shafts; the tail but
slightly forked ; the chin, throat, breast, and all the under
surface of the body pure white ; legs, toes, their mem-
branes, and the claws black, the latter strong and curved.

The whole length of the specimen described, from the
point of the beak to the end of the long feathers of the
tail, nineteen inches ; some specimens measure twenty to
twenty-one inches. Among the Terns the males are rather
larger than the females. From the carpal joint of the
wing to the end of the first, which is the longest, quill-
feather, seventeen inches and a half, the ends of the wings
extending considerably beyond the ends of the forked
feathers forming the tail.

Young birds of the year, before their first autumn moult,
have the beak of a dull red, with some black at the point ;
the forehead and top of the head white ; the upper surface
of the body varied with patches of ash-brown, and darker
transverse bands ; the feathers of the tail have dark ends ;
the primary quill-feathers are also dark ; all the under
surface of the body pure white.

Adult birds in winter have the head white, with a few
dark feathers behind the ear-coverts, in all other respects
adult birds in winter resemble adult birds in summer, the
black head alone excepted.

SANDWICH TERX.

NATATORES.

497
LARtDJR.

THE SANDWICH TERN.

Sterna Boysii.

Boysii, Snndu-ich Tern, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 200.

„ cantiaca-,
„ „

„ Boysii,
„ „

„ cantiaca,

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 211
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 1 42.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 464.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 265.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. vi.

„ „ Hirondelle de mer Caugek, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 735.

THE SANDWICH TERN was first observed at Sandwich, in
1 784, by Mr. Boys, who sent specimens to Dr. Latham, by
whom the particulars were published in the sixth volume of
his General Synopsis, page 356. Attention being thus drawn
to this species, it has since been ascertained to be a regular

VOL. III. K K

498 LARID,E.

summer visiter here, appearing in spring and departing in
autumn, after having reared the yearly brood. Of this spe-
cies in Ireland, Mr. Thompson remarks that it is annually
shot upon the coast, and may perhaps have breeding-
haunts in some of the islets that are rarely visited by the
naturalist. It has been noticed in Cornwall and Devon-
shire. Mr. Plomley says it breeds on the shingle banks
about Romney Marsh in Kent ; and I have seen it on
Sandwich Flats and at Ramsgate. Mr. Parsons has taken
the eggs near some salterns at the mouth of Blackwater
river in Essex. The birds are not uncommon on the
coasts of Suffolk and Norfolk ; I possess both old and young
birds killed near Sunderland in the second week in August ;
and Mr. Selby has particularly noticed their annual visits
to the Farn Islands, and to Coquet Island, a few miles to
the southward. " Here a station is selected apart from
other species, generally on a higher site, and the nests are
so close to each other, as to render it difficult to cross the
ground without breaking the eggs, or injuring the unfledged
young. Upon this coast it is called, par excellence, c the
Tern,' all the other species passing under the general name
of ' Sea Swallows.' Its habits strongly resemble those of
its genus, and it subsists upon similar kinds of fish, the
sand-launce and young gar-fish forming the principal
supply. Its flight is strong and rapid, and, except
when engaged in incubation, it is almost constantly
on the wing, uttering at intervals a hoarse and grating cry,
which can be heard at a very great distance, and gives
notice of its approach long before it is discoverable by the
eye. If much disturbed by being fired at, or if the eggs be
repeatedly taken at the commencement of the season, it
deserts the station first selected, and retires to some
other place. The eggs of this bird are three or four in

SANDWICH TERN. 499

number, for the reception of which a shallow hole is
scratched among the sea-campion, or other plants that
may happen to grow on the selected place. The eggs
are two inches in length, by one inch five lines in breadth ;
of a yellowish stone colour; thickly spotted with ash-
grey, orange-brown, and deep red-brown, but subject to
considerable variation in the markings. As soon as the
young birds become tolerably fledged, but before they are
altogether able to fly, they frequently take to the water,
swimming off to the smaller rocks, where they continue to
be fed by the parents until capable of joining them in their
fishing excursions. The time of the arrival of the old
birds is about the middle of May ; incubation commences
in the first week in June, and nearly the whole have again
taken their departure for more southern latitudes by the
end of September/' Mr. Macgillivray, in his Manual,
mentions having obtained this species in the Frith of Forth,
and it was seen by the natural history party in Suther-
landshire, upon the Friths of Tongue and Eribol.

M. Nilsson says it is seen in the southern parts of
Sweden occasionally; it is included among the birds of
Germany, and M. Temminck says it is abundant in North
Holland. It is found on the coast of France, and is said to
breed on some islands off Ushant; it visits some of the
lakes of Switzerland, is seen at Genoa, and goes eastward
to Italy. It is found in various parts of Africa, and speci-
mens were in the collection brought by Dr. Andrew Smith
from the Cape of Good Hope.

Mr. Audubon, in his Birds of America, says the Sand-
wich Tern is seen from Texas, during spring and summer,
to the Floridas, where it breeds in great numbers ; but is
never observed in any other part of the coast of America.
Considered to be migratory.

K K 2

500 LARID.E.

The adult bird in summer has the bill black, the tip
yellowish- white ; the irides hazel ; all the parts of the
head above the eyes black ; the feathers on the occiput
elongated, forming a loose plume which ends in a point ;
cheeks, sides, and bottom of the neck behind white ; back
and wings ash-grey, the ends of the tertials almost white ;
the longest primary slate-grey, with a strong and broad
white shaft, the next two or three primaries each a little
lighter in colour than the first, and diminishing in colour
in succession till they become of the same tint as the wing-
coverts ; the tail white and forked ; chin, throat, neck in
front, breast, and all the under surface of the body pure
white; legs, toes, and their membranes black, claws
curved and black. The whole length of the bird, from the
point of the beak to the end of the longest tail-feather
fifteen inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the
longest quill-feather eleven inches; the first quill-feather
the longest in the wing.

A young bird of the year killed on the 10th of August
is about ten inches in length ; the upper mandible dark
brown, the under one pale brown at the base; forehead
greyish white, top of the head and the occiput black ; back
and smaller wing-coverts ash-grey, varied with pale brown ;
greater coverts ash-grey, quill-feathers bluish-grey, the
inner margins white, the outside quill -feather almost black,
except the shaft which is white ; tail-feathers varied
with ash-grey and brown ; legs, toes, and membranes dark
brown.

The young bird figured in the illustration has the head
mottled with black and white ; the back, wing-coverts and
tail-feathers varied with angular lines of black ; in this
state as to plumage it is the striated Tern of some authors.

ROSEATE TERN.

NATATORES.

501
LAR1DM.

THE ROSEATE TERN.

Sterna Dougallii.

Sterna Dougallii^ Roseate Tern, MONTAGU, Suppl. Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 414.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 143.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 270.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 265.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. x.
„ „ Ilirondette de mer Dougall, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 738.

THE ROSEATE TERN was first discovered on two small
rocky islands, called Cumbray, in the Firth of Clyde, by
Dr. Macdougall of Glasgow, who sent a specimen and
particulars to Colonel Montagu, from which a figure and
description were inserted in the Supplement to his Ornitho-
logical Dictionary, published in 1813. Since that period
this species has been found breeding at various stations
frequented by other Terns, and is ascertained to be, like

502 LARID^E.

them, a regular summer- visiter, but not in very large
numbers. Mr. Wm. Thompson obtained specimens in
summer from a small rocky islet near the entrance to
Belfast Bay. Mr. Heysham has recorded a specimen
obtained at Brugh Marsh Point, on the Cumberland side
of the Solway, and there is reason to believe that this
Tern, with others, breeds on some of the low flat islands
in the Solway Firth. Mr. Thomas Howitt sent me
notice of its occurrence in Lancashire. T. C. Eyton, Esq.
has recorded its capture in Shropshire. It has been killed
in Cornwall and Devonshire, but does not appear so often
on the southern shores as on those of the west or east
coasts. Mr. Selby, in his account of the birds of the Farn
Islands, says, " Several years ago the keeper of the outer
Lighthouse first noticed this as a new and distinct species.
Information was given me of the circumstance, and I went
over to ascertain the fact, and having killed several, found
them to be the Sterna Dougalii, or Roseate Tern of
Montagu. Since that period they have greatly increased,
and now form a numerous colony, which occupies a large
space of ground near to that occupied by the Arctic Terns,
and a second station upon one of the Walmseys. The old
birds are easily recognized amidst hundreds of the other
species, by their peculiar and buoyant flight, long tail, and
note, which may be expressed by the word crake, uttered
in a hoarse grating key. Its eggs are rather larger than
those of S. arctica, and the young differ both in the early
or downy, and in the feathered state." The eggs measure
one inch nine lines and a half in length, by one inch two
lines and a half in breadth ; of a yellowish stone colour,
spotted and speckled with ash-grey and dark brown,
These birds live upon small fish.

This Tern in summer visits Norway and the Baltic ; and
Richard Dann, Esq. sent me word that it breeds in Lap-

ROSEATE TERN. 503

land. It is included among the birds of Germany. M.
Temminck says it is found on the coast of Holland in
August and September, and breeds on some small islands
on the coast of Brittany and Picardy. M. Calvi and M.
Savi include it among the birds of Genoa and Italy. Dr.
Heineken sent specimens from Madeira, and Dr. Andrew
Smith brought others from the Cape of Good Hope. This
species appears to have a very wide geographical range.
Mr. Audubon mentions that he found this Tern breeding
in abundance at the Florida Keys; and Mr. Gould, in
his Birds of Europe, says he has received many skins from
India, particularly from the coast of Malabar.

In the adult bird in summer the bill, from the point to
the nostrils, is black, from thence to the base or gape red ;
the irides dark ; all the top of the head black ; neck all
round white ; back, wing-coverts, and quill-feathers ash-
grey, the outer webs of the primaries dark grey, the inner
webs lighter ; tail-feathers very long, extending beyond
the ends of the wings, the colour pale ash-grey; breast and
all the under surface of the body white, strongly tinted
with a delicate rose colour, whence the bird derives its
name ; legs, toes, and their membranes red. The whole
length of the bird fifteen inches and a half. From the
carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather nine
inches and a quarter.

Mr. Selby describes the young bird of the year as having
the bill black, orange-yellow at the base ; forehead and
crown of a very pale wood-brown ; region of the eyes, ear-
coverts, and nape of the neck black, the latter barred with
pale wood-brown ; back and wing-coverts bluish-grey,
barred with blackish-grey, the feathers tipped with yel-
lowish-white ; quills grey, the exterior web of the first
feather black ; tail grey, the exterior webs the darkest, the
tips of the feathers white ; under parts white ; legs pale red.

504

N ATA TORES.

LARID^E.

LARW&.

THE COMMON TERN.

Sterna Mr undo.

Sterna liirundo. Common Tern, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 196.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 207.

,, „ ,, „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 143.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 468.

„ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 266.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xviii.
„ „ Hirondelle de mer pierre garin, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 740,

THIS species was long considered more common than it
really is, close examination having proved that two other
distinct species of Terns very frequently occupy the same
stations with it or localities very close to it, all of which
were for a time confounded under the name of Common
Tern : the great similarity in their habits, and the general

COMMON TERN. 505

resemblance in the birds while on the wing at a distance
favouring the supposition.

Although occasionally breeding on rocks or on banks of
shingle, forming a sea-beach, the Common Tern appears to
prefer building on the ground in marshes, or on small, low,
flat, sandy islands near the sea, and sometimes on the
margin of large lakes. They are known to follow the course
of rivers going far inland ; and Mr. Jesse, in his Gleanings,
mentions an instance of one being shot in Bushy Park,
others have been seen and shot high up on the Thames
more than forty miles above Gravesend. They possess
great powers of flight, are rapid and varied in their motions,
noisy and restless ; constantly on the wing over the water,
either amusing themselves or looking for small fish upon
which they subsist. They lay two or three eggs, and are
very careful both of them and their young, making many
signs of anger and distress when their nest is approached
too nearly. The eggs are of a yellowish stone colour,
blotched and spotted with ash-grey and dark red-brown ;
the length one inch eight lines by one inch two lines in
breadth. Like the other species of this genus the Common
Tern, which comes in May, leaves this country in Septem-
ber, and when about to take their departure, have been
seen, like other swallows not of the sea, to collect in small
flocks, and wait about as if desirous to increase their num-
bers before starting.

Mr. Wm. Thompson says this species is widely distri-
buted in Ireland. It breeds in the Frith of Clyde, and
Mr. Heysham mentions that it breeds near the western
extremity of Rochcliff salt marsh, at no great distance from
the junction of the rivers Eden and the Esk in Solway
Frith, and a few pairs on Solway moss, and about these
localities Mr. Heysham has known this species remain till

506 LARID^E.

the beginning of October. Priestholm isle, off the coast of
Anglesey, and the Skerries are also visited. It is observed
on the coasts of Cornwall, Devonshire, and Dorsetshire.
It is said to be rather numerous about Winchelsea, Dun-
geness, and Romney Marsh. I have obtained it at the
mouth of the Thames. It is found also on the east coast,
and it is common along the shores of Suffolk and Norfolk,
but more sparingly distributed on the coasts of Durham
and Northumberland. It visits the Isle of May, in the
Frith of Forth, and other parts of Scotland.

The Common Tern visits Germany, Holland, Switzer-
land, France, Spain, Genoa, Italy, Sicily, Malta, Biserta,
Corfu, and Crete. The Zoological Society of London have
received specimens sent by Keith Abbott, Esq. from Tre-
bizond. It is found at Madeira, the Canary Islands, at
Senegal, and in South Africa.

In the adult bird in summer the bill is coral-red, the
point black, irides dark brown ; forehead, crown, and nape
black ; back and wings ash-grey ; outside web of the first
primary slate-grey, the shaft white, inner web light-grey ;
tail-coverts white ; outer webs of tail-feathers pale ash-
grey, inner webs white ; chin, neck, breast, and under sur-
face dull white; legs, toes, and membranes coral-red. The
whole length of the bird fourteen inches and a quarter ;
from the wrist to the end of the longest quill-feather ten
inches and a half.

A young bird killed in August has the point of the beak
dark brown, the base reddish-yellow ; forehead dull white ;
posterior part of the crown, the ear-coverts, and the occiput
black ; chin, and neck all round white ; back and wing-
coverts ash-grey, each feather margined with ash-brown
and white ; outer web of the first quill-feather black ; the
others ash-grey ; under surface of the body white ; legs,
toes, and membranes reddish- brown.

ARCTIC TERN.

NATATORES.

507
LAIiW^E.

THE ARCTIC TERN.
Sterna arctica.

Sterna arctica, Arctic Tern, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 144.

„ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 473.

„ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 267.

„ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 68.

„ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iii.

„ Hirondelle de mer arctique, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith.-vol. ii. p. 458.

M. TEMMINCK first pointed out the distinctions of this
species which had previously been confounded with the
Common Tern ; these differences will be observed in the
bill, the legs, and in the colour of the plumage of the under
surface of the body. The bill is full one-quarter of an inch
shorter than that of the Common Tern, measured from the
point to the commencement of the black feathers on the

508

forehead ; it is also more slender in substance, a little more
curved, and has only occasionally a small portion of black
colour at the tip, most frequently without any black, all the
rest coral-red. The legs are remarkable in having very
short tarsal bones, which are characteristic of this species at
all ages, and the plumage of the under surface of the body
in the adult bird is of French grey, as dark as that of the
back and wings ; the same part in the Common Tern is
white, and in the Eoseate Tern the white is tinged with a
rosy hue as already described.

The Arctic Tern, thus distinguished was soon found to
be even more numerous than the Common Tern, particu-
larly in high northern latitudes, and it was seen in quan-
tities by our Arctic voyagers, as references to the details of
the Natural History productions of these different expe-
ditions will show. It was found breeding on Melville
Peninsula, and on the islands and beaches of the Arctic
Sea. It was abundant in various parts of Greenland.
Breeds in Iceland, and the Tern found at the Faroe
Islands, and named by M. Graba, Sterna IracJiytarsa, is
probably the Arctic Tern. It breeds also in Norway, Lap-
land, Sweden, and Holstein. Mr. Dunn says, " This Tern
is plentiful in the summer both in Orkney and Shetland.
It makes its nest on the gravelly beach, and low rocks, and
sometimes amongst the short dry grass on the tops of low
cliffs, always in exposed situations. The female lays three
or four eggs. This bird is seldom seen but on the wing, in
pursuit of the small coal-fish which abound in the harbours
and inlets of these countries. It darts down upon them
with great rapidity as they swim on the surface of the
water. It is the only species of Tern I have met with
amongst these islands.11 In the outer Hebrides, according
to Mr. John Macgillivray, " the Common Tern is found as

ARCTIC TERX. 509

well as the Arctic, but the latter is much the more plenti-
ful of the two. On several of the smaller and less fre-
quented islands many hundreds of their eggs were taken in
a few minutes, and in some places it was difficult to move
without treading upon them ; a loose cloud of Terns of
both species hovering about uttering incessant cries, and
darting down to within a few feet of the invaders of their
peaceful territory." Mr. Wm. Thompson notices that it
is common and widely distributed in Ireland ; and Mr.
Eyton says this Tern breeds on the Skerries, about nine
miles north of tlolyhead ; but a most unusual number of
this species made their appearance early in the month of
May of the year 1842, in and about the estuary of the
Severn, and up the line of its course. I heard of them at
Swansea, from Mr. L. Dillwyn, and Mr. Bicheno ; great
numbers were seen and many obtained. At Monmouth
the same thing happened. On the east side of the Severn
Mr. Robert Whitefield, of the Water Farm, near Bridge-
water, sent me notice of the appearance of this unusual
visiter there. The following is an extract from the
" Bristol Mirror." " During the high winds that prevailed
on Sunday last, May 8th, our harbour and floating docks
were visited by large flights of a rare and beautiful species
of bird, the Sterna arctica, or Arctic Tern. The birds
were assembled in such vast numbers that two or three
hundred were killed with stones and other missiles, whilst
several were caught alive ; and so tame were they, that
many were observed to pitch on the backs of passers-by.
Flocks of these birds were also observed the same day
at Clevedon, Weston, and other places along the channel
coast." Mr. H. E. Strickland has published in the An-
nals and Magazine of Natural History for June, 1842, a
notice of the simultaneous appearance of this bird over

510 LARID.E.

a large extent of country in the same vicinity. Forty
specimens procured on the 8th and 9th were taken to one
bird-preserver at Evesham. Mr. John Evans, of Grove
House, Worcester, sent me notice of the numbers seen
there, and thirty-three specimens were deposited with one
bird-preserver. Hundreds were seen at Cofton Hall, near
Bromsgrove, and Tewkesbury, Hereford, Devizes, and
Trowbridge, are places mentioned as having been visited
by considerable numbers. The wind had been blowing
hard for many days from the east and N. E., but suddenly
changed to the westward, continuing to blow hard. Some
of the specimens had not acquired the perfect black head
peculiar to the breeding-season, but all were on their route
to their northern summer quarters, their intended course
having been interfered with by the prevailing strong winds.
A few of the Common Tern were said to have been found
with them, but from the numbers seen by ornithologists
who are well acquainted with species, the written descrip-
tions I have received and some specimens I have seen that
were sent up to London, I have no doubt that the great
bulk of the flights were composed of Arctic Terns. I have
been told that a few of this same species breed on the
Scilly Islands every year, but it is not common generally
on the south or south-eastern coasts. On the coasts of
Lincolnshire, Durham, and Northumberland, it is again
found. Sir William Jardine says it is perhaps the most
common species in Scotland, and abounds during the
breeding-season upon all the rocky islands in the Forth,
from Queen1 s-ferry to the Farn Islands ; and Mr. Selby
says of Sutherlandshire, that this bird is abundant upon
all the Friths, and upon the flat coast of Tongue. Mr.
W. C. Hewitson, in his work on the eggs of British Birds,
says, the Arctic Tern breeds in great numbers on Coquet

ARCTIC TERN. 511

Island, a tew miles south of the Farn Islands. The eggs,
two or three in number, are very much like those of the
Common Tern in shape, colour, and markings, but always
smaller in size, measuring one inch seven lines in length,
by one inch and one line in breadth.

The adult bird in summer has the bill coral-red, the ex-
treme point sometimes black ; forehead, crown, and nape
black ; back, wings, and wing-coverts pearl-grey ; outer
web of the first primary lead-grey : tail-coverts and tail-
feathers almost white, the two longest tail-feathers on each
side grey on the outer webs ; cheeks white ; chin and
upper part of neck in front, and on the sides ash-grey ;
breast and all the under surface of the body as dark a
grey colour as that of the back ; legs, toes, and their mem-
branes orange-red. The whole length of the bird from
the point of the bill to the end of the middle, or short, tail-
feather twelve inches and a half, to the end of the longest
tail-feather two inches and a half more, or fifteen inches
whole length ; from the wrist to the end of the longest
quill-feather eleven inches ; length of the tarsus only half
an inch.

A young bird of the year, nearly full grown, and mea-
suring thirteen inches, has the bill dull brown at the point,
the remainder red ; forehead dull white ; crown of the
head mottled black and white ; back of the head and nape
uniform dusky black ; back and wings pearl-grey ; outer
web of the first primary lead-grey, inner webs of all the
primaries light grey, almost white ; secondaries, tertials,
scapulars, and small wing-coverts tipped with white ; upper
tail-coverts and tail-feathers white, the three long tail-
feathers on each side with outer webs of slate-grey ; throat,
breast, and all the under surface of the body and wings
at this age nearly pure white ; legs, toes, and membranes
orange.

512

NATATORES.

LARIDjE.

LARWJE.

THE WHISKERED TERN.

Sterna leucopareia.

Sterna leucoparcia, Moustache Tern, GOULD, Birds of Eiirope, pt. xviii.

„ „ HirondeUe de mer inoustac, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith vol. ii. p. 746.

„ Delamotte, „ ,, ,, de la Motte , VIEILL. Faun. Framj. p. 402.

I AM indebted to the kindness and discrimination of T.
C. Heysham, Esq. of Carlisle, for the advantage of insert-
ing this species, new to the British catalogue, and of rare
occurrence even on the European continent. At the end
of August, 1836, a party of two or three persons went out
in a boat from Lyrne, to amuse themselves with shooting
sea-birds, and this Tern, among others, was part of the
produce of their guns. Mr. Heysham shortly afterwards
had an opportunity of examining the skins of the birds
obtained, selected that of the Whiskered Tern here figured

WHISKERED TERN. 513

from, and made the arrangement by which I became pos-
sessed of it.

This species has not previously been killed nearer than
the coast of Picardy, where M. Temminck states that M.
Jules de la Motte, of Abbeville, once saw several examples
in a marsh ; he killed three ; and M. Vieillot includes
this Tern in consequence among the Birds of France.

But little is known of the habits of this Tern. It was
first discovered in the southern part of Hungary, by M.
Natterer, of Vienna. M. Brehm includes it in his Birds
of Germany. M. Temminck mentions that he has met
with this species in the marshes of Capo dTstria, and on
the coast of Dalmatia ; it has been found also in Syria
and in Egypt. M. Temminck further states that speci-
mens received from Borneo do not differ in any respect
from those obtained in Europe. M. Savi includes this
Tern in his Ornithology of Italy, but considers it a very rare
species, of which only three examples had been obtained.

It is said to feed on winged insects and aquatic worms ;
but its mode of nesting and its eggs are, I believe, as yet
but little known. During his late visit to London, Dr.
L. Thienemann gave me an egg of this rare Tern : it is
one inch and a half long by one inch and one- eighth in
breadth ; the ground colour asparagus green, spotted with
brownish-black, and a few spots of bluish-grey.

In the specimen killed on the Dorsetshire coast, and
now before me, the bill is red, inclining to dark brown on
the edges of both mandibles towards the point ; the bill
rather stout, with the inferior angle of the under man-
dible prominent, an approximation to the form of the under
mandible in the Gull-billed Tern, next to be described,
The irides brownish-black; forehead, crown, and nape
black ; from the base of the upper mandible, in a line

VOL. III. L L

514 LARID.E.

below the eye to the ear-coverts a stripe of white, forming
the whisker or moustache ; back, wing-coverts, upper tail-
coverts, and tail-feathers uniform dark grey, almost slate-
grey ; first quill-feather lead-grey on the outer web, and
over a considerable portion of that part of the inner web
nearest to the white shaft, the other part of the inner web
white ; the outer webs of the other primary and secondary
feathers lighter grey than the inner webs ; chin and throat
greyish- white ; neck and breast slate-grey, and as dark as
the back ; abdomen, thighs, and flanks lead-grey ; under
wing and tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and membranes
red, the membranes deeply indented. From the point of
the beak to the first feathers on the forehead one inch and
one-eighth ; from the point of the beak to the end of the
middle, or short, tail-feathers, ten inches and a half, to
the end of the outside, and longest tail-feather one inch
more, making the whole length eleven inches and a half.
From the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the first
quill-feather, which is the longest, nine inches and one-
quarter ; length of the tarsus seven-eighths of an inch ; of
the middle toe three-quarters of an inch, claw of the mid-
dle toe three-eighths of an inch, strong and curved.

Adult birds in winter, according to M. Temminck, have
the forehead, crown, occiput, neck, and all the under parts
pure white ; a black spot behind the eyes ; mantle, back,
wings, tail-coverts and tail-feathers uniform ash-grey ; bill,
legs, and feet deep lake-red. Young birds of the year have
the crown of the head varied with red and brown ; occiput
and ear-coverts greyish-black ; the feathers of the back,
scapulars and secondaries brown in the middle, bordered
and tipped with dirty flesh-colour ; tail-feathers blackish-
grey towards the end, but tipped with white ; beak brown,
red at the base ; legs and feet flesh-colour.

GULL-BILLED TERN. 515

AM TA TOliES. LA RIDJE.

THE GULL-BILLED TERN.

Sterna Anglica.

Sterna Anglica, Gvtt-Ulled Tern, MONTAGU, Supp. Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 219.

„ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 1 43.

„ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 480.

„ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 269.

„ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 97.

„ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. vii.

Hirondelle de mer hansel, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 744.

THIS species was first made known by Colonel Montagu,
who gave a figure and description of it in the Supplement
to his Ornithological Dictionary, published in the year
1813; one specimen was shot by himself in Sussex, and
he saw two others that had been killed at Eye. The birds
obtained were at first confounded with the Sandwich Tern,
but the form and length of the bill in the two birds, which
are quite different, soon led Montagu to a just appreciation

L L 2

516 LARIDJE.

of the specific distinctions, and he called it S. Anglica, be-
cause it was not known to him as existing elsewhere.
I have heard of two examples killed in this country, both
in 1839 ; one in Kent, in the month of June, but of the
other I have unfortunately mislaid the letter which con-
tained the particulars. One has lately been taken near
Leeds, and was noticed at the York meeting of the British
Association. According to M. Vieillot it has been taken
in Picardy, and on the coast of the Channel. M. Tem-
minck says it is common in Hungary, and the confines
of Turkey, and was included by M. Savigny among the
Birds of Egypt. This species appears to have a most
extensive geographical range. M. Temminck says he
received a specimen killed in the United States, and two
others from Brazil ; these last were killed there by Prince
Neuwied, and they did not either of them differ from those
obtained on the lakes of Hungary. Mr. Selby says,
" Upon investigating specimens from North America, I
feel no hesitation in considering the Marsh Tern of Wil-
son's North- American Ornithology to be the same bird."
Mr. Audubon also says, " Having taken six specimens of
the American Marsh Tern to the British Museum, and
minutely compared them in all their details with the
specimens of the Gull-billed Tern, which formed part of
the collection of Colonel Montagu, and were procured in
the South of England, I found them to agree so perfectly
that no doubt remained with me of the identity of the
bird described by Wilson with that first distinguished by
the English Ornithologist." Colonel Sykes, in his published
account of the Birds of India, collected by himself, says of
this species, my " specimens correspond exactly with speci-
mens of this rare British Bird in the British Museum."
Mr. Blyth has obtained this species at Calcutta.

GULL- BILLED TERN. 517

The specimens I have been able to examine, some from
Germany and others in the British Museum, appear to me
to be of the same species, the tarsus in all of them mea-
suring one inch and a quarter, the middle toe and claw
together being of the same length as the tarsus. M. Tem-
minck mentioned that Boie had received specimens from
the eastern coast of Jutland, where this bird is said to
breed. Two examples were seen in the south of Holland,
in the summer of 1839, by M. Temminck himself, one of
which was obtained. M. Savi includes this species in his
Birds of Italy. It visits the shores of the Red Sea ; and
M. Temminck says it is very abundant in the islands of
Sunda, several specimens sent him from thence not dif-
fering from those of Europe. The Sterna affinis of Dr.
Horsfield, obtained in Java, is considered also by M. Tem-
minck to be of the same species.

This Tern feeds on small fishes and large insects ; fre-
quenting marshes rather than the sea coast, and lays two
or three eggs, one in my own collection measures one inch
eleven lines in length, by one inch four lines in breadth,
of a dull greyish white, with a few spots of ash-grey, and
a greater number of dark reddish brown.

In the adult in summer the bill is black, and one inch
and a quarter in length from the point to the feathers on
the forehead : the angle at the symphisis of the lower
mandible rather prominent ; irides reddish-brown ; fore-
head, crown, and nape jet black ; neck behind greyish-
white ; back, scapulars, wings, the coverts, secondaries,
and tertials, upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers uniform
pale ash-grey ; the outside web of the first primary slate-
grey, the other primaries pearl-grey ; chin, throat, breast,
belly, and all the under surface white ; legs, toes, mem-
branes, and claws black. The whole length of the bird

518 LARIM.

figured from and described, fifteen inches and a half ; wing
from the wrist thirteen inches.

I have seen two or three specimens of the adult hird
killed in winter, the head is then white.

A young bird of the year, measuring thirteen inches,
has the bill bluish-black ; head on the top dull white,
varied with pale brown and dusky streaks ; on the ear-
coverts a spot of greyish-black ; neck all round white ;
back, scapulars, and tertials orange-brown, spotted with
darker brown ; wing-coverts ash-grey, tipped with pale
orange-brown ; primaries pearl-grey ; tail but little forked ;
chin, neck, and all the under surface of the body white.

LESSER TERN.

519

NA TA TORES.

LAR1DJE-

THE LESSER TEEN.

Sterna minuta.

Sterna minuta. Lesser Tern. PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 198.

„ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol ii. p. 209.

„ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 144.

„ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 475.

„ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 267.

Little „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. viii.
Petite Hirondelle de mer, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 752.

THIS pretty little bird, the smallest of the British Terns,
but one of the most elegant as well as delicate examples
of the species, is not uncommon during summer on such
parts of the coast of the British Islands as are suited to
its habits. It appears to prefer low flat shores, or islets,
of sand, broken shells, or small shingle, coming here early
in May, and laying two or three eggs before the end of
that month in any small accidental depression in the

520 LARID.E.

ground above high water mark. I have found them in
considerable numbers at the mouth of the Thames on the
Kentish side, about Yantlet island, and the creek of the
same name close by. When their breeding-haunts are
visited they exhibit but little fear, settling on the ground
not far from those who may be looking for their eggs or
young, and will frequently walk about with a light step,
or with a piping note again take wing. They fly with
rapid beats of their long pinions, and from this circum-
stance look much larger in the air than when in hand.
Their food consists of the fry of surface- swimming fish,
and small Crustacea, upon which they descend from the
air, and I have frequently seen them alight on the water,
sometimes evidently seeking food on the surface, and at
others only resting from their labours.

Their eggs are of a stone colour, spotted and speckled
with ash-grey and dark chestnut-brown ; the length one
inch four lines, by eleven lines in breadth. The young
are generally able to fly by the end of the second week in
July ; and Mr. Audubon mentions that they are fed for a
time on the wing by their parents. Both old and young
leave this country about the end of September, but I have
a note of one seen on the 10th of October, 1839, and I
received a notice from the Rev. William Howman of one
that was exposed for sale in Norwich market, in the third
week of the month of December.

This species visits many different places along the line of
the southern coast from Cornwall to Sussex. It has been
noticed on the shores of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk ; was
observed by Montagu to be numerous about Skegness, on
the coast of Lincolnshire. Does not breed on the Farn
Islands, according to Mr. Selby, but upon the beach of the
main land near Holy Island, and on the shore of the Frith

LESSER TERN. 521

of Forth on both sides. Professor Macgillivray says it
visits the sands near Aberdeen, and also some other loca-
lities on the west coast of Scotland. It frequents some of
the sandy flats in the Solway Frith ; and Mr. Wm.
Thompson notices it as a regular summer visitant to
Ireland.

M. Nilsson says it is common in summer on the shores
of the Baltic ; and it is said to visit Kussia and Siberia.
It is not very common in the interior of Germany, but is
included in the different histories of the birds of that coun-
try. It is abundant on the coasts of Holland and France,
but not commonly found inland. M. Savi includes it in
his Birds of Italy ; it is seen occasionally at Corfu and in
Sicily ; is common at Biserta ; and is said to have been
found at the Black and the Caspian Seas ; but it is not
mentioned in the catalogues of the Russian naturalists who
have lately visited these localities. Mr. Gould mentions
having received this species from India, and it is a common
species in the United States.

In the adult bird in summer the beak is orange, tipped
with black ; irides dusky ; forehead white, crown of the
head and the nape jet black ; back and wings uniform
delicate pearl-grey, the first, second, and sometimes the
third primary slate-grey ; upper tail-coverts and tail-fea-
thers white, tail forked ; chin, throat, sides of neck, breast,
and all the under surface of the body pure white ; legs,
toes, and membranes orange. The whole length of the
bird rather more than eight inches ; from the wrist to the
end of the wing six inches and three-quarters. The adult
bird in winter only varies in having the head dull black,
instead of deep black.

The young bird of the year, as figured, has the point of
the bill dark brown, the base pale brown ; forehead

522 LARID.E.

and crown mottled with dusky brown, and greyish-white,
more uniform in colour on the nape, and darker ; back,
wing-coverts, and tertials ash-grey, margined with dusky
black ; primaries slate-grey, margins of the inner webs
white ; secondaries ash-grey ; tail-feathers spotted with
dusky grey towards the ends ; chin, sides of neck, breast,
and all the under surface white ; legs pale brown.

BLACK TERN.

N ATA TORES.

523
LARID^E.

THE BLACK TERN.

Sterna fissipes, The Black Tern, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 199.

„ navia, „ „ „ „ 201.

„ Jissipcs, „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 217.

„ nigra, „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 144.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 477.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 268.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

„ „ H. de mer tpouvantail, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 749.

THE BLACK TERN, of which we have figured an old male
in his summer dress, and a young bird of the year in
autumn, is like the other Terns only a summer-visiter here,
but differs from them a little in its habits, seldom asso-
ciating with them, or seen on the sea-coast except in

524 LARID^E.

spring, at the period of its arrival, or in autumn, when
about to take leave for the winter. This species prefers
fresh-water marshes, the vicinity of rivers or reedy pools,
and is found in Cambridgeshire, in some parts of Norfolk,
and Lincolnshire, but is a rare bird in the North of Eng-
land, and is not found in Scotland, although it visits higher
northern latitudes in other directions. The Black Tern is
a summer-visiter to different parts of Ireland, and Mr.
Robert Ball has noticed that it bred for years in succession
by a small lake at Roxborough, near Middleton, in the
county of Cork. Pennant notices a young bird of the year,
in which state it is the Sterna n<zma of some authors, that
was shot on the Severn a few miles below Shrewsbury.
Specimens have been obtained in Devonshire. Dr. Latham
procured some in Hampshire. Montagu mentions that in
his time it was common in Romney Marsh, in Kent, but
Mr. Plomley, who resides there, tells me it is not so now ;
a few only are seen, and these in spring and autumn, appa-
rently on their way to and from some other locality. Mr.
Bond obtained some good specimens in the autumn of
1841, at the Kingsbury reservoir, in Middlesex. The Rev.
Richard Lubbock sent me word that " The Black Tern
used to breed in Norfolk in abundance, but that the great
breeding-place in a wet alder carr at Upton, where twenty
years back hundreds upon hundreds of nests might be found
at the end of May, has been broken up for some years.
The Blue Darr, as it is provincially termed here, has in
consequence become scarce. Mr. Salmon told me that he
got the eggs of this bird from Crowland Wash, in Lincoln-
shire, within the last two or three years. It can hardly
be said at present to breed regularly in Norfolk, a few
straggling pairs only still nest here/1 The eggs figured by
Mr. Hewitson were supplied by Mr. Salmon, who obtained

BLACK TERN. 525

them from Crowland Marsh, where they are deposited
upon tufts of grass and rushes, sometimes in very wet
situations, and barely raised above the level of the water.
The nest is composed of flags and coarse grass ; the eggs
usually three, but sometimes four ; those in my own col-
lection are of a dark olive-brown, blotched, and spotted
with black, principally at the larger end ; the length of the
egg one inch five lines, by one inch in breadth. The food
of this Tern consists chiefly of beetles and dragon-flies, with
some small fish. The insect portion of its prey is taken
on the wing with great ease and certainty, as the flight
of the bird is rapid, and it turns, stops, or alters its course
in an instant. Its note is shrill. The Black Tern makes
its appearance here by the end of April, or the beginning of
May, and leaves us early in October. Montagu mentions
an instance of having seen a young bird in Devonshire as
late as the beginning of November in 1802.

M. Nilsson says this species is rather common in Sweden,
and it is included in the various histories of the Birds of
Germany. M. Temminck says it is very abundant in
Holland, and in the extensive marshes of Hungary. It is
observed in some of the marshes of France ; visits some of
the lakes of Switzerland, and is seen at Genoa on its
northern route in spring. M. Savi includes it in his Birds
of Italy. It is seen at Corfu, in Crete, and in Sicily, in
considerable numbers in May, but only a few remain to
breed. Mr. Drummond says it is common about Biserta.
The Zoological Society received a specimen, a young bird,
sent by Mr. Ross from Trebizond ; and the Russian natu-
ralists found it also in the vicinity of the Caucasus.

Dr. Heineken includes the Black Tern in his catalogue
of the Birds of Madeira.

Pennant says Kalm saw flocks of hundreds of these birds

526 LARIDJ3.

in the Atlantic ocean, midway between England and Ame-
rica. The Black Tern is well known to the ornithologists
of the United States, in some of which it is abundant.

Adult males and females in summer have the bill black ;
the irides dark brown ; whole head and neck dark lead-
grey ; back, wings, and tail uniform slate-grey ; breast and
belly, like the head and neck, dark lead-grey ; vent and
under tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and their short mem-
branes dark reddish-brown ; the whole length of the bird
nine inches and three-quarters ; the tail less forked than
in some other species ; the wing from the carpal joint to
the end of the first quill-feather eight inches and a half.

Adult birds in winter have the forehead, the space be-
tween the beak and the eye, the chin, and throat white,
and I have seen an adult female specimen that had as-
sumed this white colour before leaving this country in
autumn. The other parts as in summer.

Young birds of the year have the bill brownish-black ;
forehead, chin, throat, and a collar round the neck white ;
crown of the head and the nape greyish-black ; feathers of
the back and wing-coverts light slate-grey, margined with
brown or white, or partly with both ; primaries dark slate-
grey ; the first primary lead-grey ; rump and upper tail-
coverts greyish-white ; tail-feathers slate-grey ; breast,
belly, and all the under surface of the body and wings
white. Before leaving this country the plumage on the
upper surface of the body in the young bird loses the brown
colour, becoming of a more uniform slate-grey, but clouded
with dark lead-grey. This Tern having once assumed the
dark colour peculiar to the breast and belly in summer,
does not afterwards become white on those parts at any
age or season.

NA TA TORES.

WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN.

527
LARID^E.

THE WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN.

Sterna leucoptera.

Sterna leucoptera^ White-winged Tern, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.

„ „ Hirondelle de mere leucoptere, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 747

,, „ „ „ „ „ „ „ vol. iv. p. 463.

THE first notice of this handsome species, new to the
History of British Birds, was published by Mr. Frederick
M'Coy in the Annals of Natural History, vol. xv, page
271, and the following is the account there made known.
" Sterna leucoptera^ TEMM. — A specimen of this beautiful
Tern was shot by J. Hill, Esq. on the Shannon, in 1841,
in company with the Black Tern, S. nigra, with which it
was confounded ; the specimen was sent along with one of
the latter species to the Natural History Society of Dublin,
in whose museum they are now preserved ; but from their
general resemblance to each other, the present species has
remained there undistinguished till the present time. As

528 LARID.E.

I believe this to be the first record of the occurrence of this
bird in Britain, I subjoin a short description of the speci-
men and a sketch half the natural size, to assist in drawing
the attention of British naturalists to it, as it will probably
be found not unfrequent.

" Measurement. — Total length, to extremity of tail,
about eight inches ; bill from base ten lines and a half,
from rictus one inch five lines ; greatest depth of both
mandibles two lines and a half ; middle toe, including the
claw, eleven lines in length ; tarsus eight lines ; naked
portion of the tibia four lines. Colours. — Legs and feet in
the preserved specimen pale yellow, probably red in the
living bird, claws darker ; bill dark blackish-brown ; head,
neck, breast, abdomen, under wing-coverts, and back deep
glossy black ; small wing-coverts, tail, and upper and
under tail-coverts pure white ; first three quill-feathers
black, with a broad longitudinal band of white on the inner
webs; remainder of the wings ash-grey, becoming darker
towards the body.

" The form, proportions, and size of this species are very
nearly those of the Black Tern, S. nigra ; like that species,
too, the webs of the toes are very deeply indented, being
reduced to a mere rudiment between the middle and inner
toes. The two species are however easily distinguished, —
the under wing-coverts of the $. nigra are white, of the
S. leucoptera black ; the tail of the former is dark grey,
of the latter pure white ; in the S. nigra the throat is
white, breast and abdomen dark grey, and the back lead-
colour, while in the S. leucoptera all those parts are black.
I speak of both species in their perfect plumage."

M. Temminck says, " this White-winged Tern inhabits
the bays and inlets of the shores of the Mediterranean, and
is very common about Gibraltar ; it visits also the lakes,

WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN. 529

rivers, and marshes of the countries in the vicinity of the
Alps ; is very common ahout the lakes of Lucarno, Lu-
gano, Como, Isco and Guarda ; and is occasionally seen on
the Lake of Geneva." It is included by Dr. Schinz in
his Fauna Helvetica, but it is not seen in the north of
France or in Holland. M. Brehm includes it in his work
on the Birds of Germany, page 796, and M. Nilsson has
given a very good figure of this species in the illustrations
to his Fauna of Scandinavia, plate 121 ; M. Savi includes
it in his birds of Italy, vol. iii. page 83 ; and M. Malherbe
says that it appears in Sicily in spring, and is seen from
Lake Lenteni to the environs of Catania and Syracuse,
but is more rare in the northern part of the island. Mr.
H. M. Drummond observed a few of this species on the
river between the lakes at Biserta, about forty miles to
the westward of Tunis, as recorded in the Annals of
Natural History for August, 1845. M. Temminck also
mentions that this Tern is common in spring in Dalmatia,
but does not breed there, and was gone by July.

This species is not included in the lists of the Birds
of Corfu, Crete, Smyrna, or Tripoli, to which I have so
frequently had the advantage of referring, but Keith
Abbott, Esq. sent a specimen from Trebizond to the
Zoological Society in 1834. I do not find the name of this
species in any of the lists of the birds of India, of China or
Japan to which I have access.

The food of this Tern consists principally of dragon-flies,
and other winged aquatic insects. Neither the eggs, nor
the winter plumage of this species appear to be known.
M. Temminck in a note in his Manual, vol. ii. page 748,
mentions his strong supposition that the Sterna plumbed of
Wilson may be this bird in winter ; but in addition to the
circumstance that the Sterna leucoptera is not included

VOL. in. M M

530 LARID.E.

among the Birds of the United States by the ornithologists
of that country, the Sterna plumbea of Wilson is now with
good reason believed to be the young of Sterna fissipis, or
nigra, as it is also called, in the plumage of its first autumn,
and identical with the Sterna ntevia of Pennant.

An adult male specimen in its summer plumage has the
beak reddish-brown ; the irides greyish-black ; the head,
neck, and middle of the back black, the feathers becoming
lighter in colour towards the rump; upper tail-coverts
and tail-feathers white ; anterior portion of the outside of
the wing white, passing into a light grey on the larger
wing-coverts ; the first, second, third, and sometimes as
many of the first five of the primary wing-feathers black, the
number depending on age, these have all white shafts,
and with a considerable portion of white along the base of
the broad inner web ; the other primaries light grey ; the
secondaries, tertials, and the scapulary feathers slate-grey.
The chin, neck in front, breast, belly, sides, and flanks
black ; under wing-coverts some black, others slate-grey ;
under tail-coverts, and under surface of the tail-feathers
white ; legs, toes, and their membranes pale yellow in the
preserved bird, coral red in the living bird ; the claws
black, the interdigital membranes very much indented,

The whole length of the specimen described nine inches
and a half ; the wing from the anterior joint to the end of
the first primary, which is tk<». longest in the wing, eight
inches and a quarter.

NODDY TERN. 531

NA TA TORES. LARIDM.

I

THE NODDY TEEN.

Sterna stolida.

Sterna stolida, Black Noddy, JENYNS, Brit. .Vert. p. 270.

A nous „ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 70.

Sterna, „ Noddy Tern, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxi.

„ „ H. de mer Noddy, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 461.

Two examples of this Tern were shot in the summer
of 1840, between the Tasker Light-House, off the coast of
Wexford, and Dublin Bay. The fact was recorded, after
the examination of both specimens, by Wm. Thompson,
Esq. of Belfast, in publications devoted to natural history,
and was then the first record of the occurrence of the
Sterna stolida in Europe. The specimens are both pre-
served. It has recently been stated by Thos. Austin, Esq.
in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, " that
this species is a summer visiter to St. George's Channel,
but is so exceedingly shy that the writer could never get a
shot at one, though watching many times for a chance ;

M M 2

532 LABJDJ3.

the bird seeks its food at some distance from land, but
occasionally pursues its prey into the estuaries of the
larger Irish rivers, or along the outer shores of the coast.11

M. Temminck, in the 4th Part of his Manual, pub-
lished in 1840, mentions that the Noddy has been seen on
the coast of France, and Dr. Latham says he was told that
they lay their eggs in vast numbers on certain small rocky
isles near St. Helena.

Mr. Darwin found the Noddy breeding on St. Paul's
rocks, half way across the Atlantic, when sailing from the
Cape de Verd islands to South America, and observes
that " this Tern makes a very simple nest with sea- weed.
By the side of many of these nests a small flying-fish was
placed ; which, I suppose, had been brought by the male
bird for its partner. It was amusing to watch how quickly
a large and active crab (Grapsus), which inhabits the
crevices of the rocks, stole the fish from the side of the
nest, as soon as we had disturbed the birds."

Mr. Audubon says, "about the beginning of May the
Noddies collect from all parts of the Gulf of Mexico and
the coasts of Florida, for the purpose of returning to their
breeding places on one of the Tortugas called Noddy Key.
These birds form regular nests of twigs and dry grass,
which they place on the bushes or low trees, but never on
the ground. On visiting their island on the llth of May,
1832, I was surprised to see that many of them were
repairing and augmenting nests that had remained through
the winter, while others were employed in constructing
new ones, and some were already sitting on their eggs.
In a great many instances, the repaired nests formed
masses nearly two feet in height, and yet all of them had
only a slight hollow for the eggs, broken shells of which
were found among the entire ones, as if they had been

NODDY TERN. 533

purposely placed there. The birds did not discontinue
their labours, although there were nine or ten of us walk-
ing among the bushes, and when we had gone a few yards
into the thicket, thousands of them flew quite low over us,
some at times coming so close as to enable us to catch a
few of them with the hand. On one side might be seen a
Noddy carrying a stick in its bill, or a bird picking up some-
thing from the ground to add to its nest ; on the other,
several were seen sitting on their eggs unconscious of
danger, while their mates brought them food. The
greater part rose on wing as we advanced, but re-alighted
as soon as we had passed. The bushes were rarely taller
than ourselves, so that we could easily see the eggs in the
nests. This was quite a new sight to me, and not less
pleasing than unexpected. The Noddy, like most other
species of Terns, lays three eggs, which average two inches
in length, by an inch and three-eighths in breadth, and are
of a reddish-yellow colour, spotted and patched with
dull red and faint purple. They afford excellent eating,
and our sailors seldom failed to collect bucketsful daily
during our stay at the Tortugas. The wreckers assured
me that the young birds remain along with the old through
the winter, in which respect the Noddy, if this account be
correct, differs from other species, the young of which keep
by themselves until spring. At the approach of a boat,
the Noddies never flew off their island, in the manner of
the Sooty Terns. They appeared to go farther out to sea
than those birds in search of their food, which consists of
fishes mostly caught amid the floating sea-weeds, these
Terns seizing them, not by plunging perpendicularly down-
wards, as other species do, but by skimming close over the
surface in the manner of Gulls, and also by alighting and
swimming round the edges of the weeds. This I had

534 LARID^E.

abundant opportunities of seeing while on the Gulf of
Mexico. The flight of this bird greatly resembles that of
the Night-hawk when passing over meadows or rivers.
When about to alight on the water, the Noddy keeps its
wings extended upwards, and touches it first with its feet.
It swims with considerable buoyancy and grace, and at
times immerses its head to seize on a fish. It does not see
well by night, and it is for this reason that it frequently
alights on the spars of vessels, where it sleeps so soundly
that the seamen often catch them. When seized in the
hand it utters a rough cry, not unlike that of a young
American Crow taken from the nest. On such occasions
it bites severely, with quickly-repeated movements of
the bill, which, on missing the object aimed at, close with
a snap. Some which I kept several days refused all
kinds of food, became dull and languid, and at length died.
While hovering over us near their nests, these birds
emitted a low querulous murmur, and, if unmolested,
would attempt to alight on our heads. After a few visits,
however, they became rather more careful of themselves,
although the sitting birds often suifered us to put a hat
over them. This species incubates both day and night."

Dr. Latham, in his Synopsis, observes that this bird is
said to breed in the Bahama Islands, laying the eggs on
the bare rocks ; on the Eoca Islands, and various parts of
the coast of Brazil, and Cayenne. Catesby, in his Natural
History of Carolina, mentions having seen this bird more
than a hundred leagues from land. According to Mr.
Collie's notes, this species was seen in the Pacific at several
different places at various seasons of the year, as men-
tioned in the volume devoted to the Zoology of Captain
Beechey's voyage in the Blossom, p. 38.

The following extract in reference to the habits of

NODDY TERN. 535

this bird in Australia forms part of a letter from Mr.
Gilbert, who was collecting for Mr. Gould in Western
Australia. " The Noddy and its allied species are the
most numerous of all the inhabitants of the Houtmann's
Abrolhos, breeding in prodigious numbers ; the bird lays in
November and December, forming a nest of sea-weed
about six inches in diameter, and varying in height from
four to eight inches, but without anything like regularity
of form ; the top is nearly flat, there being but a very
slight hollow to prevent the egg rolling off. The nests are so
completely plastered with their excrement, that at first sight
it appears to be almost the only material ; they are either
placed on the ground, in a clear open space, or on the tops
of the thick scrub, over the Sterna fuliginosa : these two
species incubate together in the utmost harmony, the
bushes to an immense extent wearing a mottled appearance,
from the great mass of birds of both species perched on the
top, the male Sterna fuliginosa sitting quite close to the nest
of the Noddy, while its mate is beneath, performing her
arduous duties of incubation. On walking among these
birds1 nests, I was surprised to observe the extreme tena-
city with which they kept their post ; in fact they would
not remove off the egg or young, but suffered themselves
to be fairly trod upon, or taken off by the hand ; and so
thickly were these nests placed, that it was no easy matter
to avoid crushing either birds or eggs at every step. In
the middle of January I found the eggs very nearly ready
to hatch, and but few young birds ; in numerous instances
the bird would suffer me to take it by the wing and throw
it off the nest, but would immediately return, although I
was still standing close to the spot. There would be an
overwhelming increase of this species yearly but for one
check which nature has provided against it in the presence

536 LARHLE.

of a lizard, which is extremely abundant about their breed-
ing-places, and which finds an easy prey in this and S.
fuliginosa. I am satisfied, from constant observation, that
on an average, not more than one out of every twenty birds
hatched ever reach maturity, or live long enough to take
wing; besides this, great numbers of the old birds are
constantly killed : these lizards do not eat the whole bird,
but merely extract the brains and vertebral marrow ; the
remainder, however, is soon cleared off by the Dermestes
lardarius, which is here in amazing numbers, and gave me
a great deal of uneasiness and constant trouble to preserve
my collection from their repeated attacks. I did not
observe the Noddy inhabiting any other but South Island ;
they do not appear to go far out to sea to feed, finding an
abundance of food immediately outside the outer reef; nor
did I in any one instance observe it feeding in the smooth
quiet water between the outer reef and the islands. Their
food consists of small fish, small mollusca, medusae, cuttle-
fish, &c."

In the adult bird the bill is black, from the base of the
bill to the eye is also black ; irides brown ; the forehead
and crown buff-colour ; occiput smoke-grey ; the whole of
the body above and below and all the wing-coverts dark
chocolate-brown ; primaries and tail-feathers brownish-
black ; legs, toes, membranes and claws black. The
whole length of the specimen here figured and described
fourteen inches and a half to the end of the tail, which is
graduated, the middle pair of feathers being the longest ;
the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-
feather ten inches and a half.

An egg in my own collection, and one from Australia,
given me by Mr. Gould, agree exactly with Mr. Audubon's
description both in measurements and markings.

SABINE'S GULL. 537

NATATORES. LARID^E.

' ^s&b

SABINE'S GULL.
Larus Sabini.

Larus Sabini, Saline's Gull, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 270.
Xema „ „ Xeme, EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 64.

„ „ „ Gull, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxi.

Larus Sabinei, Mouette de Sabhte, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 488.

LARUS. Generic Characters. — Bill of moderate length, strong, hard, compressed ,
cutting, slightly curved towards the point, lower mandible shorter than the upper,
the symphisis angular, prominent. Nostrils lateral, near the middle of the beak,
pierced longitudinally, pervious. Legs slender, lower part of the tibiae naked,
the tarsus long, three toes in front entirely palmated, the hind toe free, short,
articulated high up on the tarsus above the line of the other toes. Wings long,
the first quill-feather nearly as long as the second, which is the longest in the
wing. Tail square at the end or slightly forked.

THE prominent angle at the symphisis of the under man-
dible ; the extent of the palmated membrane between the
toes, and the almost square tail observed, more or less, in
some of the Terns indicate a degree of connection with the

5SS LARID.E.

Gulls ; and the Gull here first inserted, by its slightly
forked tail, exhibits one point of resemblance to the
greater number of the Terns. Like the Terns, too, some
of the smaller Gulls assume during the breeding-season a
dark-coloured head.

The species of the genus Larus, or the Gulls, are nu-
merous, and most of them have a wide geographical
range. They frequent the ocean, many of them living on
the coast, but occasionally visiting inland lakes, rivers,
and marshes. They are voracious feeders, living on fish
alive or dead, and seldom refuse any animal matter that is
cast ashore by the tidal waves. The young differ from the
adult birds in plumage, and are not allowed to associate
with them at the nesting place, whether it be rock or
marsh, during the breeding-season. The adult birds
undergo a partial change of colour in spring, besides the
regular general moult in autumn. The sexes do not
differ in plumage; but the males are larger than the
females, and this difference is so considerable in the Gulls
of large size as in some instances to have led to the sup-
position of new, or distinct species.

We are indebted to Wm. Thompson, Esq. of Belfast,
for the first notice of Sabine's Gull as an addition to the
British Fauna, and also for a description of the plumage of
the young bird in its first autumn dress, which had not
previously come under the inspection of the ornithologist.
The first specimen was shot in Belfast Bay, in September,
1822, and was presented to the Natural History Society
of Belfast for the museum, in 1833. In the Museum of
the Royal Dublin Society, Mr. Thompson has also pointed
out a second example of this Gull, which is also in the
plumage of the first autumn. This bird was shot in
Dublin Bay by Mr. Wall, the curator. In October, 1837,

SABINE'S GULL. 539

H. H. Dombrain, Esq., of Dublin, wrote me word that he
had obtained a third example of this Gull, which was also
a young bird of the year. Since then I have notes of one
killed at Milford Haven, in the autumn of 1839, and
another shot in Cambridgeshire was shown to me by Dr.
Fitch. This last bird is now in the collection of J. T.
Martin, Esq. of Quy Hall. M. Temminck, in the 4th
Part of his Manual, notices three instances of the occur-
rence of this species known to him ; one, a young bird,
killed on the coast of Holland ; a second, killed on the
Rhine ; and a third near Rouen. M. Temminck has also
noticed that there is one example of this bird in the Mu-
seum at Vienna.

This species of Gull was first described in the 12th
volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, page
520, by the late Joseph Sabine, Esq. from specimens
sent by his brother, Captain Edward Sabine, of the Royal
Artillery, who accompanied the expedition of 1818 in
search of a North- West Passage. The account of these
birds was that "they were met with by Captain Sabine,
and killed by him on the 25th of July, 1818, on a group
of three rocky islands, each about a mile across, on the
west coast of Greenland, twenty miles distant from the
mainland in latitude 75° 29' N., and longitude 60° 9' W.
They were associated in considerable numbers with Arctic
Terns, breeding on those islands, the nests of both birds
being intermingled. This Gull lays two eggs on the bare
ground ; these are hatched the last week in July ; the
young are mottled at first with brown and dull yellow.
The eggs are an inch and a half in length, and of regular
shape, not much pointed ; the colour is olive, blotched
with brown. The parent birds flew with impetuosity
towards persons approaching their nests and young; and

540 LARID^E.

when one bird of a pair was killed, its mate, though
frequently fired at, continued on wing close to the spot
where it lay. They get their food on the sea-beach,
standing near the water's edge and picking up the marine
insects which are cast on shore/'

During the second Arctic voyage one bird of this
species was seen in Prince Regent's Inlet ; afterwards
many specimens were obtained on Melville Peninsula.
It has been found also at Spitzbergen, Igloolik, Bhering's
Straits, Cape Garry, and Felix Harbour. Some Esqui-
maux also told Captain James C. Ross that it breeds in
great numbers on the low land west of Neityelle.

Mr. Audubon mentions that he saw one flying over the
harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia, and that they had been
seen in abundance on one occasion about one hundred miles
off Newfoundland.

The following is Mr. Sabine's full description of the
adult bird in its summer-plumage : — The bill one inch
long, the base of both mandibles black, as far as the
angular projection of the lower mandible, the remainder
yellow; the inside of the mouth bright vermilion. The
irides dark, surrounded by a naked circle of the same
colour as the inside of the mouth ; a small white speck
beneath the eye scarcely perceptible. The whole of the
head and upper part of the neck a very dark ash, or
lead colour; the remainder of the neck behind and before,
as well as the breast and belly, pure white ; a narrow
black collar surrounds the neck at the meeting of the
ash-colour and of the white. The back, scapulars, and
wing-coverts are ash-coloured, very much lighter than the
head, but darker than the corresponding parts of the
Larus ridibundus ; the lower ends of the scapulars are
tipped with white. The first five primary quill-feathers

SABINE'S GULL. 541

with black shafts, the whole outer webs of these black,
the edge of their upper webs white to within an inch and
a half of the tips, the white sometimes continued to the
tip ; the tips of the first and second of these quill-feathers
in some white, in others black; the tips of the third,
fourth, and fifth white, giving the wing when closed a
spotted appearance ; the sixth primary quill-feather with
a white shaft, having the web more or less black, but
principally white, with sometimes a black spot near the
end; the other primaries, the secondaries, and the ter-
tials, white ; the whole under parts of the wings white.
The wings extend an inch or more beyond the longest
feather of the tail. The legs, feet, and claws black ; the
thigh feathered to within three-eighths of an inch of the
knee : the tail with its upper and under coverts white ;
the tail-feathers twelve, the outer narrower than the centre
ones; the outer tail-feathers about one inch longer than
those in the middle. It is probable that in its immature and
winter state it resembles other black-headed Gulls, in
being divested of the dark colour of its head. The whole
length thirteen inches ; wing, from the wrist ten inches
and three-quarters.

Mr. Thompson^ description of the autumnal plumage of
the young bird of the first year, is, " the forehead, space
immediately above the eye, and between it and the bill,
(with the exception of the narrow line of greyish-black
closely encircling the front and lower part of the eye,)
upper part of the throat, and sides of the neck, are white ;
crown, nape, and back of the neck, blackish grey ; back,
scapulars, greater and lesser wing-coverts, blackish-grey,
tinged with yellowish-brown, the extremity of every
feather varying from greyish-white to white, as it ap-
proaches the tail ; under part of the throat, and upper

542 LARIDJS.

part of the breast, pale ash-colour ; lower breast and all
the under plumage, white ; shafts of the first six pri-
maries brownish-black at base, becoming gradually darker
towards the extremity, where they are black in the first
three, but in the fourth, fifth, and sixth assimilate in colour
to the feather at that part, which is white ; the entire of the
outer webs of the first five black ; the inner webs with a
broad edging of white, to within from one to two inches of
the end, which part is black in the first three, but tipped
with white in the fourth and fifth ; in the sixth the inner
web is white, the outer black, excepting for three or four
lines from the tip, where it is white, and again at about an
inch from the end where a white spot of an oval form
appears. Feathers of the tail white, with black tips.'"

LITTLE GULL.

NATATORES.

543

LARIDJK.

THE LITTLE GULL.
Larus minutus.

TMTUS minutus, Little Gull, MONTAGU, Supp. Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 246.

„ „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 142.

„ „ „ „ SKLBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 484.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 271.

Chroicoccphalus „ „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 61.

Xema „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.

Larus „ Mouette pygmte, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 787.

THIS interesting Little Gull, the smallest I believe of its
genus, was first described and figured as a British bird by
Colonel Montagu, in the Appendix to the Supplement of

544 LARID.E.

his Ornithological Dictionary, from a young bird in the
plumage of the first year, that was shot on the Thames
near Chelsea, and then in the possession of Mr. Plasted of
that place, at the sale of whose collection it passed into the
possession of Mr. Leadbeater. Mr. Bullock's celebrated
collection contained two specimens in 1819 which were
then considered very rare. Since that time various speci-
mens have occurred in different states of plumage. Mr.
Selby has noticed one killed in the Frith of Clyde. Dr.
Neill obtained a specimen from the Solway, in the autumn
of 1824, which was presented by him to the Edinburgh
Museum. An adult bird, in summer-plumage, when it
has a fine black head, was shot in Ireland on the river
Shannon, as recorded by Wm. Thompson, Esq. ; the only
specimen obtained in the British Islands in that state of
plumage that I am aware of. This species has also been
killed on the shores of Cornwall and Devonshire, but
occurs more frequently on the eastern coast. I have
referred to one killed on the Thames. Dr. Waring gave
Mr. Leadbeater a beautiful adult specimen in winter-
plumage that was shot at the mouth of a small river in
Essex. The late Mr. Hoy obtained one on the Suffolk
coast in 1832; and Mr. Fuller, of Lowestoff, obtained a
specimen in that vicinity. It has been met with at Yar-
mouth in Norfolk. Mr. Hawkridge, of Scarborough, shot
a young bird there in November, 1836, and obligingly
allowed me the use of it for this work ; the figure and
description of the young bird of the year here given, were
taken from that specimen. Mr. A. Hancock, of New-
castle, has noticed one killed in September, 1835, at the
mouth of the Tyne, and it has also been taken in Scotland.
On the 24th of December last, 1844, a specimen of the
Little Gull in the plumage of its first winter was obtained

LITTLE GULL. 545

in Cornwall, and is now in the collection of E. H. Rodd,
Esq. of Penzance.

Professor Nilsson says this species is a summer-visiter to
the marshes in the vicinity of the Baltic and Gottland,
where it breeds, but he has never seen the eggs ; it is also
said to visit Eussia and Siberia. It is included by the
ornithologists of Germany among the birds of that country.
M. Temminck says he has killed two, and examined
several others in Holland. Professor Necker and Dr.
Schinz have recorded four or five instances of this species
having been taken about different lakes in Switzerland. It
has been observed at Genoa ; M. Savi includes it in his
Birds of Italy, and it is seen on the Adriatic and the
Mediterranean every season. It is said to be found about
the Caspian Sea in winter.

It feeds on insects and worms, according to M. Tem-
minck ; but very little of its habits are known. On more
than one occasion when shot in this country it was asso-
ciated with Terns.

The figure of this bird in its summer-plumage at the
head of this subject, was taken from a specimen given me
by Mr. Gould. In this specimen the bill is reddish-brown;
the irides very dark brown ; the whole of the head and the
upper part of the neck all round is black ; the neck below
white; the back, wing-coverts, and wings, uniform pale
ash-grey, the outer primaries darker grey, with white
at the end and on the inner margin of the web ; upper
tail- co verts and tail-feathers white, the tail in form square
at the end ; all the under surface of the body and
under tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and membranes ver-
milion.

An adult bird in winter has the bill almost black ; irides
dark brown ; forehead and upper part of neck in front,

VOL. III. N N

546 LARID.E.

and on the sides pure white ; occiput and nape of the
neck streaked with greyish-black on a white ground ; a
dusky spot under the eye, and an elongated patch of dusky
black falling downwards from the ear-coverts ; all the
other parts as in summer.

The young bird of the year killed in the middle of No-
vember, had the bill black, irides very dark brown ; fore-
head and lore white ; top of the head, occiput, and ear-
coverts, greyish-black ; nape of the neck white, forming a
collar by uniting with the white of the front ; below the
nape a broader black band extending towards, but not
reaching, the wings ; back, scapulars, and tertials pale
pearl-grey, with a few black feathers appearing through ;
wing-primaries and secondaries greyish-black, tipped with
white, nearly the whole of the inner webs white ; greater
wing-coverts pearl-grey ; smaller coverts black, edged with
grey ; upper tail-coverts white ; upper surface of tail-
feathers white, with a broad terminal band of black, which
is broadest on the middle feathers, the outer tail-feather on
each side wholly white ; all the under surface of the body
and wings, under tail-coverts, and each outside tail-feather
white, the other tail-feathers white with a narrower margin
of greyish-black ; legs, toes, and interdigital membranes in
this preserved specimen pale yellow-brown. Whole length
ten inches and one-eighth ; wing from the wrist eight inches
and three-quarters.

MASKED GULL.

NATATORES.

547
LARIDM.

THE MASKED GULL.

Larus capistratus.

Larus capistratus, Masked Gull, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 142.

„ „ Brown-headed Gull, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 272.

Chroicocephalus „ „ „ „ EVTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 63.

Larus „ Mouette a masque brun, TEMM. Man d'Ornith. vol ii. p. 783.

THIS species, first distinguished and separated from Larus
ridibundus by M. Temminck, appears to be very rare,
since even now, when so much attention is devoted to
ornithology, but very few specimens are known. The first
notice of it as a British Bird that I am acquainted with in
print, occurs in the sale catalogue of Mr. Bullock's col-
lection, published in April, 1819. On the fifth day, a day
devoted to the sale of British Water-Birds, the sixty-third
lot, page 32, is " Brown-headed Gull, L. erythropus, male
and female, young and eggs ; taken at Westra, in the
Orkneys;" and was bought by Dr. Leach. From these

N N 2

548 LARIDJS.

examples, M. Temminck, who was in London at that time,
to attend the sale of so important a collection, probably
became aware that this species was found in Orkney,
and included that locality among others for this species, in
the second edition of his Manual, published in 1820. In
1831 Mr. William Lord presented to the Zoological
Society about thirty skins of birds collected during the
previous summer in Shetland ; among them was one speci-
men of the Masked Gull, or Brown-headed Gull, as it was
also called, the Larus capistratus of Temminck, of which I
published a description with measurements in the Society's
proceedings for that year, page 151. In 1833, in a notice
of birds found near Carlisle, published by T. C. Heysham,
Esq., is the following record : " The Lesser Brown-headed
Gull, Larus capistratus. An immature female of this rare
Gull was accidentally procured near Sandsfield on the 6th
of June. It was found associating with several of the
Black-headed species, Larus ridibundus, but remained after
all its congeners had taken wing, was shot at, and for-
tunately killed. From an inspection of this bird, we are
satisfied that this species may be very easily overlooked
and that many ornithologists would consider it merely
a small specimen of the Black-headed Gull. We have
deemed it advisable, therefore, to give its weight and
dimensions. Weight eight ounces and a quarter ; length
fourteen inches and a half ; extent of the wings thirty-six
inches; bill to the front one inch and one tenth; bill to the
gape, or rictus, one inch and eight-tenths ; tarsi one inch
and six-tenths ; middle toe and claw one inch and five-
tenths.1' T. C. Eyton, Esq. in his catalogue of the birds
of Shropshire and North Wales, mentions that one spe-
cimen had been killed near Bangor, and was in his own
collection.

MASKED GULL. 549

M. Temminck says this species has been taken in Baffin's
Bay and Davis1 Straits. Professor Calvi of Genoa notices
two taken there, one in the year 1826, the other in 1827.
M. Temminck mentions that the eggs of this species, which
he had seen, were smaller than those of Larus ridibundus,
of an ash-green colour, with darker spots, and mentions
also that M. de Selys Longchamps had sent him word that
he had seen one example of this bird in the collection of
the Marquis Durazzo, which had been killed in Liguria.
M. Savi includes this species in his Birds of Italy.

This Gull is best distinguished from the species next to
be described by its smaller size, its shorter and more slen-
der bill, its shorter legs, and smaller feet ; and in its sum-
mer-plumage by the hair- brown feathers about the head
forming a mask and not a hood.

The particulars of the bird in summer-plumage from
Shetland, are — The bill brownish-red ; the head and upper
part of the neck on the sides and front hair-brown, bounded
by blackish-brown ; no dark colour on the occiput, but
descending low on the fore part of the neck, where some
of the dark feathers were tipped with white ; the remaining
portion of the neck, the breast, abdomen, vent, and tail,
pure white ; upper surface of the wings pale ash-grey,
under surface greyish- white ; primaries white, edged and
tipped with black, broadest on the inner web, the shafts
white ; legs and toes brownish-red.

In winter this bird, like all the Gulls which have dark-
coloured heads in summer, have the head white, with a few
dusky grey lines on the crown, a small patch of dusky black
under the eye, and another upon or under the ear-coverts.
The rest of the plumage as in summer, except that the
black colour on the wing-primaries is more intense from
the recent renewal of the feathers at the autumn moult.

550

N ATA TORES.

LARIDjE.

LAR1DM*

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.

Larus

Larus ridibundus, Black-headed Gull

„ erythropus, Brown „ „

„ ridibundus^ Black „ „

„ cinerarius, Red-legged „

„ ridibundus^ Black-headed „

Xema
Larus

Laughing ' .
Mouette rieuse.

THE BLACK-HEADED GULL
our coast, particularly those

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. pp. 189,

191, and 192.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

»» » »
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 242.

« « •» « 245.

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 141.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 486.
JENVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 272.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 780.

is abundant on various parts of
that are flat and marshy. In

BLACK-HEADED GULL. 551

such situations it is very common, and while wearing its
dark brown hood in summer is easily recognised and well-
known, It frequents all parts of the coast during winter,
but being decidedly a marsh breeder, assembles in great
numbers early in spring, year after year, constantly, at
various favourable localities for the purpose of incubation.
These birds are abundant at the mouth of the Thames,
both in Kent and in Essex, but the most so in the latter
county, breeding by hundreds on some of the low flat
islands on the coast, and in the marshes of the interior.

A breeding station in Norfolk, at a place called Scoulton
Mere, where Sir Thomas Browne says this species bred
constantly in his time, three hundred years ago, is thus
described by the authors of the catalogue of Norfolk and
Suffolk Birds. " Near the centre of the county of Norfolk,
at the distance of about twenty- five miles from the sea,
and two from Hingham, is a large piece of water called
Scoulton Mere. In the middle of this mere there is a
boggy island of seventy acres extent, covered with reeds,
and on which there are some birch and willow trees.
There is no river communicating between the mere and the
sea. This mere has from time immemorial been a favourite
breeding-spot of the Brown-headed Gull. These birds
begin to make their appearance at Scoulton about the
middle of February ; and by the end of the first week in
March the great body of them have always arrived. They
spread themselves over the neighbouring country to the
distance of several miles in search of food, following the
plough as regularly as Rooks ; and, from the great quan-
tity of worms and grubs which they devour, they render
essential service to the farmer. If the spring is mild, the
Gulls begin to lay about the middle of April ; but the
month of May is the time at which the eggs are found in

552 LARID^E.

the greatest abundance. At this season a man and three
boys find constant employment in collecting them, and
they have sometimes gathered upwards of a thousand in
a day. These eggs are sold on the spot at the rate of
fourpence a score, and are regularly sent in considerable
quantities to the markets at Norwich and Lynn. They
are eaten cold, like Lapwings' eggs, and also used for
culinary purposes ; but they are rather of an inferior
quality, and somewhat like ducks' eggs in flavour. The
person who sells these eggs gives fifteen pounds a-year for
the privilege of collecting them. This species of Gull
never lays more than three eggs the first time ; but, if
these are taken, it will lay again. We found many of the
old birds sitting in the middle of June ; most of these had
only one egg in the nest, but a few of them had two.
Their nests are made of the tops of reeds and sedge, and
are very flat at the surface. The eggs vary so much in
size, shape, and colour, that a person not well acquainted
with them would suppose some of them to belong to a dif-
ferent species of bird. Some are thickly covered with
dusky spots, and others are of a light blue colour without
any spots at all. The young birds leave the nest as soon
as hatched, and take to the water. When they can fly
well the old ones depart with them, and disperse them-
selves on the sea-coast, where they are found during the
autumn and winter. By the middle of July they all leave
Scoulton, and are not seen there again till the following
spring. We were a little surprised at seeing some of these
Gulls alight and sit upon some low bushy willows which
grow on the island. No other than the Brown-headed
Gull breeds at this mere ; a few of them also breed in
many of the marshes contiguous to the sea-coast of Nor-
folk."

BLACK-HEADED GULL. 553

Charles Anderson, Esq., sent me notice of another breed-
ing-place in Lincolnshire, frequented annually by many
hundreds of this species. This is at Twigmoor, near Brigg
— an estate belonging to Sir John Nelthorpe, of Scawby.
It consists chiefly of warren ground, partly covered with
heather, dwarf shrubs, and birch trees. In the centre of
this is a piece of water of about eighteen acres, the sides
of which are green swamps, so spungy, that it is impossible
to walk upon them. In these swamps the Black-headed
Gulls breed in great quantities, assembling in April, laying
their eggs among the rushes in May, and hatching in June.
The young, till they are able to fly, creep about among the
reeds, or launch out into the open water in fleets if a dog
is sent into the swamp to disturb them ; the old birds
screaming, and almost darting in the face of any one who
approaches and dwells upon the haunts of their young.
There are also one or two other breeding-places on an
adjoining estate at Manton. As soon as the young can
fly they are seen scattered about the neighbourhood, feed-
ing in moist meadows, but soon leave the place and return
no more till the following spring.

In Northumberland, Mr. Selby says, these Gulls have
for many years past enlivened the precincts of a large pond
at Pallinsburn, the seat of A. Askew, Esq. from whence
flocks (in consequence of the increase produced by the pro-
tection afforded during the breeding- season) have at dif-
ferent times detached themselves to such other situations
in the neighbourhood as possessed suitable facilities for re-
production. The note of this Gull is a hoarse cackle,
which, from its effect when quickly repeated, has been
compared to a laugh, and has given rise to one of its
specific appellations. Its flight is easy and buoyant. Its
food, small fishes, insects, and worms. The Rev. Richard

554 LARID^E.

Lubbock, who sent me some particulars of this species from
Norfolk, mentions that he saw several of these birds in
June, 1841, dashing round some lofty elms catching cock-
chafers. The eggs are yellowish-olive-brown, spotted with
two shades of darker brown ; the length two inches one
line and a half, by one inch and six lines in breadth.
When their nests are robbed the birds are induced to lay
two or three times, and Mr. Hewitson mentions that the
eggs produced at these second and third layings are some-
times one-third less than the natural size.

Mr. Thompson says this species is a constant resident in
Ireland. Mr. J. Macgillivray noticed that it was abun-
dant in summer on the marshes of some of the islands of
the outer Hebrides. It was observed to be plentiful on
some of the reedy lochs of Sutherlandshire ; and a few
breed on the boggy parts of some of the islands of Orkney
and Shetland ; but Dr. Fleming mentions that these birds
leave Scotland in winter. This species breeds in Sweden,
in Russia, and in Siberia. It is included by several natu-
ralists among the birds of Germany. M. Temminck says
it is abundant in Holland at all seasons. It is common on
the French coast in winter, and a few of them breed near
the lakes and rivers of the interior. It visits Switzerland
in summer ; is not uncommon at Genoa ; is included by
M. Savi in his Birds of Italy ; and is common in Sicily,
but only in winter. The Zoological Society have received
specimens sent by Keith Abbott, Esq. from Erzeroom;
and it is found both in Nepal and about Calcutta.

The adult bird in summer has the beak vermilion red ;
irides hazel ; eyelids orange ; the head, occiput, and upper
part of the neck all round dark brown, the colour being
most intense when first assumed, and becoming lighter by
time and wear ; sides and back of the neck pure white ;

BLACK-HEADED GULL. 555

back, wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertials, uniform French
grey; the first three quill-primaries white on the shafts
and webs, but margined with black ; the fourth white on
the outer web, grey on the inner web, and edged with
black ; the fifth and sixth grey on both webs, the edge of
the inner or broader web and the point black ; tail-coverts
and tail-feathers white ; front of the neck, the breast, and
all the under surface of the body and tail pure white ; legs
and feet like the beak, vermilion red.

The whole length sixteen inches ; from the front of the
wing to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the
longest, twelve inches. Bewick's figure of the Black-
headed Gull represents a bird in this state of plumage ;
the lower figure in the illustration here given is from an
adult male bird, one year old, killed at the nest in the
breeding-season, but still exhibiting some slight traces of
immature colours in the few brown feathers on the anterior
part of the wing, and in the narrow black tips to the tail-
feathers.

The assumption of the dark colour on the head in the
spring is very rapid. A Gull in the collection at the Gar-
dens of the Zoological Society, began, some years since, to
change colour on the head, from white to dark brown, on
the llth of March; it was a change of colour, and not
an act of moulting, no feather was shed, and the change
was completed in five days. Another bird, some seasons
afterwards, had not completed the dark colour till the
beginning of May, but the time required for the change
was not noted.

The upper figure in the illustration here given is from a
young bird of the year killed in August ; at which period
the head is marked with greyish-brown, on a ground of
white ; the back, scapulars, smaller wing-coverts, and the

556

LARID.E.

tertials mottled with brown ; greater coverts and secon-
daries French grey ; primaries as in the adult bird ; tail-
feathers white, with a broad bar of black at the end ; beak,
legs, and feet, yellowish-brown.

Bewick's figure of the Ked-legged Gull is from a bird in
the plumage of its first winter, as indicated by the mark-
ings on the anterior part of the wing, and the narrow black
bar at the end of the tail. In the truly adult bird in
winter the head is but slightly marked with a dusky patch
at the ear-coverts ; the back and wings uniform French
grey ; the wing-primaries as already described ; tail-coverts
and tail-feathers pure white ; neck, breast, and all the
under surface of the body, also pure white ; bill, legs, and
feet red.

The vignette below was taken from a pen-and-ink sketch
sent me by Charles Anderson, Esq. to illustrate the breed-
ing-ground referred to at Twigmoor, near Brigg, Lincoln-
shire.

LAUGHING GULL.

N ATA TORES.

557
LARIDJE.

THE LAUGHING GULL.

Larus atricilla.

Larus atritiUa, laughing Gull, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 1.03.
„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 142.

„ ,. „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 273.

Xema „ Black-winged „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxii.
Larus „ Mouttte a capuchon plomb€, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 779.

and vol. iv. p. 483.

THIS species, called the Laughing Gull by Catesby in his
natural history of Carolina, was made known as a visiter
to the British shores by Colonel Montagu, who, in his
Ornithological Dictionary, says, " In the month of August,
1774, we saw five of them together feeding in a pool in the
Shingley flats near Winchelsea ; two only were black on

558 LARID.E

the head, the others were mottled all over with brown.
One of them was shot ; but, although the remaining four
continued to resort to the same place for some time, the
old ones were too shy to be procured. We also saw two
others near Hastings in Sussex. They may be easily
known from the Black-headed Gull even when flying ; the
flight is different ; the bird appears much larger, and the
tail shorter in proportion." No other examples, taken in
this country, have been recorded, that I am aware of; but
Mr. Gould mentions that the preservation of Montagu's
specimen in the British Museum has afforded him the
means of determining that it is identical with the Ame-
rican bird.

The following account of the habits of this Gull in the
United States, is derived from the Ornithological Bio-
graphy of Mr. Audubon : —

" This species breeds, according to the latitude, from the
1st of March to the middle of June ; and I have thought
that on the Tortuga Keys, it produced two broods each
season. In New Jersey, and farther to the eastward, the
nest resembles that of the Ring-billed Gull, or Common
American Gull, Larus zonorhyncus, being formed of dried
sea-weeds, and land plants, two, and sometimes three
inches high, with a regular rounded cavity, from four and a
half to five inches in diameter, and an inch and a half in
depth. This cavity is formed of finer grasses, placed in a
pretty regular circular form. I once found a nest formed as
it were of two ; that is to say, two pairs had formed a nest
of nearly double the ordinary size, and the two birds sat
close to each other during rainy weather, but separately,
each on its own three eggs. I observed that the males, as
well as the females, thus concerned in this new sort of
partnership, evinced as much mutual fondness as if they

LAUGHING GULL. 559

were brothers. On the Tortugas, where these Gulls also
breed in abundance, I found their eggs deposited in slight
hollows scooped in the sand. Whilst at Galveston, in
Texas, I found their nests somewhat less bulky than in the
Jerseys, which proved to me how much birds are guided in
these matters by differences in atmospheric temperature
and locality.

" Whilst at Great Egg Harbour, in May 1829, shortly
after my return from England, I found this species breed-
ing in great numbers on the margins of a vast salt marsh,
bordering the sea shore, though separated from the
Atlantic by a long and narrow island. They constantly
evinced a dislike to rocky shores. About sunrise every
morning, an immense number of these birds would rise in
the air, as if by common consent, and wing their way
across the land, probably intent on reaching the lower
shores of the Delaware River, or indeed farther towards
the head waters of Chesapeake Bay. They formed them-
selves into long, straggling lines, following each other
singly, at the distance of a few yards. About an hour
before sunset, the same birds were seen returning in an
extended front, now all silent, although in the morning
their cries were incessant, and lasted till they were out of
sight. On arriving at the breeding-ground, they imme-
diately settled upon their nests. On a few occasions when
it rained and blew hard, the numbers that left the nests
were comparatively few, and those, as I thought, mostly
males. Instead of travelling high, as they were wont to
do in fair and calm weather, they skimmed closely over the
land, contending with the wind with surprising pertinacity,
and successfully too. At such times they were also quite
silent. I now and then observed some of them whilst on
wing, and at a considerable height, suddenly check their

560 LARID.E.

course, as if to examine some object below ; but on none of
these occasions did I see one attempt to alight, for it soon
resumed its wonted course, and rejoined its companions.

" I never found more than three eggs in a nest. Their
average length is two inches and half an eighth, their
greatest breadth a trifle more than an inch and a half.
They vary somewhat in their general tint, but are usually
of a light earthy olive, blotched and spotted with dull
reddish-brown, and some black, the markings rather more
abundant towards the larger end. As an article of food
they are excellent. These Gulls are extremely anxious
about their eggs, as well as their young, which are apt to
wander away from the nest while yet quite small. They
are able to fly at the end of six weeks, and soon after this
are abandoned by their parents, when the old and young
birds keep apart in flocks until the following spring, when,
I think, the latter nearly attain the plumage of their
parents, though they are still smaller, and have the
terminal band on the tail."

This species has been taken on the coast of Spain, in the
Straits of Gibraltar, at Genoa, on various islands of the
Mediterranean Sea, at Sicily, and in the Grecian Archi-
pelago. It feeds on insects, small fishes, and minute
Crustacea.

It is perhaps to this bird that Dawson Borrer, Esq.
refers when dining on board H.M.S. the Howe, then
lying off the Piraeus, a celebrated harbour at Athens, at
the mouth of the Cephisus. " I had here the opportunity
of observing a curious testimony of the sagacity of the Sea-
gull. The moment the bell rang for the men's dinner,
though before hardly one of these birds was on view,
hundreds appeared gathering around the ship ; and I was
assured that regularly as the bell rang, this ornithological

LAUGHING GULL. 561

phenomenon took place immediately; and great is the
wheeling and screaming of the expectant birds when the
first cargo of the remnants of the feast appear.""

The bill is red ; the irides very dark, almost black ;
head and upper part of neck all round dark lead-grey ;
lower part of the neck pure white ; back and wings grey-
ish-blue, the secondaries largely, and the primaries slightly
tipped with white. Mr. Audubon mentions that the first
primary is black, with a tinge of grey on the inner web at
the base ; the second and third similar, with the grey more
extended ; on the fourth the grey is spread over two-
thirds ; the fifth is black only for an inch and a half ; and
on the sixth the black is reduced to two spots near the
end ; the other parts, and the rest of the primaries, of the
same colour as the back : rump, upper tail-coverts and tail-
feathers white ; neck in front, breast, and under surface of
the body white, tinged with pale red ; under tail-coverts and
tail-feathers white; legs and feet red. The whole length
seventeen inches ; from the point of the wing to the end of
the first quill-feather, which is the longest, twelve inches
and three-quarters. Females are rather smaller than
males, and have the head of slate-grey, rather than lead-
grey. The winter-plumage of this species was first de-
scribed from a bird taken at Trieste, in the winter of 1829.
Forehead white, some small greyish feathers around the
beak ; four spots about the eye ; upper part of the
plumage silvery grey; small wing-coverts dusky brown,
the larger coverts tipped with white ; first wing-primary
uniform brown ; the next five also brown, but each with
one white spot ; from the sixth to the tenth the shafts are
brown, the webs white ; outer tail-feather on each side
white, the others with a broad terminal band of brown ;
under surface of the body silvery white.

VOL. in. o o

562

N ATA TORES.

LAEID^E.

LAHIDJE.

THE KITTIWAKE GULL.

Larus tridactylus.

Larus tridactylus, Kittiwake Gull, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 186.

„ „ Tarrock

„ rissa, Kittiwake

„ tridactylus, „

» » w

„ rissa, „

„ „ „

„ tridactylus, „

„ rissa, „

„ „ „ „ 187 young.

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 238.

», „ „ „ p. 240 young.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 141.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 493.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 274.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiv.

„ trydactylus,Mouettetridactyle, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 774.

THE early describers of this species seem not to have
been aware that the Gull named the Tarrock, Larus tri-

K1TTIWAKE GULL. 563

dactyluS) was only the young state of that which had been
previously called the Kittiwake, Larus rissa ; but this is
a point satisfactorily ascertained now. The figure in our
illustration with the dark coloured markings on the neck
and wings, is taken from a young bird of the year; the
other figure is from an adult bird killed at the Isle of
Wight, early in the month of June.

Colonel Montagu was certainly mistaken in considering
the Kittiwake a rare bird on our southern coast. This
Gull is decidedly a rock-breeder, and very common in the
breeding-season on all the rocky parts of the coast of
Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and part of Cornwall.
I have seen many in one day, in the first week in June,
between the Needle Rocks and Freshwater Gate in the
Isle of Wight. Mr. Thompson mentions that it is only
a summer-visiter to Ireland, and it is known to migrate
in autumn from the coasts of Durham, Northumber-
land, Scotland, from the Scotch Islands, and from all
the numerous places still further north, to which
it resorts for the breeding-season ; but Dr. Edward
Moore mentions having killed the young bird in Devon-
shire in November. I am confident that I have seen
this species in winter in Dorsetshire and Hampshire ; and
M. Vieillot says it is stationary on the coast of France.
That many go far south in winter the localities to be here-
after quoted will prove.

The young bird, while bearing on its plumage the dark-
coloured markings, has been called the Tarrock ; the adult
bird is the Kittiwake, and the name has reference to the
cry of this Gull, which, when disturbed at its breeding-
station, utters three notes in quick succession, which closely
resemble in sound the word in question. A writer in the
Field Naturalists" Magazine, in his Notes from the Isle of

oo2

564 LARID^E.

Wight, volume ii. page 74, mentions a very curious fact in
reference to a Gull. He says, " In the next parish to this
there is a Gull, either the Larus hylernus, or L. rissa,
which was brought up there about twenty-seven years ago.
There is a small piece of water which it used to frequent,
but for many years it has nearly forsaken this, and spends
its time, either sitting upon the rails of one or two cottages
to which it confines its visits, or flying at liberty around
the country. Every spring, when the breeding season
arrives, it leaves the parish, which is inland, and pairing
with one of the wild birds, inhabits the white cliffs on the
coast,* whence it returns again alone when the breeding-
season is over. It is so tame at other times with those
whom it knows, that it will come into their cottages and
eat out of their hands, but will not allow itself to be
approached thus closely by strangers."

The Kittiwake breeds high up on rocky cliffs, and is found
by the egg-collectors to select very narrow ledges. The
nests are formed of sea-weeds and are generally placed very
close together. Three eggs is the most usual number in
each nest : these are two inches two lines and a half in
length, by one inch and seven lines in breadth ; of a stone-
colour, tinged with olive, thickly spotted with ash-grey,
and two shades of light brown. The principal food of the
Kittiwake is the small surface-swimming fry of fishes, and
other soft marine animals.

Besides breeding on many of the high ranges of cliffs
along the southern line of our shores, this bird breeds also

* The circumstance of this bird visiting the cliffs of the Isle of Wight to breed,
induces me to believe that it was a Kittiwake, which species breed there every
year in great numbers. Our Common Gull, to which Gmelin applied the term
Larus hybernus, breeds on low flat islands or marshes whenever it has the power
of choosing, and of such ground there is plenty on the Lymington and Hurst
Castle side of the Southampton Water.

KITTIWAKE GULL. 565

on many of the high rocky promontories on the eastern
coast, such as Flainborough Head, the lofty cliffs of
Scarborough, some of the Farn Islands, St. Abb's Head,
the Bass Bock, and some parts of the coast of
Aberdeen, as well as Orkney and Shetland, but from these
districts the birds move southwards by the end of summer
or the beginning of autumn. Professor Nilsson says it
breeds on many parts of the rocky coast of Scandinavia.
Faber includes it among the birds of Iceland ; and Mr.
Proctor observed that it was plentiful. It is known to
visit the Faroe Islands, Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and
Greenland. Captain James C. Ross says " it inhabits all
parts of the Arctic Regions, and has been met with in the
highest latitudes yet attained by man. It is extremely
numerous during the summer season along the west coast
of Prince Regent's Inlet ; where, in several places that are
peculiarly well fitted for breeding-stations, they congregate
in inconceivable numbers. We killed enough to supply
our party with several excellent meals, and found them
delicious food, perfectly free from any unpleasant flavour."
Dr. Richardson found this bird common in various parts of
North America, and Mr. Audubon says it is plentiful on
the shores of the United States.

This species is found at Genoa in winter. Dr. Heine-
ken included it in his catalogue of the Birds of Madeira ;
the Zoological Society have received specimens from Tri-
poli ; M. Savi includes it in his Ornithology of Italy, and
the Russian naturalists found it in the vicinity of the Cas-
pian Sea.

The adult bird in summer at the breeding-station has
the bill greenish-yellow, the mouth inside orange ; the
irides dusky brown ; the head and the neck all round
pure white ; back and wings French grey, the secondaries

566 LARIDJ!.

and tertials tipped or edged with white ; the outer margin
of the first primary quill-feather black, the next three
tipped with black, the fifth with a black patch near the
end, but the extremity white ; tail-coverts and tail-feathers
pure white ; chin, throat, breast, and all the under surface
of the body and tail pure white ; legs rather short, and
dusky in colour, the toes and interdigital membranes also ;
the hind toe only a small tubercle without any projecting
horny nail or claw, and on this account the species was
called tridactylus, three-toed.

The whole length fifteen inches and a half; from the
anterior joint of the wing to the end of the longest quill-
feather twelve inches.

The adult bird in winter has the lower part of the neck
behind French grey, like the back ; the occiput, top of the
head and the region of the ear-coverts streaked with dusky
grey, the other parts as in summer.

Young birds of the year have the bill black ; the irides
dusky, almost black ; upper part of the head white ; the
occiput and nape with a few dusky grey patches on a
white ground ; the lower part of the neck behind marked
by numerous blackish-grey feathers ; back, scapulars, great
wing-coverts and secondaries French grey ; point of the
wing, and the series of smaller wing-coverts nearly black ;
tertials French grey, with a spot of black near the end, the
inner broad web varied with white ; tail-coverts and tail-
feathers white, the latter black at the end; the middle tail-
feathers having the largest portion of black, the outer tail-
feather on each side the smallest ; chin, neck, breast, and
all the under surface of the body pure white ; under tail-
coverts white, tail-feathers white at the base, ending in
dark or lead-grey ; legs, toes, and membranes pale brown.

IVORY GULL.

N ATA TORES.

567

LARID/F..

THE IVORY GULL.

Larus eburneus.

Larus eburneus, Ivory Gull, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 234.
„ candidus, Tlie Snow-bird, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 142.
„ eburneus, Ivory Gull, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 497.
„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 276.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiii.

„ „ Mouette blanclie, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 769.

THE first example of this Ivory-white Gull obtained
in the British Islands, occurred in Balta Sound, Shetland,
in the winter of 1822, and the circumstance is recorded
in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian

568 LARID.E.

Society by Lawrence Edmonston, Esq., who presented
the specimen to the Edinburgh Museum. Another ex-
ample is noticed by Mr. Selby as having been killed in
the Frith of Clyde. The late Joseph Sabine, Esq., early
in the year 1834, sent notice to Captain James C. Ross,
that this beautiful Gull had then but recently visited the
western shores of Ireland.

Two recent occurrences of this species have been re-
corded : one in Durham, by John Hogg, Esq., the other
on the Yorkshire coast.

M. Temminck mentions in his Manual having himself
killed a bird of this species, which was entirely white,
in spring, on the coast of Holland. M. Vieillot says
it has appeared on the coast of France, though very rarely,
and one specimen was killed in winter, some years since,
near Lausanne, which has been recorded by M. Necker,
and also by Dr. Schinz. Professor Nilsson says, this rare
Gull appears occasionally in winter both in Sweden and
in the northern parts of Scandinavia. The Ivory Gull
is best known in high northern latitudes, and has been
found in summer at Nova Zembla and at Spitzbergen.
In reference to some of the habits of this species, Captain
W. Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic Regions, says,
that this Gull, "though so delicate in its appearance, is
almost as ravenous as the Fulmar Petrel, and as little nice
in its food. It is, however, more cautious. It is a con-
stant attendant on the flenzing operations of the whale-
fishers, where it generally seizes its portion on the wing.
It rarely alights in the water, but often sits on the ice,
preferring the most elevated situations. Its voice is a
loud and disagreeable scream."

Captain Sabine and Captain James C. Ross, represent
this species as being common on the coast of Greenland,

IVORY GULL. 569

in Davis^s Straits, Baffin's Bay, Port Bowen, and Hecla
Cove. Dr. Richardson mentions it as observed breeding
in great numbers on the high perforated cliffs which form
the extremity of Cape Parry, in latitude 70°. Mr. Audu-
bon, in his North- American Ornithology, says it is found
in winter on the southern coast of Labrador and New-
foundland. This Gull feeds on the flesh of whales, and
almost any other decomposing animal matter. The egg
is unknown to me.

The adult bird in summer has the bill greenish-grey at
the base and about the nostrils, the anterior portion yellow;
the irides brown, eyelids red at the edge ; the whole of the
plumage, including the wing and the tail-feathers, a pure
and delicate white ; the legs short and black.

M. Temminck, in the fourth part of his Manual, says,
that, when alive, the whole plumage of this bird exhibits
a rosy tint, which passes off soon after death.

The adult birds in winter are said to have a few greyish
streaks or lines about the head.

Captain Sabine describes a specimen killed during the
first week in June, at Greenland, apparently a bird of the
preceding year, as having a few light brown feathers about
the bill, extending towards the eyes ; a very small trans-
verse band of brown spots across the primary wing-coverts,
thickest at the point of the wing ; the primary quill and
the tail-feathers slightly tipped with brown. A bird still
younger than the last had the ends of the primary quill-
feathers, and of the tail-feathers, tipped with brown.

The whole length from sixteen to eighteen inches, de-
pending on age and sex ; from the same cause the wing,
from the most anterior joint to the end of the longest quill-
feather, varies from twelve and a half to thirteen inches.

570

NAT A TORES.

LARHLE.

LARIDSE.

THE COMMON GULL.

Larus canus.

Larus canus, The Common Gull, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 184.

„ „ Winter Mew, „ „ „ „ p. 185.*

„ „ Common Gull, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ « Winter „ „ „ „ *

„ „ Common „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 236.

„ „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 140.

„ „ „ SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 490.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 275.

„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxi.

„ „ Mouette a pieds bleus, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 771.

THE COMMON GULL, as its name would imply, is pretty
generally diffused around the coast, though more plentiful
in some situations than in others, and varies a little in
its habits, depending on the locality in which it is found.

* Larus hyberneus, of Gmelin, and La Mouette d'hiver, of Buffon.

COMMON GULL. 571

Both in Kent and Essex, where those counties bound the
estuary of the Thames, this Gull is to be seen throughout
the year on the sandy flats and bars, picking up as food
any refuse animal matter the tide may bring ; occasionally
taking its flight to survey the line of the slack and shallow
water near the shore, hovering in its search to be certain
of its object, and picking up from the surface of the water
small fishes, or other floating substance, to satisfy its appe-
tite. This bird frequently, also, goes some miles inland
to follow a plough in search of insects and grubs. Here
also, as well as on other parts of the coast which are flat,
the Common Gull breeds in marshes, or on flat islands,
while in other districts, to be hereafter named, it breeds
on high rocks. They frequently follow the course of a
river for many miles up from the sea ; Mr. Jesse notices
one that was shot in winter on the Mole, near Hampton
Court. The Common Gull, in confinement, will feed on
pieces of bread; some kept by Colonel Montagu would
pick up grain when not supplied with fish or worms,
and one bird of this species, kept by John Hunter, was
brought by degrees to live entirely on corn. The sto-
mach of this bird was examined after death, and the
muscular parietes were found to be thickened. The
preparation is preserved in the Museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons. A female in the possession of Dr.
Thackeray, the Provost of King's College, Cambridge, has
for several seasons following, laid one or more eggs ; two
duck's eggs were placed in her nest in the summer of
1844, upon which she sat steadily, and both were pro-
ductive. One of the young Ducks died at the hatching-
time, the other she reared and attended constantly.

The Common Gull in a wild state makes rather a large
nest, whether on marsh or rock, of sea-weeds and grass,

572 LARIDjE.

and lays two or three eggs of a dark olive-brown, spotted
with darker brown and black ; the length two inches and
a quarter, by one inch and a half in breadth.

Mr. Thompson says the Common Gull remains all the
year in Ireland ; it is found also all round the south and
east coast, from Wales to Sussex, and from thence to
Norfolk and Lincolnshire. At St. AbVs Head, a bold
and rocky headland of Berwickshire, these birds, Mr.
Selby says, are very numerous during the breeding-season,
and occupy the whole face of the cliff. In Sutherland-
shire, the same species, Mr. Selby observes, has several
breeding-stations ; viz. upon Loch Shin, Loch Laighal,
and various smaller lochs. Mr. J. Macgillivray noticed
the Common Gull on several islets of the Outer Hebrides ;
there it was found occasionally breeding in the interior.
In Orkney and Shetland, Mr. Dunn says, I have found
a few pairs incubating in company with the Herring Gull,
and occasionally a solitary pair breeding in the cliffs
without any associates ; they may be found sometimes
on the small islands in the lakes.

Professor Nilsson considers this bird one of the Common
Gulls in Sweden ; it was seen in Norway by Mr. Hew-
itson, who states that two thousand eggs were gathered
for the use of the inhabitants from one island only. Lin-
naeus, in his tour in Lapland, mentions having seen hun-
dreds of this Gull in the corn-fields of Westbothland,
and one also on the Lapland Alps. It is found at the
Faroe Islands ; and Mr. Proctor observed that it was
plentiful at Iceland. It is included in a list of birds
found by Naturalists at Nova Zembla, and was observed
by Dr. Richardson in Arctic America.

This species is common on the shores of Holland and
France ; it is found in Spain, at Genoa, and in Italy.

COMMON GULL. 573

The Zoological Society have received specimens sent by
Keith Abbott, Esq. from Trebizond, and the "Russian
naturalists found it in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea.

In the adult bird in summer the bill is greenish-grey
at the base, towards the point yellow ; irides dark brown,
edges of the eye- lids red ; the whole head and neck pure
white ; the back and all the wing-coverts pearl-grey,
secondaries and tertials the same, but broadly edged and
tipped with white ; primaries black on the outer web,
with a small portion of pearl-grey at the base of the inner
web, the proportion of grey increasing on each primary
in succession, the first and second primary with a patch
of white on both webs near the end, but the extreme
tips of both are black, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth,
have white tips, but the first set of primary quill-feathers
which the young bird carries for the first fifteen months,
have no white at the tips. Few birds moult their first
set of quill-feathers in their first autumn. Tail-coverts
and tail-feathers pure white ; chin, neck in front, breast,
and all the under surface of the body and tail pure white ;
legs and feet dark greenish-ash. The whole length of an
old male eighteen inches and a half; of the wing from
the point fourteen inches and a half. The length of an
old female about one inch less, and of the wing half an
inch less.

In the winter the whole head and the sides of the
neck are streaked and spotted with dusky brown and
ash-brown.

A young bird in its first autumn has the basal portion
of the bill yellowish-brown, the part anterior to the nostrils
nearly black ; irides dusky ; head, sides of the neck, the
ear-coverts and occiput dull white, mottled with greyish-
brown ; the back, wing-coverts, secondaries and tertials

574 LARID^l.

brownish-ash, the feathers edged with paler brown ; a
few bluish-grey feathers on the centre and sides of the
back ; the primaries nearly black, both as to the shafts
and greater part of the webs, all but the first being tipped
with brown ; upper tail-coverts dull white ; tail-feathers
white, the outer half black, except the outer feather on
each side, which has the outer web white; chin and
throat white ; neck in front, the breast, and all the
under surface of the body, mottled with light ash-brown,
on a ground of white ; legs and feet pale yellowish-brown,
the claws black.

ICELAND GULL.

NATATORES.

575
LARIDM.

THE ICELAND GULL,

OR LESSER WHITE- WINGED GULL.

Larus Icelandicus.

Larus Icelandicus, Iceland Gull, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 139.

„ „ „ „ SKLBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 501.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 279.

„ leucopterus, „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 59.

„ Icelandicus, „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xx.

„ glaucoides, Mouette leucoptere, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 468.

„ kucopterus, „ „ „ „ „ p. 467.

THIS WHITE- WINGED GULL, originally described by Faber
in his Prodromus of the Ornithology of Iceland, under

576 LARID.E.

the name of Larus leucopterus, has occasionally been taken
in this country, and was at first confounded with the
Glaucous Gull, another rare species, having also white
wings, and only differing from it in being considerably
larger. It happens too that the various names which
have been proposed for it, not excepting that of leuco-
pterus. White-winged, given by Faber himself, are not
wholly free from objection, since both these Gulls are
glaucous in reference to colour, both are inhabitants of
Iceland, and both have the principal wing-feathers white.
The Iceland Gull bears the same proportion in size to the
Glaucous Gull, that the Lesser Black-backed Gull does
to the Great Black-backed Gull, and I have therefore
added an English name referring to size by which they
may be distinguished. Dr. Richardson's notice of this
species in the Fauna Boreal i- Americana may be quoted
in aid of this view. " Larus leucopterus. Faber. During
Captain Ross's and Sir Edward Parry's first voyages, many
specimens of this Gull were obtained in Davis's Straits,
Baffin's Bay, and at Melville Island. M. Temminck, to
whom they were communicated, considered it at first
to be merely an Arctic variety of Larus argentatus, the
Herring Gull ; and, in deference to his authority, it was
described as such by Captain Sabine. Both he and other
Ornithologists have, however, since that time, published
it as a distinct species under different appellations, the
one which we have selected having the priority. The
plumage of L. leucopterus differs little from that of L.
glaucus ; but the great superiority of the latter bird in
size is sufficient to distinguish the species." Captain
James C. Ross says of this species, in his last Appendix,
" it was found breeding on the face of the same precipice
with the Glaucous, but at a much less height, and in

ICELAND GULL. 577

greater numbers. It is not unfrequently met with at
the Shetland Islands in the winter season, and may there-
fore he added to our catalogue of British Birds." Mr.
Auduhon says it is not rare in winter from Nova Scotia
to New York. I have not found any description or figure
of the egg.

Professor Nilsson includes this species in his Fauna of
Scandinavia, and it is found at the Faroe Islands.

The substance of Faber*s remarks on this species may be
thus given : — In size between Larus canus, the Common
Gull, and Larus argentatus, the Herring Gull. This is the
only Gull that passes the winter in Iceland without breed-
ing there in summer. It must, like Larus eburneus, the
Ivory Gull, breed in the higher northern regions, and come to
Iceland in winter as a bird of passage. I have travelled
over most of the coast of the island, but have never found
its breeding-place. There was no L. leucopterus on the
rocks of Faxe or Bredebugt towards the west, where L.
ylaucus breeds in large colonies. A few days after the
middle of September, the first specimens, both old and
young, make* their appearance on the coast of Iceland, con-
fining themselves to the northern parts, among the small
inlets of which great numbers pass the winter. When
I lived on the innermost of the small fiords on the northern
coast, these birds were our daily guests. Towards the end
of April their numbers decreased, and by the end of May
they had nearly all disappeared from Iceland. These tame
birds came on land by my winter dwelling on the northern
coast, to snap up the entrails thrown away by the in-
habitants, and fought fiercely for them with the Raven. I
had made one so tame that it came every morning
at a certain time to my door to obtain food, and
then flew away again. It gave me notice of its arrival by

VOL. in. p p

578 LARID.E.

its cry. This Gull indicated to the seal-shooters in the
fiord where they should look for the seals, by continually
following their track in the sea, and hovering in flocks, and
with incessant cries over them; and whilst the seals hunted
the sprat and the capeling towards the surface of the
water, these Gulls precipitated themselves down upon the
fish and snapped them up. In like manner they follow
the track of the cod-fish in the sea, to feed upon the booty
hunted up by this fish of prey. In the winter of 1820-21,
which I passed at Drebatte, on the southern coast, there
was not a single L. leucopterus to be seen ; on the 1st of
March, 1821, the shore was almost free of sea-gulls ; but
as I stepped out of my room early on the 2nd of March,
the air was almost filled with a species of Larus which
had appeared suddenly. As I approached and looked up
at them, I soon recognised my L. leucopterus, which
had arrived in great numbers during the night. The
Icelanders concluded, from the sudden appearance of these
Gulls, that shoals of codfish must have arrived on the coast.
They got ready their boats and nets, and the fish had in
truth arrived in such numbers that the fishing for that
season commenced immediately. Here, where hitherto
an ornithological quiet had reigned, everything now be-
came enlivened through the arrival of these birds, which,
without intermission, and with incessant cries, hovered over
the nets. If I wished to shoot this Gull I observed the
time when the fishing-boats landed, and this tame bird
followed the boats to shore in order to feed on the parts
which were thrown away by the fishermen. I heard
afterwards that this particular species of Gull had been
very scarce during that winter on the northern coast ; the
Greenland ice had filled up all the inlets there, and the
birds were thus driven to the southern shore, where I had

ICELAND GULL. 579

again the opportunity of observing them. In this year,
1821, they remained on the southern coast till the middle
of May, when they entirely left it to proceed northward to
their breeding-places. This Gull was my weather guide
in winter. If it swam near the shore, and there, as if
anxious, moved along with its feathers puffed out, then I
knew that on the following day storms and snow were to
be expected. In fine weather it soared high in the air.
They often sit by hundreds on a piece of ice, and in that
way are drifted many miles. Its manners differ from
those of the Glaucous Gull, which has the habits of the
Great Black-backed Gull, and moves with more energy.
The nature of the White-winged Gull more resembles that
of the Herring Gull ; its deportment and flight are more
graceful ; it hovers over its prey, is somewhat greedy,
always active, and is not afraid to fight with equal, or
superior antagonists for its food. My manuscript was
finished before I knew that this Gull had been men-
tioned by any author. Accidentally I had lent to me
Sabine's Memoir of the Birds of Greenland, and found
therein, under the incorrect name of Larus argentatus,
mention of a Gull which bore a great resemblance to
my Larus leucopterus. Perhaps this bird when it leaves
this island in May goes to Hudson's Bay in order to
breed.

Besides three or more examples of this bird obtained
in Shetland by Lawrence Edmonston Esq., to whom we
are indebted for the first notice of this species as a
winter visiter to Britain, Professor Macgillivray has
noticed one specimen taken in Orkney, and now in the
Edinburgh Museum. This species has also been taken
twice in Ireland ; and Mr. Wm. Thompson has recorded
in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. xi, p. 18, a notice

p p 2

580 LARID.E.

of the habits of this species as observed on the south-west
coast of Scotland, which, as coinciding with the remarks
of Faber in Iceland, are interesting. The notice is as
follows:— "At the end of last year, 1836, three Gulls,
of the same kind, made their appearance on the shore
where the fishermen reside. Two of them were shot in
the spring, and one sent you, in June. As they fre-
quented the fishing-boats, the men used to supply them
with fish; and in a short time they became quite familiar ;
took whatever was thrown to them, but would not
allow themselves to be caught. They were never ob-
served to go far from the place where they were first
seen. The person who gave me this information, shot
the two in the spring; and says, that every winter one
or more are seen on the coast. He cannot say where they
breed, but is sure there are none on the Craig at Ailsa."
Mr. Thompson remarks that the month of June seems
a late period for the Iceland Gull to remain in such a
comparatively southern latitude; and there can hardly be
a doubt that it is the same species which is seen about
Ballantrae, in Ayreshire, every winter, as the authority for
the statement must evidently know it well from its
congeners, when he correctly states that it breeds not
on Ailsa Craig.

Mr. Selby mentions having obtained three or four spe-
cimens on the coast of Northumberland, all immature birds.
An adult specimen has been taken in Yorkshire, and
another is in the collection of John Malcolm, Esq. A
young bird was obtained in the winter of 1838, in the
London Market, by Mr. Bartlett. This specimen is now
in the collection of D. W. Mitchell, Esq., of Penzance, who
very kindly allowed me the use of the bird for the figure
and description here given.

ICELAND GULL. 581

Since the publication of the previous edition of this
work, an adult bird has been taken in Lincolnshire, and a
young one in Devonshire.

The Iceland Gull sometimes makes its appearance in
winter at the mouth of the Elbe ; it has also been taken in
Holland and in Belgium ; the latter circumstance I learn
by the publication of a most useful and interesting volume
on the vertebrate animals of Belgium, written by M.
Edmund de Selys-Longchamps, of Liege, and which has
very recently been received in this country.

In the adult Lesser White-winged Gull the bill is small
and yellow, the angle of the under mandible red ; the irides
straw yellow ; head and neck all round pure white ; back,
wings, and all the wing-coverts very pale ash-grey ; pri-
mary quill-feathers wholly white ; upper tail-coverts and
tail-feathers white ; chin, throat, breast, and all the under
surface of the body and tail pure white; legs flesh-
coloured.

The whole length twenty-two inches ; the pointed
ends of the wings, when closed, reach two inches beyond
the tail.

From September to the beginning of April, while in
their winter -plumage, Faber says, they have grey spots
on their head and neck.

Mr. Mitchell's young bird has the bill pale yellow at the
base, the anterior half horny black; the irides dark brown;
head and neck dull white, clouded with pale ash-brown ;
the back the same colour ; secondaries, tertials, and all the
wing-coverts dull white, marked transversely with pale
brown angular streaks ; primaries white ; tail-coverts and
tail-feathers greyish white, the latter marked across with
broadish lines of pale brown, which are more numerous
about the base than towards the end ; chin dull white ;

582

LAEIDJ5.

neck, breast, belly, and all the under surface of the body,
dull white, streaked transversely with pale brown ; legs
yellowish-brown.

The whole length of this specimen eighteen inches. From
the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-feather fif-
teen inches and a half; the ends of the wings reaching two
inches beyond the tail.

Faber mentions, that the young bird before becoming
matured in colour measures twenty inches and three-quar-
ters in length ; that the spots on the plumage are lost by
degrees, and in the fourth summer they have the same
colour as the old birds.

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 583

NA T A TORES. LA RTD&.

THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.

Larus fuscus.

Larus--

Lesser Black-lacked Gtill, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 1 78.

„ argentatus, „ „ „

„ fuscus, „ „ „

„ „ Yellow-legged

„ „ Lesser Black-backed

MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 227,

FLEM. Brit. An. p. 140.

SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 509.
„ „ JENVNS, Brit. Vert. p. 277.

,, „ „ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiv.

„ „ Goeland a piedsjaunes, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 767.

THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was first noticed as a
British bird breeding at Anglesey, by Pennant, though he

584 LARIDJ!.

had doubts whether it differed specifically from the Great
Black-backed Gull, notwithstanding it was so much smaller
in size. The names are here given on the line referring to
Pennant's work, to obtain uniformity in appearance. Mon-
tagu afterwards supplied the true distinguishing characters,
but included a name and synonyms which belong to two
other species. The Great Black-backed Gull is on our
south-eastern coast a much more rare species than the
Lesser Black-backed Gull, and is in these same districts
decidedly a marsh breeder; while the Lesser Black-backed
Gull here as constantly resorts to the rocks and cliffs,
associating and breeding in company with the Herring
Gull, both being found almost always inhabiting the same
localities.

Small surface-swimming fishes, upon which these birds
precipitate themselves from the air, arid animal substances
floating, or brought to shore by the tide, form their most
usual food, but both old and young are seen occasionally
to go inland from the coast, to search moist pastures,
or recently ploughed fields, for worms, insects, and their
grubs. A bird of this species, kept in confinement, is thus
spoken of by the owner. " He has the full range of a
large garden, his escape being only prevented by having
his wing cut ; but he constantly prefers the neighbourhood
of a large network cage, the residence of a pair of silver
pheasants ; not very congenial companions, one would sup-
pose, for a roamer of the ocean. But such is the fondness of
almost all animated beings for society of some kind or other,
that, when that of their own species is out of reach, they
will often attach themselves to creatures of a very different
character. Near his gallinaceous friends our Gull always
sleeps, seldom straying to any considerable distance ;
though he seems to enjoy, at times, using his wings to the

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 585

utmost of his ability ; half flying-, half running, in all
directions, apparently for mere amusement. He is,
however, very tame, and will, when hungry, follow any of
the family about the garden uttering a peculiar cry, which
always means that he is quite ready for a meal. Indeed,
he has a most voracious appetite, and the capacity of his
throat is truly astonishing ; he has repeatedly swallowed,
quite whole, with beak, claws and feathers, various small
birds which had been shot and thrown to him. Mice, or other
small quadrupeds, appear equally to suit his taste ; and,
though he has no objection to butcher's meat, he seems
rather to prefer small animals, notwithstanding the hair,
feathers, &c., which sometimes give him not a little
trouble to dispose of satisfactorily. The way in which he
remedies this difficulty suggested itself the first time a bird
was given him ; I believe it was a skylark. After some
ineffectual efforts to swallow it, he paused for a moment ;
and then as if suddenly recollecting himself, he ran off full
speed to a pan of water, shook the bird about in it until
well soaked, and immediately gulped it down without
further trouble. Since that time, he invariably has re-
course to the same expedient in similar cases."

The Lesser Black-backed Gull is a constant resident in
Ireland and Wales, on the coasts of Cornwall, Devon,
Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. On the
Northumberland coast, Mr. Hewitson observes, that these
birds " appear to prefer those islands which are the most
rocky, and upon which there is the least herbage, and
though they have their choice, very few of them deposit
their eggs upon the grass, and yet they rarely lay them
without making a tolerably thick nest for their reception ;
it is of grass, loosely bundled together in large pieces, and
placed in some slight depression or hollow of the rock.

586

Amongst upwards of one hundred nests that I examined,
one or two only had small pieces of sea-weed mixed with
the other materials. They lay two or three eggs, varying
in their shades of colour from a dark olive-brown to a light
drab, thickly spotted with ash-grey, and two shades of
brown ; the length of the egg about two inches ten lines,
by one inch and eleven lines in breadth. After they have
begun to sit, they become very bold in the defence of their
eggs ; whilst among them, I was amused with one, near
the nest of which I was sitting ; it retired to a certain
distance, to give it full force in its attack, and then made
a stoop at my head, coming within two or three yards of
me, this it continued to do, incessantly, till I left it. Mr.
Darling, the keeper of the light-house on the island, informs
me, that an old woman who was in the habit of gathering
their eggs, had her bonnet almost torn to pieces, it being
perforated throughout by their bills." Mr. Selby observes
" that the young, upon exclusion, are covered with a parti-
coloured down of grey and brown ; but this is rapidly
hidden by the growth of the regular feathers, and in a
month or five weeks they are able to take wing." The
young birds of former seasons, while yet immature in
plumage and incapable of breeding from want of sufficient
age, are not permitted by the adult and breeding birds to
inhabit the breeding- stations during their breeding- season,
but are driven away to other localities. Mr. Selby men-
tions having found the eggs and young of this species upon
an island in Loch Awe, and in Sutherlandshire many colo-
nies were observed, one upon Loch Shin, and another upon
one of the islands of Loch Laighal. It breeds also at the
Hebrides, in Orkney, and in Shetland. Professor Nilsson
says it is common about the Baltic and on the coast of
Norway. It is found in Holland, France, and Belgium ;

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 587

the Zoological Society have received it from Oporto. It
inhabits the isles of the Adriatic. M. Savi includes it in
his Birds of Italy. It is found also in Barhary, Syria,
Egypt, and the Red Sea. The Zoological Society have
received this species also from Trebizond. M. Temminck
says, that specimens of this bird from the Cape of Good
Hope are larger, while those from the eastern countries
named are smaller, than the average size of the birds ob-
tained here at home.

The adult bird in summer has the bill yellow, the in-
ferior angle on the lower mandible red ; irides straw yellow;
head, and the whole of the neck all round pure white ;
back, wing-coverts, and all the wing-feathers dark slate-
grey, the tips only of some of the longer scapulars and
tertials being white, and white tips to the shorter of the
primaries; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white; breast,
belly, and all the under surface of the body and tail pure
white ; legs and feet yellow. The whole length twenty-
three inches ; from the anterior joint of the wing to the
end of the longest quill-feather sixteen inches. In winter
the head and neck are streaked with dusky brown.

A young male at one year old has the base of the bill
pale brown, the rest horny black ; irides dark brown ;
head, sides and back of the neck white, streaked longitu-
dinally with dusky brown ; back, and all the wing-coverts
and the tertials ash-brown, the feathers margined with
white, but the shaft of each feather deep brown ; primaries
and secondaries blackish-brown, without any white at the
tips.; upper tail-coverts white, tail-feathers blackish-brown,
varied with some white ; the central feathers having the
most dark colour, the outside ones the most white ; chin,
neck, breast, belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts white,
mottled with dusky brown ; legs and feet light brown.

588

LARID^E.

NA TA TORES.

LARIDM.

THE HERRING GULL.

Larus argentatus.

Larus fuscus, Herring Gull, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 181.
„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ argentatus, „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 229.

„ „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 140.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 504.

JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 276.
„ „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ii.

„ Goeland a manteau bleu, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 764.

COLONEL MONTAGU, misled by others, misquoted and mis-
placed the systematic names of the Lesser Black-backed
Gull and the Herring Gull, the latter being the true Larus
. On the southern parts of our coast this is a

HERRING GULL. 589

common species, remaining all the year, and breeding in
the season at most of the localities frequented by the Lesser
Black-backed Gull. The Herring Gull is particularly nu-
merous at the Isle of Wight, from Freshwater Gate, to
that group of isolated rocks, some of which, from their
conical and pointed forms, are called the Needles ; and
these birds are also found at many places where the cliffs
are high along the line of coast extending to the westward.
These Gulls make a nest of grass on the ledges and other
flat portions of the cliff near the top, where they lay three
eggs, which closely resemble those of the Lesser Black-
backed Gull. They are of a light olive-brown, spotted with
two shades of dark brown, and measure two inches and a
half in length, by one inch and three-quarters in breadth.

This Gull, from its partiality to fish, distinguished by
the name of Herring Gull, feeds upon surface-swimming
fish, mollusca, and radiata. This species is particularly
bold in approaching the boats and nets of the fishermen ;
and in Italy has acquired the name of Pescatore.

A pair of this species bred in captivity at Quy Hall, the
residence of J. T. Martin, Esq.; two eggs were laid, and
one young bird was reared.

The Herring Gull is common, and resident, on many of
the rocky parts of the coast of Ireland ; it is found along
the line of the coast of Wales, in Cornwall, Devonshire,
Dorsetshire, and Hampshire. On the eastern coast it is
observed in Suffolk and Norfolk ; but Mr. Selby mentions
that it is far less numerous on the Northumbrian coast than
the Lesser Black-backed Gull. Mr. J. Macgillivray says,
the Herring Gull is abundant on some of the islands of the
Outer Hebrides, never breeding in the interior like the
Common Gull, but always on the coast. Mr. Hewitson
notices the fine cliff of Sumbiirgh Head, the southern ter
mination of Shetland, as a place where the Herring Gull

590 LARID.E.

breeds abundantly. Mr. Dunn says, this species is very
numerous both in Orkney and Shetland. It is found in
Scandinavia, at the Faroe Islands, in Iceland, and by our
Arctic voyagers in Greenland and Melville Island. Mr.
Audubon mentions it as plentiful in North America.

This species is observed all the year on the coasts of
Holland and France ; both old and young are also ob-
served at Genoa in winter. Dr. Heineken includes it in
his catalogue of the Birds of Madeira ; and M. Savi in his
Birds of Italy. It is found at Corfu, at Crete, Sicily
and Malta ; and Mr. Drummond mentions that it is com-
mon, and breeds at Biserta. Mr. G. H. Strickland men-
tions, that Herring Gulls frequent the Golden Horn at
Constantinople ; it is found in Asia Minor, and on the
southern shores of the Black Sea.

The adult bird in summer has the bill yellow, the angle
of the under mandible red ; edges of the eyelids orange,
the irides straw yellow ; head and neck all round pure
white ; the back, and all the wing-coverts uniform delicate
French Grey ; tertials tipped with white ; primaries mostly
black, but grey on the basal portion of the inner web; the
first primary with a triangular patch of white at the end,
the second and third with smaller portions of white ; upper
tail-coverts and tail-feathers pure white ; chin, throat,
breast, belly, and all the under surface of the body and
tail pure white ; legs and feet flesh-colour. The whole
length from twenty-two inches to twenty-four and a half,
depending upon age and sex ; the wing from sixteen
inches and a half to seventeen and a quarter. In winter
the adult birds have the head streaked with dusky
grey. Young birds resemble the young of the Lesser
Black-backed Gull, but the legs and feet are more livid
in colour.

GREAT BLACK- BACKED GULL.

NA TA TORES.

591
LARID^E.

THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.

Larus marinus.

Larus marinus, Great Black-Lacked Gull, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 172.

„ „ „ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 223.

,, ncBviuSj Tlic. Wagel „ „ „ 225, young.

„ marinus, Blacfcbacked Gull, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 140.

„ Great „ „ „ SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 507.

„ „ „ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 278.

„ „ „ „ ,, „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiii.

„ „ G'odand a manteau noir, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 70'0.

THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL, though seen through-
out the year on various parts of our coast, is not numerous

592 LARID.E.

as a species, and is most frequently observed to be solitary,
or in pairs only. Dr. Turner, who wrote on British
ornithology nearly three hundred years ago, calls this Gull
a Cob, and on the flat shores of Kent and Essex, at the
mouth of the Thames, where this bird remains all the year,
it is still called a Cob, which term, as mentioned in the
history of our Mute Swan, vol. iii. page 224, has reference
to its large size.

About the estuary of the Thames, in the counties men-
tioned above, the Great Black-backed Gull is decidedly a
marsh breeder, both male and female assisting in the forma-
tion of their grassy nest, and driving all other birds, friends
or foes, from the vicinity of the chosen spot. The female
lays three eggs of large size, measuring three inches two
lines in length, by two inches and four lines in breadth ;
the general colour yellowish-brown, tinged with green,
sparingly spotted with slate-grey and dark brown. The
food of this species is fish, and any animal matter ; it will
kill and eat small birds, and has been known to destroy
weak lambs ; it is bold as well as strong, and, if wounded,
will make a resolute defence against capture. Its flight
is powerful, and sustained without much apparent effort ;
it is also frequently seen swimming buoyantly on the water,
supported by the mass of feathers with which the body
is invested.

The Great Black-backed Gull, according to Mr. Thomp-
son, is a resident species in Ireland ; it is found in Wales,
being observed by Montagu in considerable abundance on
the extensive sandy flats of the coast of Caermarthenshire ;
breeds on the steep holmes, and Lundy Island in the
Bristol Channel, and has been shot in winter as high up
the Severn as Worcester. It is found in Cornwall and in

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 593

Devonshire. The Eev. Robert Holds worth sent me word
that, from an egg of this species, taken off the Bolt Head-
land by some of the crew of the Vigilant, excise-cutter, and
kept in a blanket by day, and near the fire-place at night
for about ten days, a young gull was hatched and reared
by the crew ; and for many years lived quite tame in the
possession of a smith at Dartmouth. It swam in the river
every day, and looked out for the fishermen returning from
sea, who used to throw small fish to it. Both banks of
the Thames towards the mouth are inhabited by this
species, and the bird from which the figure here inserted
was taken, given me by my friend Mr. Broderip, was
shot at Putney during the frost which occurred early in
February, 1841. It is found in Suffolk and Norfolk.
Mr. Selby says it is occasionally killed on the coasts of
Durham and Northumberland ; breeds on the Bass Rock
in the Frith of Forth, and a few were seen on the friths
of Sutherlandshire.

Mr. Hewitson mentions, " that this species breeds in
abundance on a few of the islands of Orkney and Shetland.
The birds select with care either a place surrounded by the
waters of some inland lake, where no boat has ever been,
or one that is difficult of access by climbing. Their eggs
are rich and excellent to eat ; and they are, in conse-
quence, a most valuable acquisition to the owners of the
islands upon which they are deposited. The custom is
to take the whole of the eggs as soon as laid, and the
second set in like manner, allowing the birds to sit the third
time. One gentleman, Mr. Scott, upon whose property
they breed, and by whom we were most hospitably re-
ceived, told us that he had secured sixty dozen of their
eggs for winter use, although the extent of the island
was scarcely half an acre."

VOL. III. Q Q

594 LARID^E.

Professor Nilsson says this species is found on most of
the shores and islands of Sweden and Norway ; it is also
found at Iceland. A single specimen was seen by our
Arctic voyagers in Baffin's Bay, and the species was in- ,
eluded by Fabricius in his Birds of Greenland. According
to Mr. Audubon the Great Black-backed Gull inhabits
North America.

This species is observed on the coasts of Germany, Hol-
land, and France ; it is included by M. Savi, in his Birds
of Italy, and it was found by the Russian naturalists in the
vicinity of the Caspian Sea.

The adult bird in summer has the bill pale yellow, the
inferior angle of the under mandible reddish-orange, the
whole bill very large and strong ; the irides straw yellow,
the edges of the eyelids orange ; head and neck pure white ;
back, wing-coverts, scapularies, secondaries, and tertials
lead grey, the feathers of the three latter series ending in
white ; primaries nearly black, the first and second quill-
feathers with a triangular white patch, forming the end of
each feather, the second quill-feather having a black spot
in the white ; all the others tipped with white, the inner
broad webs being lead-grey ; upper tail- coverts and tail-
feathers pure white ; chin, throat, breast, belly, and all the
under surface of the body and tail pure white; legs and feet
flesh-colour. In winter the crown of the head and the occiput
are slightly streaked with ash-grey. The whole length of
an adult male is thirty inches, and sometimes rather more ;
the wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the longest
quill-feather twenty inches. The female measures twenty-
seven inches, and her wing nineteen inches.

The young birds in their stages to maturity resemble the
young of the Lesser Black-backed Gull, but are always
much larger, and their legs are paler in colour.

GLAUCOUS GULL.

NATATORES.

595
LA RID^E.

THE GLAUCOUS GULL,

OR LARGE WHITE-WINGED GULL.

Larus glaucus.

Larus glaucus, Glaucous Gull, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 231.
Young „ „ „ „ „ „ 233.

„ „ Tlte Burgomaster, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 139.

„ „ Glaucous Gull, SELBV, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 498.

„ „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 279.

„ . „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xvii.

„ „ Gotland Burger -meister. TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 757.

Q Q 2

596 LARID.E.

THIS large species, equal in size to the Great Black-
backed Gull last described, was first made known as a
winter visiter to the most northern of the Shetland Isles,
by Lawrence Edmondston, Esq., who obtained young and
old birds of both the species of White-winged Gulls in-
cluded in this work. This Glaucous Gull was first named
and described by Brunnich, in his ORNITHOLOGIA BOREALIS,
published in 1764 ; the bird also inhabits Iceland, and is
included by Faber in his Ornithology of that island.

Mr. Edmondston thus describes the habits of this Gull as
observed by himself. " This species is never known to
breed in Shetland. It arrives in that country about the
middle of autumn, and leaves it towards the end of spring ;
and this migration appears to be completely general, at
least I do not remember having seen one during the whole
summer season. In this respect it totally differs from all
the species of known Gull, to which, on a superficial view,
it might be supposed to approximate. Its favourite resorts
are the entrances of the more exposed bays ; or the ocean,
a few miles off the land, where it is often found assiduously
attending the fishing -boats, to pick up any offals that may
be thrown overboard ; and it is often taken by a line and
hook baited with fish, when engaged in this pursuit. It is
greedy and voracious to a proverb ; and, when allured by
carrion, which seems to be its favourite food, becomes com-
paratively indifferent to danger. It then quits the ocean
and the headlands, enters the bays, and boldly ventures
inland. Generally speaking it is rare ; and I have hardly
above once seen more than three or four individuals at one
time. Occasionally a single bird may be met with, attend-
ing a large flock of its congeners, and feeding along with
them. Upon these occasions its peculiarity of appearance
is very striking. Its usual deportment is grave and silent,

GLAUCOUS GULL. 597

exhibiting little of the characteristic vivacity or inquisitive-
ness of many of its tribe, and it is roused to exertion
chiefly by a sense of danger, or the cravings of hunger.
When it flies, it extends its wings more, and its flight is
also more buoyant than that of the other species of Gull ;
and, when not in quest of food, it is of a reserved disposi-
tion, seldom coming within the range of a fowling-piece,
but soars at a respectful distance, uttering, at intervals, a
hoarse scream, of a sound quite peculiar to itself. It
exhibits none of that remarkable instinct so predominant in
many of the larger species of the genus, which prompts
them frequently, at the hazard of their own lives, to warn
other animals of the vicinity of the sportsman ; but when
once alarmed, it commonly flies off. In the month of
November, 1820, I observed a flock of upwards of a
hundred of this species in the Bay of Balta Sound, in Shet-
land. They remained there for two or three weeks, going
out to sea, in search of food, regularly, at a particular
period of the tide, and returning to rest for some time in
the Bay. During this time I had ample opportunity of
observing their appearance and habits, and of completely
confirming all the views I had previously entertained con-
cerning them. It is in Unst, the most northerly island of
the group, that I have found it most frequently, and where
it is chiefly known. It is there that I have observed it
first to arrive, and this most generally occurred when the
wind was favourable from the Arctic Eegions."

Mr. Thompson says Larus glaucus is of occasional occur-
rence on every quarter of the coast of Ireland. The fine
specimen from which our illustration was taken was shot
by Francis Edwards, Esq., of Bristol, in the winter of
1840, on the Severn. Specimens have been obtained in
Cornwall and Devonshire. Mr. Bullock, * in his London

598 LAEID^E.

Collection, exhibited various specimens, some of which
were sent to him by Mr. L. Edmondston ; one was killed
on Loch Lomond, and one on the coast of Northumber-
land, where Mr. Selby observes other examples, old and
young, have occurred. Mr. Bartlett obtained an immature
specimen in the London market in the winter of 1838 ; this
bird is now in my own collection, and will be found de-
scribed at the end of this subject. The Rev. Leonard
Jenyns sent me notice of one obtained in Cambridgeshire,
In the notes of Mr. Wm. Borrer, jun., I find a record of
three examples, all young birds, obtained at Thornham in
Norfolk, in the winter of 1836; and I have heard from
two or three other friends of specimens killed at Yarmouth,
and at Scarborough. On the other side of the Channel
this species visits the coasts of Germany and Holland.
M. Edmund de Selys Longchamps, in his Belgian Fauna,
mentions that both old and young specimens have been
taken at Dunkirk. M. Vieillot includes this species in his
Birds of France, and, in the winter of 1817, a single bird
strayed as far south as Genoa.

Mr. Edmondston mentions having seen this species on
the shores of the Baltic, and Professor Nilsson includes it
in his Ornithology of Sweden, and of Scandinavia. It is
said to be common in Russia, and was found by naturalists
as far north as Nova Zembla.

Captain W. Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic
Regions, says of this Gull, " Larus imperiosus might perhaps
be a more characteristic name for this lordly bird, and
would correspond pretty nearly with the name, Burgo-
master, or Burgermeister, as generally given to it by the
Dutch. It may with propriety be called the chief magis-
trate of the feathered tribe in the Spitzbergen regions, as
none of its class dare dispute its authority, when, with un-

GLAUCOUS GULL. 599

hesitating superiority, it descends on its prey, though in
the possession of another. The Burgomaster is not a
numerous species, and yet it is a general attendant on the
whale-fishers whenever any spoils are to he obtained. It
then hovers over the scene of action, and, having marked
out its morsel, descends upon it and carries it off on the
wing. On its descent, the most dainty pieces must he
relinquished, though in the grasp of the Fulmar Petrel, the
Ivory Gull, or the Kittiwake. It seldom alights in the
water. When it rests on the ice, it selects a hummock,
and fixes itself on the highest pinnacle. Sometimes it
condescends to take a more humhle situation when it
affords any advantage in procuring food. It is a rapacious
animal, and, when without other food, falls upon the
smaller species of hirds and eats them. I have found the
bones of a small bird in its stomach, and have observed
it in pursuit of the Little Auk. Its eggs I have found on
the beach of Spitzbergen, deposited in the same way as
those of the Tern, namely, on the shingle, above high-
water mark, where the full power of the sun falls."

The remarks of Faber in reference to this species at
Iceland, are, in substance, as follows : — This bird remains
here all the year, keeping the open sea in winter, and
breeding in summer on the rocks of the southern and
western parts in company with Larus marinus, which it
resembles in some of its habits, in its nest and its eggs. It
attacks small birds, and robs their nests for food. It
feeds also on Cancer pulex and araneus ; extracts the
soft animals from the shells of Venus islandica, Pecten
islandicus, and searches closely for the Lump-sucking fish,
Cyclopterus lumpus, which it appears to delight in finding.

The Glaucous Gull was found by our Arctic voyagers to
be numerous in Davi? 'Straits, Baffin's Bay, Greenland, and

600 LARID^E.

the Polar Seas ; occupying with their nests the pinnacles of
rocks and the projecting ledges of cliffs on the sea shore.
The egg is of a stone colour, spotted with ash-grey and
two shades of reddish brown, and measures two inches nine
lines in length, by one inch and eleven lines in breadth.
One of these Gulls disgorged a Little Auk when it was
struck by the shot, and proved on dissection to have a
second in its stomach. Captain James C. Ross mentions,
that this species was found at Felix Harbour, and along
the line of the western shore of Prince Regenfs Inlet ; and
Mr. Audubon includes it in his Ornithology of the United
States and North America.

The adult bird has the bill yellowish-white, the inferior
angle of the lower mandible reddish-orange ; irides straw
yellow ; all the plumage nearly white, but with* a tinge of
skimmed-milk blue over the back and wing-coverts ; prima-
ries white, reaching but little, if any, beyond the end of the
tail ; legs and feet flesh-colour.

Old males have been taken measuring, from the point of
the beak to the end of the tail-feathers, thirty two and
even thirty- three inches ; the wing from the carpal joint
to the end of the longest quill-feather nineteen inches.
In winter the head and neck are slightly streaked with
ash-grey.

The bird killed by Mr. Edwards on the Severn, and
which that gentlemen very kindly sent up for my use in
this work, measured in its whole length twenty-seven
inches and a half; the wing seventeen inches and three-
quarters.

The young Glaucous Gull obtained in the London mar-
ket has the bill pale brown at the base, the point dark
horn colour ; the irides dark ; head, neck, back, and wing-
coverts, a mixture of pale ash-brown and dull white ;

GLAUCOUS GULL.

601

scapulars and tertials transversely barred with pale brown,
and tipped with greyish white ; primaries and secondaries
uniform pale yellowish grey ; upper and under tail coverts
dull white, barred with pale brown ; tail-feathers uniform
yellowish-brown ; wings only reaching to the end of the
tail ; chin, throat, and breast dull white, mottled with pale
brown, belly more uniform in colour, and greyish-brown ;
legs and feet livid-brown. The bird in general appearance
is very similar to the young of the Lesser White-winged
Gull, figured at page 575, and described at page 581, but
much larger : the whole length twenty-six inches and
a half, and the wing, from the anterior joint to the end,
seventeen inches and a half.

602

NATATORES.

LARID^E.

LARJDM.

THE COMMON SKUA.
Lestris catamctes.

Larus cataractes, Skua Gull, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 174.

„ „ „ „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p 247.

Cataractes vulgaris. Common Skua, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 137.

w „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 514.

Lestris cataractes, „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 280.

„ catarractes, TJie „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iii.

„ „ Stercoraire cataracfe, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 792.

LESTRIS. Gemric CJtaracters. — Bill strong, hard, cylindrical, formed for cut-
ting ; compressed, curved, and hooked at the point ; base of the upper mandible
covered with a cere. Nostrils situated towards the point of the beak, diagonal,
narrow, closed behind, pervious. Legs strong, naked above the tarsi, which are

COMMON SKUA. 603

rather long ; three toes in front, palmated ; the hind toe small ; claws large,
strong, very much curved. Tail slightly rounded, the two middle feathers
generally elongated, sometimes considerably. Wings moderate, the first quill-
feather the longest.

THE various species of the genus Lestris have long been
separated by naturalists from the true Gulls, from a just
appreciation of the differences in their external characters,
and also in their habits. The Skuas may be considered as
forming a conspicuous portion of the predaceous division
among the swimming birds, as indicated by their powerful
mid hooked beak and claws. Their food is fish, but they
devour also the smaller water birds and their eggs, the
flesh of whales, as well as other carrion, and are observed
to tear their prey to pieces, while holding it under their
crooked talons.

Many of the true Gulls are listless and timid ; the Com-
mon Skua and its generic companions are, on the contrary,
courageous and daring, harassing the smaller Gulls perpetu-
ally. They rarely take the trouble to fish for themselves,
but, watching the Gulls while thus employed, they no
sooner observe one to have been successful than they imme-
diately give chase, pursuing it with fury ; and obliging it
from fright to disgorge the recently-swallowed fish, they
descend after it to catch it, and are frequently so rapid and
certain in their movements and aim as to seize their prize
before it reaches the water. It is on this account these birds
have been called Parasitic Gulls, because they are supported
by the labours of others. John Barrow, Esq., in the descrip-
tion of his voyage to Iceland, mentions the amusement
afforded to the party in the yacht, when watching the
Brown Gulls chasing the White Gulls.

The various species of Lestris are inhabitants of the
most Northern regions, rarely going farther south in
Europe, even in winter, than the line of our southern shore.

604 LARIDJ3.

The Common Skua, however, has a much wider range, and,
besides inhabiting Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and Iceland,
has been found in the southern Hemisphere, in the Straits
of Magellan, and at the Falkland Isles, where in a fine
harbour on the north-west coast these birds long since
obtained the name of Port Egmont Hens.

The Skua is included by M. Nilsson in his Birds of Scan-
dinavia ; and it is known to inhabit the Faroe Islands.
Its breeding-stations with us are probably confined to
Shetland. Mr. Dunn mentions three, namely, " Foula,
Rona^s Hill, and the Isle of Unst. In the latter place it is
by no means numerous, and is strictly preserved by the
landlords on whose property it may have settled, from
a supposition that it will defend their flocks from the attacks
of the Eagle. That it will attack the Eagle if he approaches
their nests, is a fact I have witnessed ; I once saw a pair
completely beat off a large Eagle from their breeding-place on
Rona^s Hill. The flight of the Common Skua is more rapid
and stronger than that of any other Gull. It is a great
favourite with the fishermen, frequently accompanying their
boats to the fishing-ground, which they consider a lucky
omen, and in return for its attendance they give it the refuse
of the fish which are caught. The Common Skua does not
associate in groups, and it is seldom that more than a pair
are seen together." The female lays two and sometimes
three eggs, which are olive brown, blotched with darker
brown ; the length two inches nine lines, and two inches
in breadth.

From the north these birds in autumn come down the
line of our eastern shore, and specimens have been obtained
on the coast of Northumberland, Durham, Norfolk, Essex,
Kent, and Sussex. Several were exhibited for sale in
the London market during the winter of 1837. On the

COMMON SKUA. 605

other side of the British Channel specimens have been
obtained on the coasts of Germany, Holland, and France.

Mr. Hey sham has noticed one on the coast of Cumber-
land, an adult female, which allowed herself to be seized
while she was in the act of killing a Herring Gull. Mr.
Thompson includes the Common Skua among the visiters
to Ireland, and it has been shot on the Severn, in Corn-
wall, and in Devonshire.

In this species the bill and its cere are black ; irides
dark brown ; the whole of the head and neck dark umber-
brown, slightly varied by streaks of reddish-brown ; back,
wings, and tail dark brown ; scapulars and tertials mar-
gined with pale reddish-brown ; wing-primaries blackish-
brown, rusty brownish- white at the base ; the two middle
tail-feathers a little longer, and rather darker in colour than
the others ; chin, throat, neck in front, breast, and all the
under surface of the body uniform clove-brown ; legs, toes,
and their membranes black ; the tarsi scutellated in front,
reticulated behind ; the inner claw the strongest and the
most curved. The whole length twenty-four to twenty-five
inches ; the wing from the anterior bend sixteen inches.

The female is rather smaller than the male, but other-
wise the sexes do not differ much in appearance ; nor does
this species assume by age the lighter colours peculiar to
the other species of this genus. G. T. Fox, Esq., says
of one example which had been kept alive ten years, that
the plumage had undergone no change of colour at any of
the annual moultings. A specimen brought to Dr. Neill in
the summer of 1820, then a nestling, was alive at the
Cannon-mills in October 1843, then in his 24th year, but
Dr. Neill sent me word at that time, that he feared his old
Skua would not survive the winter. The plumage had
become very pale, and the head especially greyish white.

606

NATATORES.

LARID.E.

LARTDJE.

THE POMERINE SKUA.

Lestris pomarinus.

Cataractes pomarinus, Pomerine Skua, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 517.

Lestris „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 281.

„ striatus, „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 53, adult.

„ pomarinus, „ Gull, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. ii.

„ „ Stercoraire pomarin, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 793.

THE first notice of this species I am acquainted with, upon
which it is entitled to a place among our British Birds, is
in the sale Catalogue of Mr. Bullock's Collection, April,

TOMERINE SKUA. 607

181.9, whore, at page 32, lot 61, is "an undescribed Gull,
much allied to the Arctic, but greatly superior in size,
killed at Brighton ; and lot 62, a second example of the
same species, killed at Dover ; and a third is referred to as
having been killed near Liverpool, and then in the collection
of Lord Stanley." This species was afterwards charac-
terised by M. Temminck, in the second edition of his
Manual, published in October, 1820. Since that period
many more examples, most, if not all of them, young birds,
have been obtained ; but this species has not been known
to breed, like the Common Skua, even in Shetland, and
can therefore be considered only as a wiriter-visiter.
It appears to come down the lines of our eastern and
western coasts in autumn, some remaining all the winter on
our southern coast.

Mr. Thompson mentions that several examples have
been taken on different parts of the east coast of Ireland.
In 1831, James Cornish, Esq. presented two living speci-
mens to the Zoological Society, which had been captured
in Devonshire. An example of this species was shot, some
years since, in Hackney Marshes, near London. Early in
the winter of 1837, many were received in the London
market for sale, and among them were eight or ten birds
which had been caught alive. Mr. Mummery, of Margate,
sends me word that the Pomerine Skua has been obtained
on the coast of Kent. A specimen killed in Cambridge-
shire is now in the collection of Dr. Thackeray, of King's
College. This species has also been taken on the coasts of
Suffolk and Norfolk ; and Rudston Read, Esq. has ob-
tained several specimens off Scarborough. The Pomerine
Skua also visits the shores of Germany, Holland, and
France ; and, according to Dr. Schinz, one or two,
which are found to be young birds of the year, make

608 LARID.E.

their appearance almost every winter on some of the lakes
of Switzerland.

In its habits it resembles the Common Skua, and the
other species of the genus, preferring a life of plunder to one
of independent industry, and hence the generic title, the
term Lestris signifying a robber.

Less, however, is known of the summer-habits of this
species than of that bird which precedes it, or that which
is to follow. It is found on the west coast of Norway, and
at the Faroe Islands. By our intrepid Arctic voyagers it
was observed on the coast of Greenland, and at Whale-fish
Island. During the dangerous passage to the northward,
over ice and water, by Sir Edward Parry and Captain
James C. Ross, one bird of this species flew past the boats
in latitude 82°. N. The Pomerine Skua was also seen at
Prince Regents Inlet, Melville Island, and at Igloolik.
Captain James C. Ross mentions, in his last Appendix,
that a nest with two eggs was found near Fury Point, on
the margin of a small lake. Dr. Richardson says "the
Pomarine Gull-hunter is not uncommon in the Arctic seas,
and northern outlets of Hudson's Bay, where it subsists on
putrid flesh and other animal substances thrown up by the
sea, and also on the matters which the Gulls disgorge when
pursued by it. It retires from the north in the winter, and
makes its first appearance at Hudson's Bay in May, coming
in from seaward. The Indians abhor it, considering it to
be a companion of the Esquimaux, and to partake of their
evil qualities," Mr. Audnbon mentions having seen a few
birds of this species while on an ornithological cruise off
the coast of Labrador. The bird is said to form a rude
nest of grass and moss, which is placed on a tuft in
marshes, or on a rock, and to lay two or three eggs ;
these, as figured by Naumann and Buhle, are of a uniform

POMERINE SKUA. 609

pale green, the larger end blotched and spotted with two
shades of reddish-brown ; the length two inches three
lines, by one inch six lines and a half in breadth.

In the young bird, from which our figure is taken, the
cere and base of the bill are greenish-brown, the curved
point black; the irides very dark brown; feathers of the head
and neck clove-brown, with narrow margins of wood-brown;
back, scapulars, tertials, and upper tail- coverts umber-
brown, each feather margined with wood-brown, these
margins being broadest on the tertials, the lower part of the
back, and the upper tail-coverts; great wing-coverts nearly
uniform umber-brown ; wing-primaries blackish-brown, the
shafts of these feathers, and a considerable portion of the
inner webs white ; tail-feathers umber-brown, the two
middle tail-feathers in this young bird not more than half
an inch longer than the next feather on each side ; chin,
throat, breast, belly, and vent mottled with buff-coloured
brown, produced by narrow alternate transverse lines of
clove-brown, and wood-brown ; under tail-coverts broadly
barred across with umber-brown and wood-brown; legs and
base of the toes yellow, anterior part of the toes and their
intervening membranes black.

The whole length of this bird to the end of the tail-
feathers next the central pair, twenty inches ; wing from
the anterior bend fourteen inches and a quarter. The com-
parative measurements in an adult bird would be twenty-
one inches, and fifteen inches. I have seen a specimen of
the Pomarine Skua in the collection of Mr. Bond, which
was obtained alive when a young bird in the varied plumage
of its first year which assumed the uniform chocolate brown
plumage during its second year ; some specimens barred
across the breast have been named Lestris striatus, as
noticed by Mr. Eyton; and I have seen two fine old birds,

VOL. III. R R

610

LARID.E.

dove-grey on the back, with the head black, the neck
all round and the breast yellowish-white, with the central
tail-feathers elongated, showing that the Pomarine Skua is
subject to all the changes of plumage which have been so
frequently observed in the more common species next to be
described, and of which three representations are given as
illustrations.

The name of Skua is considered to have been adopted
from the note of the bird, which sounds like skui.

RICHARDSON S SKUA.

NA TA TORES.

611
LARW/F..

RICHARDSON'S SKUA.
Lestris RicJiardsonii.

Larus parasiticus, Arctic Gull, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 179, adult.
„ crepidatus, Black-toed,, „ „ „ „ 178, young.

„ parasiticus, Arctic „ MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet, adult.
„ crepidatus, Black-toed,, „ ,, ,, young.

„ parasiticus, Arctic „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 250, adult.
„ crepidatus, Black-toed „ „ „ „ 252, young.

Cataractes parasiticus, Arctic Skua, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 138.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 520.

iK Richardsonii, Richardson's „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 282.

„ „ Lestris, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

„ Stercoraire Richardson, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 4.99,

612 LARID^.

THREE distinct species of the genus Lestris have been
frequently brought together under the name of the Arctic
Gull, the Larus parasiticus of Linnaeus, briefly described in
his FAUNA SUECICA ; and the measurements of this species,
as given by M. Nilsson, the Swedish Professor of Natural
History at Lund, in his ORNITHOLOGIA SUECICA, vol. ii. p.
182, appear to prove that the true parasiticus of Linnaeus
is the same species as that to which Mr. Swainson, in the
FAUNA BOREALI AMERICANA, has attached the name of the
distinguished naturalist and companion of Sir John Frank-
lin. As all the five species of the genus Lestris, found in
Europe, are visiters to the Arctic Regions, and all are alike
parasitic in their habits, ornithologists are indebted to Mr.
Swainson for thus worthily superseding terms, which, from
the advancement in natural history, have ceased to convey
specific distinctions.

Of the species of this genus which visit this country, Dr.
Richardson's Skua is the most numerous. Pennant, in his
time, found it breeding at the islands of Juray, Hay, and
Rum, in the Hebrides ; and in his British Zoology gives
figures of it in three different states of plumage. Mr. J.
Macgillivray, who visited the Outer Hebrides in the sum-
mer of 1840, says, " Richardson's Skua breeds in several
spots in the interior of North Uist, and a few stragglers
might now and then be observed upon the coasts, chasing
the Terns and smaller Gulls.11

In the Orkneys this species has been observed on almost
every island, but the principal breeding-places are in Hoy
and the Holm of Eddy, or Eday, as mentioned by Mr.
Salmon and Mr. Dunn. In some instances these birds fre-
quent the tops of the highest hills ; in others they appear
to prefer those unfrequented heaths which are low and
marshy, but making their nest of dry grass and mosses
upon some slight but dry eminence. Mr. Salmon says,

RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 613

" When the female left her nest, we observed her en-
deavouring to decoy us away, by pretending to be lame,
and tumbling about as if her wing were broken ; and it
was this circumstance that led us to look more attentively."
In Shetland this species breeds on the islands of Noss,
Unst, and Foula, and their various breeding-stations have
been visited Mr. Drosier, Mr. Dunn, and Mr. Hewitson.
Here these birds seem to breed in society, from fifty to
sixty being met with at the same place. The eggs are
usually but two in number, olive-brown in colour, spotted
with dark brown ; the length two inches four lines, by
one inch and eight lines in breadth. As the young were
already hatched, Mr. Drosier observes, I had an oppor-
tunity of observing them, several were discovered con-
cealed in the long grass ; and, although many of them
were only covered with down, still the blue legs and
black toes were very distinct. As the season advanced,
some that had not lost the down off their heads were
of a beautiful light brownish colour, distinctly barred and
spotted with black ; and in others, as they advanced in
growth, the brown colour was gradually disappearing, until,
in many specimens, only a very few brown marks were
discernible and the middle tail-feathers began to elon-
gate.

In Norway Mr. Hewitson says, these birds breed most
commonly apart from each other, each pair taking pos-
session of its separate island, upon the highest point of
nearly all of which they are constantly to be seen perched,
and upon it they usually lay their eggs ; sometimes, how-
ever, choosing the lower grounds. Here, also, they are
the persecutors of the other species of sea-fowl, even to
sucking their eggs whenever their owners left them un-
covered. This species is found over the seas and coasts
of the North of Europe and North America, but from the

614 LARIDJI.

breeding-stations in Scotland and Norway, which they quit
in August, some of the young birds of the year rove south-
ward, down the western and eastern lines of the coast of
England, as before mentioned in reference to other species
of the genus. Richardson's Skua has been killed in Lan-
cashire, and on the eastern coast of Ireland, both in the
bays of Belfast and Dublin. This Skua was seen by Sir
Wm. Jardine upon the Durness Firth in Sutherlandshire,
in June, 1834. Several examples have been killed on the
coast of Durham late in August and early in September,
and most of them young birds of the year ; others have
been obtained in the county of Norfolk. Some years since
I saw a young bird that had just been shot on the Thames
at Battersea ; and in the autumn of 1842, four young
birds of the year were shot on the reservoir at Kingsbury,
a few miles north of London ; two of these specimens were
more uniformly dark brown than the other two, from
having lost many more of the light brown margins of the
first set of feathers. These birds appear also on the coasts
of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Devonshire. Both the
adult and the young have been taken in Cornwall. M. de
Selys Longchamps, in his Fauna of Belgium, says, Lestris
EicJiardsonii occurs occasionally on the Dutch and Belgian
shores.

The young bird during its first autumn and winter has
the base of the beak and the cere brownish-grey; the
anterior portion conspicuously curved and black ; the irides
dark brown ; the head and neck pale brown, streaked with
dark brown : the back, wing-coverts, and tertials umber-
brown, margined with wood-brown ; wing-primaries brown-
ish-black, tipped with pale brown ; tail-feathers pale
brown at the base, then brownish-black to the end ; the
central pair half an inch longer than the others ; neck in
front, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts pale yellowish

RICHARDSON'S SKUA. 615

wood brown, mottled and transversely barred with umber-
brown ; legs, and the base of the toes yellow, the ends of
the toes and the anterior portion of the intervening
membranes black, and hence called sometimes the Black-
toed Gull ; but this is only an indication of youth : as the
bird increases in age the yellow colour is lost by degrees.

The next stage, which in this species, also, as in the
Pomarine Skua, probably occurs in the second year, the
plumage is of a uniform greyish umber-brown, the whole of
the light brown margins having disappeared, and the bird
has now acquired its full size, measuring from the point of
the beak to the end of the long feathers of the tail twenty
inches, the central pair of tail-feathers being three inches
longer than the next feather on each side ; the wing,
from the anterior bend to the end of the longest quill-
feather, thirteen inches and three-quarters ; the tarsus one
inch and three-quarters ; the middle toe and claw together
the same length, or one inch and three-quarters.

After this stage a few yellow hair-like streaks appear on
the sides of the neck ; next, the sides of the neck become
lighter in colour: and, advancing in age, the neck all
round becomes white, tinged with yellow, the head re-
maining of the same colour as the back. Males and
females are not distinguishable by their plumage, and as
this species, like the smaller Gulls, is capable of breeding
when one year old, it is observed, that birds, sometimes in
similar states, and sometimes in very different states as to
plumage, are in pairs at the breeding-stations.

616

N ATA TO RES.

LARID.E.

LAR1DM.

BUFFON'S SKUA.

Lestris Buffonii.

Lestris parasiticus, Arctic Skua, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 283.
„ „ „ Jager, EVTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 55.

„ „ Parasitic Gull, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

„ „ Stercoraire parasite, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 501.

THIS smaller species of the genus Lestris, of which the
most adult examples measure only twelve inches from the
anterior bend of the wing to the end of the longest quill-
feather, and are otherwise distinguished by characters to be
hereafter referred to ; although much more rare than Dr.
Richardson's Skua, has occasionally been taken in this coun-
try, and I have followed the example set by others, of
separating this species also from the term parasiticus, with

BUFFON'S SKUA. 617

which it appears to have been erroneously mixed up, and
with which its measurements do not coincide.

The Arctic bird from Hudson's Bay, figured by Edwards,
in his Natural History, plate 1 48, described as having the
wing only twelve inches long when closed, the middle tail-
feathers thirteen inches long, and the middle toe but one
inch and a half in length, is, I think, without doubt, from
these particulars, as well as the peculiar form of the tail-
feathers, an adult male of Buffon's Skua ; but Edwards1
plate 149, representing a female brought by Mr. Tsham
from the same locality, and said to exceed it a little, is a
younger bird, and probably belongs to the species last
described, namely, Dr. Richardson's Skua, both species
being known to inhabit North America. An adult speci-
men killed in this country is preserved in the British
Museum ; and the Zoological Society, in 1 832, received this
species from Orkney, with skins of the three other British
species of this genus, and of the Ivory Gull. Young birds
of Buffon's Skua in the brown plumage of their first autumn
have been killed in the vicinity of the Tyne, and on the
coast of Durham, in the month of September; and Mr.
John Hancock, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, obtained a
mature individual that was shot near Whitburn, in the
county of Durham, at the end of October, 1837.

M. de Selys Longchamps says, this species, has been
obtained on the coast of Dunkirk and Picardy.

Buffon's Skua visits Norway and Iceland. Dr. Richard-
son says, " It inhabits the Arctic sea-coasts of America
and Europe in the summer, migrating to the more tem-
perate parts in winter. Numerous specimens were brought
home by the late expeditions from Melville Peninsula, the
North Georgian Islands, Baffin's Bay, and Spitzbergen.
It resembles the Lestris pomerina in its manners." The

618 LARID^l.

egg, as figured by Thienemann, is of a pale green colour,
spotted with ash-grey and dark reddish brown ; the
measurements are two inches in length, by one inch and
five lines in breadth.

In the adult bird the base of the bill including the cere, is
dark greenish-brown, the horny, curved point black ; irides
brown ; all the upper part of the head black ; sides and
back of the neck white, tinged with straw yellow ; back,
tertials, wing, and tail-coverts brownish-grey; primaries
and tail-feathers almost black ; chin, throat, and upper
part of belly white ; lower part of the belly, the vent, and
under tail-coverts light brownish-grey ; legs, toes, and
their membranes black : the tarsi still bearing some traces
of their previous yellow colour.

The whole length of the specimen described, from the
point of the beak to the end of the tail-feather next the
central pair, thirteen inches and a half, the central feathers
extending nine inches beyond ; the wing from the anterior
bend to the end of the longest quill-feather, twelve inches ;
the tarsus one inch and a half; the middle toe and the
claw rather shorter, or one inch and three-eighths.

Independently of the difference in measurements, adult
birds of this species, compared with old ones of the species
previously described, have the head always much darker in
colour, while the back is lighter.

The fifth European species of Lestris which I have
referred to, is that noticed by Dr. Richardson in his Fauna
Boreali-Americana, page 432, under the name Stercora-
rius ceppJius of Leach. Two examples from Hecla Bay
and Spitzbergen are in the collection at the British
Museum, and I possess one brought home from the Green-
land seas. It is at once to be distinguished by the great
comparative breadth of the bill at its base.

FULMAR PETREL.

NAT A TO RES.

619
LAR1DM.

THE FULMAR PETREL.

Procellaria glacialis.

ProceUaria glacialis,

Fulmar Petrel, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 203.

„ „ The Fulmar, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 256.

„ „ Fulmar Petrel, FL EM. Brit. An. p. 135.

„ „ „ „ SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 523.

„ „ Northern Fulmar, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 284.

„ „ Fulmar Petrel, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. iv.

„ „ Petrel Fulmar, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 802.

„ „ „ „ „ „ vol. iv. p. 505.

PROCELLARIA. Generic Characters. — Beak not so long as the head ; the upper
mandible composed of four portions, divided by lines, or indentations ; the whole
together large and strong, curving suddenly towards the point ; the under man-
dible grooved along each side, bent at the end, with a prominent angle beneath ;

620 LARID^E.

the edges of both mandibles sharp and cutting ; those of the lower mandible shut-
ting just within those above. Nostrils prominent along the upper ridge of the
upper mandible, but united, enclosed, and somewhat hidden within a tube with a
single external orifice, within which the division between the two nasal openings
is visible. Feet moderate, tarsi compressed ; three toes in front united by mem-
branes, hind toe very small, rudimentary. Wings rather long, the first and
second quill-feathers nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing.

THE FULMAR PETREL is only a winter- visiter to the
more southern parts of England, and the specimens ob-
tained, even at that season of the year, are but few in
number ; some of these, and the localities in which they
were obtained, will be referred to hereafter. Gr. C. Atkin-
son, Esq., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as described by Mr.
Hewitson, met with these birds in great numbers on the
islands of St. Kilda, Borrera, and Soa, and was informed
that they also breed in the south isles of Barra, in the
outer Hebrides. St. Kilda has been long noted as the
principal breeding-place, and the following account was
given in a recent number of the Edinburgh New Philoso-
phical Journal by Mr. John Macgillivray, who visited St.
Kilda, in June, 1840 : — " This bird exists here in almost
incredible numbers, and to the natives is by far the most
important of the productions of the island. It forms one
of the principal means of support to the inhabitants, who
daily risk their lives in its pursuit. The Fulmar breeds on
the face of the highest precipices, and only on such as are
furnished with small grassy shelves, every spot on which,
above a few inches in extent, is occupied with one or more
of its nests. The nest is formed of herbage, seldom bulky,
generally a mere shallow excavation in the turf, lined with
dried grass, and the withered tufts of the sea-pink, in which
the bird deposits a single egg, of a pure white colour when
clean, which is seldom the case, and varying in size from
two inches seven lines, to three inches one line in length,

FULMAR PETREL. 621

by two inches in breadth. On the 30th of June, having
partially descended a nearly perpendicular precipice six
hundred feet in height, the whole face of which was covered
with the nests of the Fulmar, I enjoyed an opportunity of
watching the habits of this bird, and describe from personal
observation. The nests had all been robbed about a month
before by the natives, who esteem the eggs of this species
above all others. Many of the nests contained each a young
bird a day or two old at farthest, thickly covered with long
white down. The young birds were very clamorous on being
handled, and vomited a quantity of clear oil, with which I
sometimes observed the parent birds feeding them by dis-
gorging it. The old birds, on being seized, instantly vomit a
quantity of clear amber-coloured oil, which imparts to the
whole bird, its nest and young, and even to the rock which it
frequents, a peculiar and very disagreeable odour. Fulmar
oil is among the most valuable productions of St. Kilda. The
best is obtained from the old bird. The Fulmar flies with
great buoyancy and considerable rapidity, and when at sea
is generally seen skimming along the surface of the waves
at a slight elevation, though I never observed one to
alight, or pick up anything from the water."

The Fulmar does not breed on the islands of Orkney or
Shetland, but occasionally visits the latter during winter in
stormy weather.

Captain Wm. Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic
Regions, has given a long account of this species, part of
which is as follows : — " The Fulmar is the constant com-
panion of the whale fisher. It joins his ship immediately
on passing the Shetland Islands, and accompanies it
through the trackless ocean to the highest accessible
latitudes. It keeps an eager watch for anything thrown
overboard ; the smallest particle of fatty substance can

622 LARHhE.

scarcely escape it. They are remakably easy and swift on
the wing. They can fly to windward in the highest storms,
and rest on the water in great composure, in the most
tremendous seas. But it is observed, that in heavy gales
they fly extremely low, generally skimming along by the
surface of the water. Fulmars are extremely greedy of
the fat of the whale. Though few should be seen when a
whale is about being captured, yet, as soon as the flensing
process commences they rush in from all quarters, and
frequently accumulate to many thousands in number.
They then occupy the greasy track of the ship ; and being
audaciously greedy, fearlessly advance within a few yards
of the men employed in cutting up the whale. It is
highly amusing to observe the voracity with which they
seize the pieces of fat that fall in their way ; the size and
quantity of the pieces they take at a meal ; the curious
chuckling noise which, in their anxiety for despatch, they
alwavs make ; and the jealousy with which they view, and
the boldness with which they attack any of their species
that are engaged in devouring the finest morsels. When
carrion is scarce, the Fulmars follow the living whale, and
sometimes by their peculiar motions, when hovering at the
surface of the water, point out to the fisher the position of
the animal of which he is in pursuit. They cannot make
much impression on the dead whale, until some more powerful
animal tears away the skin, for this is too tough for them
to make way through it."

In a recently-published account of the Faroe Islands, it
is stated, that from twenty thousand to thirty thousand
young Fulmars are annually caught on the West Manna
Islands.

The Fulmar is found at Spitzbergen and Iceland. Mr.
Proctor observed that it was common at Grimsey Island.

FULMAR PETREL. 623

It is found in the Greenland Seas, at Davis's Straits, Baffin's
Bay, Hudson's Bay, and Newfoundland.

In this country specimens have been procured on the
coast of Durham; it has also been occasionally shot or
caught in Yarmouth Roads. A fine example is preserved
in the Museum at Saffron Walden, which was obtained in
Essex. It has also been shot in Cornwall, and sometimes
but not often, on the coast of Wales.

On the other side of the Channel it has occurred on the
coast of Holland, Picardy, Brittany, and Dunkirk.

In the adult bird the curved point of the bill is yellow,
the sides horny white, the superior ridge investing the
nostrils grey ish- white ; irides straw yellow; the whole head
and the neck all round pure white ; the back, all the wing-
coverts, secondaries, tertials, upper tail-coverts, and tail-
feathers pearl grey ; wing-primaries slate grey ; breast,
belly, and all the under surface of the body pure white ;
legs, toes, and their membranes brownish-yellow ; the
claws slender, but curved and pointed. The whole length
of an adult male about nineteen inches ; the wing, from the
anterior bend, twelve inches ; the middle toe and its claw
longer than the tarsus.

A young Fulmar in its second summer, probably twelve
or fourteen months old, has the tip of the bill yellow, the
other parts greyish horn colour ; head, neck, back, wings,
and tail nearly uniform ash-brown, but the surface of the
back and wings rather darker in colour; chin, neck in front,
and all the under surface of the body also uniform ash-
brown, but rather paler in colour than the upper surface ;
legs, toes, and their membranes pale brown.

624

NA TA TORES.

LARIDjE.

LARIDM.

THE GREATER SHEARWATER.

Puffinus major.

is cinereus, Cinereous Shearwater, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 528.

Procellaria puffinus, „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 284.

„ fuliginosus, „ „ „ „ „ 285.

Puffinus cinereus, „ „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 49.

„ fuliginosus, Dusky „ „ „ „ „ 51.

„ cinereus, Cinereous „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xix.

„ major, Puffin majeur, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. iv. p. 507.

PUFFINUS. Generic Characters. — Bill as long, or longer than the head,
slender, upper mandible compressed and curved towards the point ; under mandible

GREATER SHEARWATER. 625

also slender and curved at the point. Nostrils tubular, opening by two sepa-
rate orifices. Legs of moderate length, tarsi compressed laterally ; toes three in
front, rather long, webbed throughout ; hind toe rudimentary. Wings long and
pointed, the first quill-feather the longest.

THE first example of the Greater Shearwater obtained in
this country was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological
Society in July, 1832, by Mr. Arthur Strickland, of Boyn-
ton, near Burlington, in Yorkshire, who stated that it was
shot by Mr. George Marwood, jun., of Busby, in the
middle of August, 1828, on a very stormy day, at the
mouth of the Tees ; it was seen early in the morning,
sitting on the water like a duck, and was shot as it was
rising ; its manner of flight was consequently not noticed.
In 1833 Mr. Strickland very kindly gave me a coloured
drawing taken from his bird; this resembles the upper
figure in the woodcut here given. Since that period Mr.
Strickland has obtained a second specimen, much lighter
in colour on the under surface ; both these examples are
figured in the 19th part of the Birds of Europe, by Mr.
Gould, who remarks, " With respect to the specimens
forwarded by Mr. Strickland, which we have figured, we
have to observe, that these two birds, although agreeing
in their measurements with each other, differ slightly
from a specimen of Puffinus cinereus sent to us by M.
Temminck as an undoubted example of that species, Mr.
Strickland's specimens being less in all their measure-
ments; and could we have discovered any difference in
the markings of their plumage, we should have had no
hesitation in regarding them as distinct ; as it is, we
have here figured both Mr. Strickland's birds as of one and
the same species, but with a mark of doubt as to their
being examples of the true Puffinus cinereus"

To these two figures M. Temminck refers in the 4th part

VOL. III. 8 8

626 LARID.E.

of his Manual, p. 507, under the name of Puffinus major
of Faber, and considers the lighter-coloured bird as a
male, the darker bird as a female. M. Temminck also
refers to, and includes under, this species a dark-coloured
bird obtained on the coast of Northumberland by Mr.
Selby, who considers it to be a young bird. Mr. Harley
sent me notice of one killed in Leicestershire, Dr. Edward
Moore, in his Catalogue of the Birds of Devonshire,
mentions that several specimens have been obtained on
that coast, but had not till lately been distinguished
from the Manks Shearwater. Puffinus anglorum.

For the two birds from which the figures here given
were drawn, I am indebted to the liberality of D. W.
Mitchell, Esq., of Penzance, who supplied me, in addition,
with the following account of the appearance of this species
on the coast of Cornwall : — " In November, 1839, a man
brought me a Puffinus major alive, which he said he had
found asleep in his boat when he went off to unmoor her,
preparatory to a fishing expedition. I suppose this hap-
pened about three in the afternoon, and the bird had,
probably, taken up his quarters at daylight. The moorings
at Newlyn are from one hundred to two hundred yards
from the shore. There were great numbers of this species
off Mounts Bay at that time, and I soon after had two
more brought to me, which had been taken by hooks.
One of them is the light-coloured specimen in your col-
lection. The dark- coloured bird which you have figured
was, I believe, obtained in a similar manner about the
same period in 1838. It is the only example in that
state which I met with during my residence in Corn-
wall. The adult bird appears pretty regularly every
autumn, though not always in equal numbers. It has
long been in several collections at Plymouth, though it

GREATER SHEARWATER. 627

does not appear to have been distinguished there from
P. anglorum, until Dr. Moore published his Catalogue
of the Birds of Devon. The latter is not a very com-
mon bird there, which may have been the cause of such
a mistake.

"P. major is very well known to the Scillonians, by
whom it is called HacJclolt. They inform me it is a
constant visitant in the latter part of autumn, and re-
present its manners on the water as resembling those of
P. anglorum. I recollect seeing four last year, through a
telescope, in Mounts Bay. It was late in the afternoon,
the wind blowing hard from S.S.W., which accounted for
their being so far in-shore ; they are generally deep
sea-goers. They had exactly the flight of P. anglorum,
and kept so close to the water as almost to skim the tops
of the waves. Mr. Clement Jackson told me last spring that
they appear some autumns off Looe and Polperro in
thousands."

Mr. Wm. Thompson has recorded two occurrences of
this species on the south of Ireland, communicated to him
by Mr. Robert Davis, jun., of Clonmel, who also sent me
notice of the circumstance, and a coloured drawing. One
bird was taken in the autumn of 1838, the other in the
autumn of 1839. Mr. Davis says, " I kept the second
specimen alive for about a week, but, not having a suitable
place for that purpose, killed it and set it up. As well as
I can recollect the former specimen, this resembled it in
every respect. It was, however, more lively, and ran
along very rapidly, with the breast about an inch and a
half from the ground. Having, on one occasion, put it on
a roof, it seemed to be more at ease on the inclined plane
afforded by that situation, than on a flat surface ; it
mounted rapidly to the top, though when it came to the

8 S 2

628 LARID^l.

edge no attempt to fly was made, and it fell heavily to the
ground. It rarely stirred at all during the day, but kept
itself as much concealed as possible, and, if it could not
hide its body, would endeavour to conceal its head. The
fishermen sometimes keep them for weeks about their
houses, and in some instances they have become tame ;
they never attempt to fly. It does not appear that the
Manks Shearwater is ever seen, nor could I ascertain
that a Greater Shearwater was ever shot, but always taken
with a hook. They are commonly known by the name of
Hag downs"

Mr. Thompson further adds : "So little is known re-
specting this species as an inhabitant of our seas, that I am
induced to add the following: Mr. Robert Ball, when
dredging off Bundoran, on the west coast of Ireland,
in company with Mr. E. Forbes and Mr. Hyndman, on
the 16th of July, 1840, saw three Petrels on wing
near to him, which he believed to be of this species."

Faber^s account of this species in his Prodromus of the
Ornithology of Iceland, is very short ; in substance, it is as
follows : — " It is very scarce, and is only seen on the most
southern parts of the island ; it does not breed here.
Only a single individual has fallen into my hands. The
fishermen talk of a Puffinus, which they see sometimes,
and is twice as big as Puffinus articus, (Faber's name for
our P. anglorum,) it may well be this one." There is no
description, but I infer that Faber's bird was white under-
neath, and that he called it P. major because it only dif-
fered from our P. anglorum, which is common in Iceland in
being larger. The measurement of P. cinereus of Gmelin,
Latham, and others are stated at twenty inches and a
quarter, for the whole length of that species, but of the
several examples of our Greater Shearwater that I have

GREATER SHEARWATER. 629

seen, none have exceeded eighteen inches in length, and
the dark-coloured specimens, which may be females, or
young birds, are not quite so much. That our new bird is
not the P. fuliginosus of Kuhl, I feel certain, from having
obtained a specimen of this bird, which is not only two
inches shorter in its whole length than our new bird, but
is also a true Procellaria, having the short, strong,
hooked, and cutting beak, like that of our Fulmar last
described.

In the dark-coloured bird from which our upper figure
was taken, the bill is dark brown, the base of the under
mandible lighter brown ; irides dark brown ; head and
neck all round and the back dark clove-brown ; scapulars
and tertials the same, but with lighter-coloured margins ;
wing-coverts, primaries, and tail-feathers blackish-brown ;
breast and belly greyish hair-brown, each feather much
darker in colour on the margin than over the centre ; legs
brown on the outer surface, but pale wood-brown on the
inner; toes and their membranes yellowish-brown. The
whole length of the bird seventeen inches and one quarter ;
wing, from the anterior bend, twelve inches and three
quarters ; whole length of the bill one inch and three-
quarters; of the tubular portion half an inch; of the
tarsus two inches ; of the middle toe, including the claw,
two inches and five-eighths.

In the bird from which the lower figure in our woodcut
was taken the bill is dark brown, under mandible lighter
brown at the base ; irides dark brown ; head and occiput
dark ash-grey ; back of the neck almost white ; back,
wing-coverts, and tertials ash-grey ; all the margins grey-
ish-white; primaries and tail-feathers blackish-brown ; chin,
sides, and front of neck, the breast, and sides of the body
white ; lower belly, vent, and under tail-coverts varied

630 LARID^E.

with dull white and ash-brown ; legs, toes, and their
membranes brownish-yellow. The whole length eighteen
inches ; of the wing, from the bend, thirteen inches ; whole
length of the bill one inch and seven-eighths, of the tubular
portion half an inch; of the tarsus two inches and one-
eighth ; of the middle toe and claw two inches and
seven-eighths.

There are specimens in the British Musuem, from South
Africa, and known to be the young and adult of the same
species, which exactly resemble the two birds here figured.

M. Temminck says this species breeds by thousands on
the banks of Newfoundland. It is probably the Wander-
ing Shearwater of Messrs. Audubon and Nuttall.

MANX SHEARWATER.

NAT A TO RES.

631
LARWJE.

THE MANX SHEARWATER
Puffinus anglorum.

Procellaria puffinus, Shearwater Petrel, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 206.

„ „ TJie Shearwater, MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.

„ „ „ „ BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 206.

Puffinus anglorum, Manks Puffin, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 1 37.

„ „ „ Shearwater, SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 529.

Procellaria „ „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 285.

Puffinus „ „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xiv.

Procellaria „ Petrel Manks, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 806.

Puffinus „ „ „ „ „ „ vol. iv. p. 509.

So exclusively aquatic, says Mr. Gould, is this little
tenant of the ocean, that the impulse of incubation alone
induces it to visit land, on which occasion it resorts to
those portions only of the shore which are washed by the
surge, generally selecting such places as small islands,
which, from the danger of approach, or their rocky nature,
are seldom made the residence of man. Whenever he
does take up his abode there, the number of birds speedily

632 LARID.E.

diminishes ; and this is shown by the absence at the
present period of this species in the Calf of Man, where, in
the time of Willughby, and even at a later date, they
appear to have been very abundant. This diminution of
their numbers is wholly occasioned by the wanton and
greedy destruction of their eggs and young, which are
eagerly sought after as an article of food, the latter being
considered by many a great delicacy, and eaten both fresh
and salted.

On the eastern part of the southern line of our coast this
Shearwater is a rare bird ; it is more frequently seen at
sea off Dorset and Devon, becoming still more numerous
farther to the westward. I have been favoured by Mr.
D. W. Mitchell with the following account of the habits
of this species, as observed by himself off the coast of
Cornwall : —

" To the westward of St. Agnes, in the Scilly group,
lies a barren island called Annet. Its northern shore is
abrupt and craggy , it gradually slopes towards the south,
and narrows into a sort of peninsula, where the sandy soil
is rich enough to produce a dense growth of short ferns.
Here is the strong-hold of the Shearwaters. Sit down on
a rock which commands the little territory, and you will
see nothing but the Terns, who have a station on the
higher and central part of the island, and are making a
flight of inquiry very much like the Black-headed Gulls in
your vignette, at page 556. Yes, you will see a hundred
or two of Oyster-catchers, who do not like your landing so
near their nests, and make short journeys hither and
thither, whistling all the while like birds possessed. You
will see two or three pairs of Turnstones, and a few Ring
Dotterel ; perhaps a Curlew, You may wait all a sunny
day in June, but not a Shearwater will you see on land or
water. There are plenty near you all the time, however,

MANX SHEARWATER. 633

as you may ascertain by the odour which issues from the
first burrow you look into among the ferns. As soon as
the sun is down you will see a little party of five or six
flitting silently across the sound, or steering out to sea.
The latest fishers from the colony of Terns are coming
home from the sandy shallows, five or six miles away, with
their throats and beaks crammed with Lance-fish, when
the Shearwaters begin to wake. You will not see them
come out of their holes ; you first catch sight of them
skimming round the corner of a rock close to the water.
Perhaps they will have a great gathering, such as I en-
countered one evening in * Smith's Sound.1 There was a
congregation of at least three hundred, in the middle of
the tide-way, washing, dipping, preening feathers, and
stretching wings, evidently just awake, and making ready
for the night^s diversion. As I wanted a few specimens
more than I had dug out of the burrows, I ran my boat
well up to them, and when they rose, got as many as I
wished, besides a few unfortunate cripples who were only
winged, and proved, by their agility in swimming and
diving, a good deal too much for my boatmen. I think a
good dog would have no chance with them. They allowed
me to come quite close. They sit low in the water ; they
make no noise when disturbed, though in their holes they
are eloquent enough, the Scillonian synonyms of Crew and
Cockaihodon being derived from the guttural melodies they
pour forth as the spade approaches the end in which the
egg is deposited. I once caught a pair in one burrow who
were crooning a duet of this kind before we commenced
operations. I presume they were in the honey-moon, as
there was no egg. It is frequently deposited on the fine
sandy soil without any preparation, though generally there
is a slight accumulation of fern leaves and old stems. They
produce but one egg, which, when fresh laid, is of the most

634 LARID.E.

dazzling whiteness, and of peculiarly beautiful texture ; it
measures two inches five lines in length, by one inch nine
lines in breadth, and is very large for the size of the bird.
When you kill a Shearwater by pressure, as I generally
did for the sake of her skin, she vomits a most abominable
oil, in which float so many particles of brilliant green that
it appears of that colour, though the stain it leaves is
yellow. The quantity got rid of in this way is sometimes
enormous.

" When the young bird leaves the egg it is covered with
greyish-black down, except a stripe along the centre of the
breast and belly, which is white. I found a chick very
lively in an egg which had been taken from the burrow two
days previously to my examining it. My notice was at-
tracted by hearing a little voice in the basket as I sat pre-
paring a skin about midnight. I thought of Asmodeus in
the bottle immediately."

The Manx Shearwater visits the coast of South Wales
in considerable numbers in spring. Mr. Gould mentions
having received from thence, through the medium of a
friend, no less than four dozens of these harmless creatures
at one time, with an assurance that as many more would
be forwarded if required. These were all evidently cap-
tured by the hand, none of them exhibiting any of the
usual indications of having been shot.

The Manx Shearwater is only an occasional visiter to
Ireland, and, according to Mr. Thompson, is more rare
now than formerly. It breeds every season at St. Kilda
and Soa, among the islands of the Hebrides, at Pappa
Westra in the Orkneys, and at Foula and Unst in Shet-
land, depositing its single egg either in a rabbit-burrow or
a crevice in the rock ; but as soon as the young are able
to follow the parents, all take to the open sea together.
As observed in the south, these birds are somewhat ere-

MANX SHEARWATER. 635

puscular in their habits, and feed upon fish, marine insects,
worms, &c.

The Manx Shearwater is found on the coast of Norway,
the Faroe Islands, and at Cape Farewell, where the sailors
call them Cape Hens. Faber includes it among his Birds
of Iceland ; and Mr. Proctor, who has been there, tells me
he found it common on the west coast. Though included
among the Birds of the United States, but few are seen to
the west of Newfoundland.

It is rather a rare bird on our eastern coast, but has been
obtained at the Farn Islands, and on the coast of Norfolk.
It is rare also on the shores of Holland and France. It
has been taken at Genoa, in the Adriatic, and in the Medi-
terranean. Dr. Heineken included it among the Birds of
Madeira. M. Temminck mentions having received one
from the Bosphorus ; and Mr. Hugh Strickland also ob-
tained this species at Smyrna.

The appearance of the young chick has been already
noticed. M. Temminck, in the 4th part of his Manual,
says, the young birds of the year have all the under parts
of a deep ash colour.

In the adult bird the bill is blackish-brown, but lighter
brown at the base ; irides hazel ; head, back of the neck,
back, wings, and tail, uniform brownish-black ; chin, and
neck in front white ; sides of the neck varied with dark
grey and white in transverse bars ; breast, belly, and under
tail-coverts white ; behind the thighs a patch of brownish-
black ; legs, toes, and their membranes brown.

The whole length of the bird fourteen inches ; from the
anterior bend of the wing to the end of the longest quill-
feather nine inches and a half.

636

NAT A TO RES.

LARID.E.

L ARID JR.

BULWEKS PETREL.

Thalassidroma Bulwerii.

ProceUaria Btdwerii, Bulwer's Petrel, JARDJNE and SELBY, Illust Ornith.

vol. ii. pi. 65.
TMassidroma Bulwerii, „ „ GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xxii.

THALASSIDROMA. Generic Characters. — Bill shorter than the head, much com-
pressed in front of the nasal sheath, with the tip of the upper mandible suddenly
curving and hooking downwards, and that of the lower one slightly angulated,
and following the curve of the upper. Nostrils contained in one tube or sheath,
but showing two distinct orifices in front. Legs, having the tarsi rather long and
slender, reticulated. Feet of three toes, united by a membrane. The outer and
middle toes nearly equal in length, and longer than the inner ; hind toe repre-
sented by a small, straight, dependant nail. Wings long, acuminate. Tail
square, or slightly forked. Selby.

SEVERAL species of Petrel, all of small size, were sepa-
rated by the late Mr. Vigors from the other genera of
Petrels on account of distinctions observable in their ex-
ternal structure, as referred to in the generic characters,*

* Zoological Journal, vol. ii. page 405.

BULWER'S PETREL. 6.37

as well as some differences in their habits, which will ap-
pear in their histories. Those who have an opportunity of
examining and comparing the skeleton of our Manx Shear-
water with that of the Storm Petrel, cannot fail to observe
internal distinctions also ; that of the Manx Shearwater
possessing the sternum, and low keel of a swimming and
diving-bird ; the Storm Petrel, on the other hand, exhibit-
ing the deep keel of a Swift, and possessing accordingly
enduring powers of flight. These birds form M. Tem-
minck's third section of the genus Procellaria, which sec-
tion has been advanced to generic distinction in the 4th
Part of M. Temminck's Manual. The term Thalassidroma
refers to the power and habit of this group of running on
the surface of the sea.

The first published notice of Bulwer's Petrel that I am
acquainted with, is that by Sir William Jardine and Mr.
Selby, in the second volume of their " Illustrations of Orni-
thology," already quoted.

" We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. Bulwer,
during some years a resident in Madeira, for the subject of
this plate, which we consider as yet undescribed. It is not
to be found in the works of Latham or Shaw, or indeed in
any other which we have had an opportunity of consulting;
and, from its marked characters, it is not a species that
would be easily overlooked. The length of our specimen is
about ten inches ; it inhabits Madeira, or the small islands
adjacent.1'

For its title to a place among our British Birds I refer
to Mr. Gould, who, in the 22nd, the concluding, part of
his Birds of Europe, gives a figure from a specimen ob-
tained in this country, with the following observations : —

" On the authority of Colonel Dalton, of Slenningford,
near Ripon, we are enabled to add this rare species to the

638 LARID.B.

Fauna of Britain, from a fine specimen which was found on
the banks of the Ure, near Tanfield, in Yorkshire, on the
8th of May, 1887 ; and which could not have been long
dead, as it admitted of being mounted as a good cabinet
specimen. It is now in the possession of Colonel Dalton,
who doubtless regards it as one of the greatest treasures in
British Ornithology. In fact, with the exception of one or
two foreign examples, we do not recollect that we have
observed it among the numerous collections we have had
opportunities of examining. As it is stated to be an in-
habitant of Madeira and the adjacent islands, we may infer
that the seas bounding the western shores of Africa con-
stitute its true habitat."

The figure of the bird here given is taken from Mr.
Gould's plate, and represents, therefore, the only British
example of this species at present known ; but a specimen
of this bird in the collection of the Zoological Society
enables me to give the following description and measure-
ments : — The bill is black ; the irides nearly so ; the whole
of the plumage almost uniform sooty black, rather paler on
the edges of the great wing-coverts; tail rounded; legs
and toes dark reddish-brown, the interdigital membrance
dark brown. The whole length, from the point of the beak
dark brown. The whole length, from the point of the beak
to the end of the tail, ten inches and a half ; the wing, from
the anterior bend to the end of the longest quill-feather,
eight inches ; the bill is three-quarters of an inch in length
from the base ; the tarsus, and the middle toe, including
the claw, each one inch and one-sixteenth.

There is reason to believe that this Petrel has been dis-
tinguished by the specific name columbina, in a History of
the Canary Islands.

WILSON S PETREL.

N ATA TORES.

639
LAR1DJE.

WILSON'S PETREL.

Thalassidroma Wilsoni.

Procdlaria Wilsoni, Wilson's Petrel, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 286.

Tfuxlassidroma „ T/ialassidrome de Wilson, TEMM. Man. (TOrnith. vol. iv.

p. 512.

IN the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia, volume 3, part 2, 1824, a memoir by Charles
L. Bonaparte, now Prince of Canino, gives an account of
four species of Storm Petrels, with the distinctive charac-
ters, measurements, and figures, of each. Wilson's Petrel,
the bird now under consideration, is one of the species in-
cluded in this memoir, and, at the end of the notice of it,
the author says, " I have never learnt that it has been seen
on the coasts of Europe. I killed one, that had probably
strayed, near the Azores." This is the first printed notice
I am acquainted with of the appearance of Wilson^s Petrel

640 LARIDjE.

on this side the Atlantic. Eight or nine years ago I saw
two skins of this species which had been taken by the
captain of a ship, while sailing up the British Channel.
The muscles about the wings of these specimens, which I
examined closely, were still soft and moist. I was told
that these two birds had been caught by the captain him-
self, from the stern of his ship, with a baited hook at the
end of a long slender line of thread. These are the speci-
mens referred to by the Rev. L. Jenyns, in his British
Vertebrata. When the wind blows hard Storm Petrels
are known to seek some protection from the gale they are
unable to withstand, by flying for hours under the lee, or
in the wake of a ship. Their swallow-like appearance, and
their gentle habits inviting commiseration, they are fre-
quently fed by throwing small pieces of fatty substances to-
wards them, which the hungry birds eagerly pick up from
the surface of the water, and sometimes, it appears, to their
own destruction.

In November, 1838, a specimen of Wilson's Petrel was
found dead in a field near Polperro, in Cornwall, and a
notice of the occurrence was published in the second volume
of the Annals of Natural History, by Mr. Couch, who very
kindly sent the bird when preserved up to me, that I might
take a drawing from it as a British specimen. In the
spring of 1839, Mr. Charles Buxton, of Norfolk, sent me
notice of one obtained in that county. I received notice of
one also from T. C. Heysham, Esq., of Carlisle ; and last
year a specimen was procured in Sussex, for a knowledge
of which I am indebted to Mr. F. Bond. Other examples
have probably occurred, but have not, perhaps, been dis-
tinguished by those into whose hands they may have fallen.
That they might be distinguished in America was the
object intended by the Prince of Canino, when publishing
his memoir. The portion relating to Wilson's Petrel was

WILSON'S PETREL. 641

afterwards republished in this country, in the first volume
of the Zoological Journal, p. 425.

Mr. Audubon, says, " Wilson's Petrel breeds on some
small islands situated off the southern extremity of Nova
Scotia, and called Mud Islands, but which are formed of
sand and light earth, scantily covered with grass. Thither
the birds resort in great numbers, about the beginning of
June, and form burrows to the depth of two, or two and a
half feet, in the bottom of which is laid a single white egg ;
a few bits of dried grass, scarcely deserving the name of a
nest, having been placed for its reception. The egg mea-
sures an inch and a half in length, by seven-eighths of an
inch in breadth ; is almost equally rounded at both ends,
and has a pure white colour. By the beginning of August
the young follow their parents to the sea, and are then
scarcely distinguishable from them. During incubation
they remain in the burrows, or at their entrance, rarely
going to seek for food before the dusk. On wing this
species is more lively than the Forked-tailed, but less so
than the Common Stormy Petrel. It keeps its wings
nearly at right angles with its body, and makes consider-
able use of its feet, particularly during calm weather, when
it at times hops, or leaps for several feet, or pats the water,
whilst its wings are extended upwards with a fluttering
motion, and it inclines its head downwards to pick up its
food from the water ; and I have observed it immerse the
whole head beneath the surface, to seize on small fishes, in
which it generally succeeded. It can walk pretty well on
the deck of a vessel, or any other flat surface, and rise from
it without much difficulty. Its notes are different from
those of the Forked-tailed Petrel, and resemble the syl-
lables kee-re-keer-kee. They are more frequently emitted at
night than by day. I have rarely seen Wilson's Petrel

VOL. III. T T

642 LARIDJ5.

farther to the eastward than the Azores, and beyond
these islands it generally abandoned the vessel. In my
journal, written on board the packet-ship Columbia, com-
manded by my worthy friend Joseph Delano, Esq., I find
the following memorandums : " Wilson's Petrel was first
seen, this voyage, about two hundred miles from England,
and alone until we reached the middle of the Atlantic,
when the Forked-tailed came in sight, after which the
the latter was most plentiful, and the Stormy Petrel by
far the least numerous. During my several visits to the
coasts of the Floridas, I saw scarcely any of these birds in
the course of several months spent there, but I found them
pretty abundant on returning towards Charlestown. This
species, like the others, feeds on mollusca, small fishes,
Crustacea, marine plants, and the greasy substances thrown
from vessels. When caught, an oily substance passes from
the mouth and nostrils. The sexes are similar in their ex-
ternal appearance."

The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; the head,
neck, back, wing-primaries, and the tail-feathers, dark
brownish-black ; greater wing-coverts and the secondaries
dark rusty-brown, lighter in colour near the end, with the
extreme edges and tips white ; upper tail-coverts white ;
chin, throat breast, and all the under parts sooty black,
except the feathers near the vent on each outside, which
are white, and some of the under tail-coverts are tipped
with white ; legs long and slender, with the toes and their
membranes black, but with an oblong greyish-yellow patch
upon each web. The whole length of a fine specimen seven
inches and a half; the wing, from the anterior bend to the
end of the longest quill-feather> six inches and one-eighth ;
length of tarsus one inch three-eighths ; middle toe and
claw one inch and three-sixteenths.

FORKED-TAILED PETREL. 643

VA TA TORES. LA RIDM.

THE FORKED-TAILED PETREL.

TJialassidroma Leachii.

Procellaria Leachii, Fork-tailed Petrel, BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 261.

„ Bullockii, „ „ „ FLEM. Brit. An. p. 136.

Thalassidroma ,, „ nStorm» SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 537.

Procellaria Leachii Leach's „ „ JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 286.

Thalassidroma Bullockii, Fork-tailed „ EYTON, Rare Brit. Birds, p. 101.

„ Leachii, „ ,,Storm,, GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.

Procellaria „ Petrel de Leach, TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 842.

Thalassidroma „ Thalassidrome „ „ „ „ vol. iv. p. 512.

THIS species of Petrel is but very little smaller in size
than the bird last described, but is at once distinguished
from it by its forked tail, and its shorter legs. The first
specimen of this bird was obtained at St. Kilda in the
summer of 1818, by Mr. Bullock, during a tour round the
coast of Scotland, principally undertaken with a view to
investigate its ornithology. At the sale of Mr. Bullock's
collection in the spring of 1819, this specimen was bought
by Dr. Leach, and transferred to the national collection in

644 LARID.E.

the British Museum, At that time only three other ex-
amples of this species were known ; one in the Museum at
Paris, a second in the possession of Baron Laugier at Paris,
and a third in the collection of M. Baillon, of Abbeville,
which had been taken in Picardy.

This species, and the Storm Petrel next to be described,
are mostly obtained in this country during the violent gales
of wind which sometimes occur about the vernal, or au-
tumnal equinox, but particularly the latter. Several were
procured during the stormy weather which occurred in the
autumns of 1823, 1825, and 1831. So~ many examples
have now been obtained, that it would be useless to enume-
rate the localities known. It may be sufficient to notice
that it has been obtained on various occasions in all quar-
ters of Ireland, and in almost every maritime county of
England ; sometimes under peculiar circumstances. Mr.
T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle, sent me notice in November,
1841, of a Forked-tailed Petrel that was caught in a poke
net set for fish in the Solway Frith. I obtained a bird
that was sent alive to Leadenhall-market, but it was ex-
hausted from want of food when brought to me, and died
the same evening. Some are occasionally found in inland
counties, at considerable distances from the sea, generally
picked up dead or dying from starvation, having been
driven far away from their usual sources of food. Mr. T.
C. Eyton has recorded one taken near Shrewsbury, and
now in his own collection; another was taken in Here-
fordshire ; one at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire ; several
near London ; one near Saffron Walden ; one at Bassing-
bourne, in Cambridgeshire ; one in Derbyshire. The last
I have received notice of was in November, 1842 ; this
was one taken near Durham, and is now in the possession
of the Rev. A. Shafto. It is included by M. Nilsson in
his Fauna of Scandinavia.

FORKED-TAILED PETREL. 645

In its habits, as far as observed in this country, it re-
sembles the Storm Petrel, breeding in sandy burrows, or
holes of rocks, and laying one white egg of a roundish
oval form, large for the size of the bird, measuring one inch
four lines in length, and eleven lines in breadth.

Mr. Audubon, who has enjoyed many opportunities of
observing these swallow-like Petrels during his ornitholo-
gical researches in various parts of North America, as well
as on his various voyages across the Atlantic, says,'4' The
species of this genus with which I am acquainted, all
ramble over the seas, both by night and by day, until the
breeding-season commences; then they remain in their
burrows, under rocks, or in their fissures, until towards
sunset, when they start off in search of food, returning to
their mates, or young, in the morning, and feeding them
then. When you pass close to the rocks in which they
are, you easily hear their shrill, querulous notes ; but
the report of a gun silences them at once, and induces
those on the ledges to betake themselves to their holes.
The Forked-tailed Petrel emits its notes night and
day, and at not very long intervals, although it is less
noisy than Wilson's Petrel. They resemble the syllables
pewr-wit, pewr-wit. Its flight differs from that of the
other two species, it being performed in broader wheelings,
and with firmer flappings. It is more shy than the other
species, and when it wheels off after having approached
the stern of a ship, its wanderings are much more ex-
tended before it returns. I have never seen it fly close
around a vessel, as the others are in the habit of doing,
especially at the approach of night ; nor do I think that
it ever alights on the rigging of ships, but spends the
hours of darkness either on the water, or on low rocks, or
islands. It also less frequently alights on the water, or
pats it with its feet, probably on account of the shortness of

646 LARID^E.

its legs, although it frequently allows them to hang down.
In this it resembles the Storm Petrel, and Wilson's Petrel
has a similar habit during calm weather. I have seen all the
three species immerse their head into the water to seize
their food, and sometimes keep it longer under than I had
expected. The Forked-tailed Petrel, like the other spe-
cies, feeds chiefly on floating mollusca, small fishes, crus-
tacea, which they pick up among the floating sea-weeds,
and greasy substances which they occasionally find around
fishing-boats, or ships out at sea. When seized in the
hand, it ejects an oily fluid through the tubular nostrils,
and sometimes disgorges a quantity of food. I could not
prevail on any of those which I had caught to take food."
It is common on the banks of Newfoundland, and some
parts of the coast of North America.

On the opposite side of the British Channel it has been
taken on the coasts of Holland, Belgium, and France.

The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; the head,
neck, and back sooty black, the back rather the darkest
in colour ; wing-coverts rusty brown ; the tertials tipped
with white ; upper tail-coverts white ; primaries and tail-
feathers black; the tail forked, the outer feathers being
half an inch longer than those in the middle ; breast and
belly sooty black ; behind each thigh, and extending over
the sides of the vent and lateral under tail-coverts, an
elongated patch of white ; the vent and middle under tail-
coverts sooty black.

The whole length of my bird seven inches and a quarter;
from the anterior bend of the wing to the end six inches ;
the length of the leg one inch. The sexes in plumage
are alike.

STOKM PETREL.

WA TA TORES.

LARWJE.

Procellaria pelagica,

THE STORM PETREL,

Thalassidroma pelagica.

Stormy Petrel)

Thalassidroma „
Procellaria, „
Tlialassidroma „
Procellaria „
Thalassidroma „

Common Storm

Pttrel temptte,
TMassidrome „

PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 208.
MONTAGU, Ornith. Diet.
BEWICK, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 263.
FLEM. Brit. An. p. 1 35.
SELBY, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 533.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 285.
GOULD, Birds of Europe, pt. xi.
TEMM. Man. d'Ornith. vol. ii. p. 810.
„ „ „ vol. iv. p. 514.

THE STORM PETREL, the smallest web-footed bird IOIOWD,
and the last of our British Birds in the arrangement here
adopted, has so often been the subject of notice by na-
turalists and writers generally, and even by poets, that
little of novelty remains to be told. A year seldom passes
without some of these birds being obtained on our shores,
and it has happened occasionally that they appear in large
flocks. Thus Messrs. 0. and J. Paget, in their Sketch

648 LARHLE.

of the Natural History of Yarmouth and its neighbour-
hood, mention, that in November 1824, between two and
three hundred were shot after severe gales. Ten or twelve
years ago Mr. Gould exhibited twenty-four, in a large
dish, at one of the evening meetings of the Zoological
Society. In March, 1825, one bird of this species, while
flying about over the Thames between the bridges of
Blackfriars and Westminster, was shot from a coal barge.
These small birds are frequently driven by strong winds
to great distances inland. Mr. Bicheno has recorded one
taken near Newbury, in Berkshire, others have been taken
in Oxfordshire ; three or four are noticed as having been
caught in the streets of the town of Coventry ; and three
within a few miles of Birmingham. This species appears
also to breed freely at many different places around us,
generally small islands ; but is never observed to frequent
land except during the breeding-season. Among some
other notes recently referred to, Mr. D. W. Mitchell says,
" the Stormy Petrel also breeds at Scilly, and is, as far as
I know, confined to one locality, on the islet where the
Thames steamer ran ashore, in the extreme S. W. of the
group. It is the latest layer among the sea-fowl ; the first
egg I took was newly-dropped in the second week of
June." Mr. Thompson mentions that this bird is at all
times to be met with on the coast of Ireland, washed by
the Atlantic, and breeds on several of the islets ranging
from north to south of the western coast. Pennant found
them in August, 1772, on the rocks called Macdonald's
Table, off the north end of the Isle of Skye, and conjec-
tured they bred there. They lurked under loose stones,
but betrayed themselves by their twittering noise. Mr.
John Macgillivray, who visited the Hebrides in July,
1840, says, " The Stormy Petrel is abundant in St. Kilda.
The island of Soa is the principal breeding-place, where,

STORM PETREL. 649

as well as in several spots among the others of the group,
it nestles among debris, and in crevices of the rocks. The
bird sits very close upon the nest, from which it will allow
itself to be taken by the hand, vomiting on being handled a
quantity of pure oil, which is carefully preserved by the
fowlers, and the bird allowed to escape. It is only at sun-
set and about day-break that I have observed the Stormy
Petrel at sea, except during gloomy weather, save once, while
crossing the Minch, being then not far from one of their
breeding-places, at Dunvegan Head, in the Isle of Skye."

Mr. Scarth, when in Orkney, caught one on her nest
in a small hole, and preserved her alive for three months
in a cage, feeding her by smearing her breast with oil,
which she sucked from the feathers, drawing each feather
singly between her mandibles. Mr. Hewitson, thus notices
the habits of this species at Foula, Papa, and Oxna.
On the 31st of May these birds had not arrived on the
breeding-ground, or, to use the phrase of the fishermen,
had not yet come up from the sea. Some eggs were de-
posited as late as the 30th of June. Each female lays but
one, which is oval and white, measuring one inch one line
in length, by ten lines in breadth. During the day the
old birds remain within their holes, and, when most other
birds are gone to rest, issue forth in great numbers, spread-
ing themselves far over the surface of the sea ; the fisher-
men then meet with them very numerously, and, though
they had not previously seen one, are sure to be surround-
ed by them upon throwing pieces of fish overboard. Mr.
Dunn found these birds plentiful on the small islands near
St. Margaret's Hope, in Orkney, and among the small
islands lying off Scalloway, on the west side of the main
land in Shetland ; and observes that, though he had watch-
ed them for hours, he had never seen one dive.

The Storm Petrel is included by M. Nilsson in his

650 LARID.E.

Fauna of Scandinavia ; it breeds on the Faroe Islands
and at Iceland. It roves over the greater part of the
Atlantic, feeding on small fishes, Crustacea, and mollusca
to be found about the extensive masses of sea-weed which
float upon the surface of the ocean. This bird will keep
in company with a, ship for many days, sometimes for
shelter, but also for the sake of the various matters thrown
overboard, as they are always ready to stoop and pick up
bits of biscuit or meat. On examining the stomach of
a Stormy Petrel, Mr. Couch found about half an inch of
a common tallow-candle, of a size so disproportionate to
the bill and throat of the bird, that it seemed wonderful
how it could have been able to swallow it.

These birds are supposed to be seen only before stormy
weather, and therefore not welcome visiters to sailors, who
call them the DeviPs birds, witches, and Mother Carey 's
chickens — the last name said to have been originally be-
stowed upon them by Captain Carteret's sailors, probably
from some celebrated ideal hag of that name. Their habit
of paddling along the surface obtained for them the name of
Petrel, from the Apostle Peter, who walked on the water.

Mr. Wm, Borrer, jun., sent me notice that he took from
rabbit-burrows in the Isle of Berhon, off Alderney, two
specimens of the Storm Petrel, each had one white egg in
its nest. M. Vieillot includes this species in his Birds of
France. Several museums in Switzerland possess specimens
obtained about the lakes of that country. M. Savi includes
it in his Birds of Italy ; it has been found at Madeira ;
and Dr. A. Smith brought specimens from South Africa.

The bill is black ; the irides dark brown ; head, neck,
back, wings, and tail, sooty black ; outer edges of tertials
white ; upper tail-coverts white ; chin, throat, breast, belly,
vent, and under tail-coverts, sooty black ; sides of the vent
white ; legs, toes, and membranes black. The whole

STORM PETREL.

651

length of the bird not quite six inches ; the wing, from
the bend, four inches and five-eighths. The young bird,
till twelvemonths old, is not quite so dark in colour ; edges
of wing-coverts rusty brown ; no white on the margins of
the tertials, and less white at each side of the vent.

The final vignette represents an Englishman at Iceland
in the dress worn when collecting birds, taken from a
drawing lent me by Mr. W. Proctor of Durham.

LONDON :

Printed by S. & J. BENTLET, WILSON, and FLET,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.