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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www. archive.org/details/historyofbritishO3bew! A HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS. BY WILLIAM YARRELL, V.P.LS., F.Z58. FOURTH EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES. ILLUSTRATED BY 564 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. VOL. IIL, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY HOWARD SAUNDERS, F.L.S., F.Z.8., Erc. LODO IN: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXIIT— MDCCCLXXXIV. LONDON : PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C. PREFACE VOLS. DI-IV. OF THE FOURTH EDITION. Tuts Fourth Edition of Yarrell’s ‘History of British Birds’ was commenced by Professor Newton in 1871, and continued by him until May 1882, during which time the account of the Accipitres, Passeres, and Picari@ was com- pleted. In June 1882 I undertook to finish the work—not willingly or with a light heart, but after considerable pressure and at much personal sacrifice. There were various diffi- culties which could be foreseen, and not the least among them was the conviction that my portion of the work must necessarily appear at a disadvantage when compared with the high standard of excellence attained by my predecessor. There was, moreover, a stipulation for the completion of the work by June 1885; and, allowing for a pre-arranged and necessary absence of six months from England, this left only two and a half years for writing the history of nearly 200 species. The accomplishment of the task within the allotted term may be allowed to extenuate some slips of the pen which are corrected in the Errata. The Second and Third Editions were little more than reprints with additions, of the First, which appeared just forty-two years ago. During the interval our knowledge of many species has been vastly augmented, and the literature of the main subject has been more than doubled; an in- v1 PREFACE. crease necessitating an amount of research, and the careful sifting of a mass of information, unknown to the original Author. The advantages undoubtedly counterbalance the drawbacks, but it must be confessed that the latter are con- siderable. It is not within my province to consider the advisability of publishing under the honoured name of Yarrell a work which must necessarily be, to a great extent, rewritten ; but my portion of the task, once accepted, has been performed to the best of my ability. Where practicable, the original phraseology has been followed, with due modifications ; the opening words of the sentences have frequently been pre- served, as ‘landmarks’ for possessors of former Editions ; and extracts from the authors and correspondents quoted by Yarrell have been retained, subject to considerations of space, relevancy, and accuracy. This work of selection and adapta- tion has entailed severe labour, and, as a matter of fact, the original articles on the species added to the British list since the publication of the Third Edition, are those which have given the least trouble. The many completed works on ornithology of which I have availed myself are mentioned from time to time in these volumes, and if the enumeration is re-commenced, it will be difficult to say where to stop. I can, however, acknowledge most of them collectively by expressing my obligations to that pre-eminent compilation, Mr. H. E. Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ a work which has materially lightened my labours. Again, Mr. J. E. Harting kindly placed at my disposal the annotated copy of his useful ‘ Handbook of British Birds,’ with several volumes of notes and extracts; and on all sides assistance has been freely proffered. The completion of the work within the appointed time is largely owing to the co-operation of numerous friends and correspondents who sent notes, rare books, and speci- mens, looked over proofs, and answered questions (some- times by telegraph), with the utmost cheerfulness and promptitude. My thanks are especially due to Major H. W. Feilden, Messrs. E. Bidwell, F. Bond—the Nestor of British PREFACE, Vil ornithology,—John Cordeaux, John Gatcombe, J. H. Gurney, jun., J. A. Harvie-Brown, H. Seebohm, and Cecil Smith; also to Lieut.-Col. E. A. Butler, Messrs. T. E. Buckley, A. Chapman, W. Eagle Clarke, T. Duckworth, EK. Hargitt, F. S. Mitchell, A. G. More, T. H. Nelson, J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, Henry Stevenson, R. J. Ussher, Robert Warren, John Young, and others too numerous for mention. The changes made in the systematic arrangement are believed to be the fewest consistent with the present state of our knowledge. It was obviously impossible that the Herons &c, should continue to split the Order Limicole by occupying their former place midway between the Plovers and the Curlews. It was equally clear that, according to modern views, the Gavie (Terns and Gulls) must follow the Limicole, to which, indeed, they are so closely related that it is doubtful whether they should not be comprised in the same Order. Opinions not being unanimous upon the relative positions of the Petrels, the Auks, the Divers, and the Grebes, I have subordinated my own views to the previous arrangement. The Herons ([Zerodiones) and the Cormorants (Steganopodes), had, of course, to be allocated in a proximity the scheme of which had already been dis- arranged by the commencement of the work with the Accipitres. Under these exceptional circumstances the last Order is necessarily that of the Anseres ; nor is it altogether undesirable that it should be so, inasmuch as in the ossifica- tion of the sternum the normal members of that group show some resemblance to the Ratit@, a sub-class which is generally, although not universally, allowed to be lower than the Carinate. Assuming that, according to the original scheme of the work, a species is allowed to have a claim to be considered ‘ British’ when a single authenticated example is proved to have been obtained in our islands without suspicion of arti- ficial introduction, it would seem that the following species which have not been figured or described in detail, have some right to be enumerated in the British list; but certain Vill PREFACE, New World Passeres which cannot reasonably be supposed to have reached our shores without human agency need not be mentioned. Lanius mason, Pallas. Pallas’s Grey Shrike. To this species or sub-species—for it seems possible that it may in- terbreed with Lanius excubitor—belong the majority of the ‘Great Grey’ Shrikes obtained in winter in the British Islands, especially in Scotland. It appears to be a northern or north-eastern form, distributed, from Scandinavia east- ward, over a large portion of Northern Europe and Asia, and distinguishable, when thorough-bred, by its white rump and by the absence of the white bases to the secondaries, while the white bases of the primaries are smaller than in LL. excubitor. Roughly speaking, 1. major has only one alar bar instead of two. Its range on migration is not yet clearly defined. Saxrcona svrapazina (Jieillot). The Black-throated Wheatear. An adult male was shot near Bury in Lan- cashire about the middle of May, 1878, and was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society in the following November (P. Z. S. 1878, pp. 881 and 977). The species is common in Southern Europe and North Africa, and has strageled as far north as Heligoland. SAxrcoLA DESERTI (T'emminck). The Desert Wheatear. A male in autumn plumage was killed near Alloa, Clack- mannanshire, on the 26th of November, 1880, and, having been sent to Mr. J. J. Dalgleish, was forwarded by him for exhibition before the Zoological Society (P. Z. 8. 1881, p. 453). The species inhabits the southern and eastern sides of the Mediterranean basin, and has twice been known to wander to Heligoland. ACROCEPHALUS PALUSTRIS (Bechstein). The Marsh War- bler. It is impossible to doubt the authenticity of the examples obtained during the last ten years. Mr. Cecil Smith has shown (Zool. s.s. p. 4718) that it breeds near Taunton, and it is now known to do so annually (Zool. 1882, pp. 265, 806) ; it has also nested near Bath. I have examined several fresh-killed birds: also their nests and PREFACE. 1X egos; the two latter being very different from those of the Reed Warbler. The range of the two species is similar, Synvia nisortA (Bechstein). The Barred Warbler. An example shot many years ago in a garden near Queen’s College, Cambridge, was exhibited by Professor Newton before the Zoological Society (P. Z. 8. 1879, p. 219). One was killed in Yorkshire on the 28th August, and one in Norfolk on the 4th September, 1884 (P. Z.S. 1884, p. 477). The species breeds over the greater part of Europe up to the south of Sweden, and about as far west as 6° E. long. TIcHODROMA MURARIA (Linneus). The Wall Creeper. The occurrence of this remarkable species, so conspicuous from the band of crimson on the wing, was made known by Marsham, of Stratton-Strawless Hall, Norfolk, in a letter to Gilbert White, dated October 30th, 1792 (Zool. s.s. p. 4664). Mr. F. 8. Mitchell has recorded another well-authenticated example shot in Lancashire on the 8th May, 1872 (Zool. s.s. p- 4839). Although an inhabitant of the mountainous por- tions of Central and Southern Europe, Asia, and North Africa, it is known to have strageled on several occasions to such apparently unsuitable localities as the centre of the commercial town of Nantes, on the Lower Loire, and I have examined several specimens obtained there. ACANTHYLLIS caupacuTa (Latham). The Needle-tailed Swift. The two occurrences of this species in England are noticed in vol. 11. p. 371. CAPRIMULGUS RUFICOLLIS, Temminck. The Red-necked Nightjar. For remarks on the occurrence of this southern species in Northumberland, see vol. ii. p. 386. CaPRIMULGUS &GyPtTIUS (Licht). The Isabelline Nightjar. On the 23rd of June, 1883, an undoubted example of this south-eastern species was shot by the gamekeeper of Mr. J. Whitaker, of Rainworth Lodge, near Mansfield, Nottingham- shire, in whose collection it now is (Zool. 1883, p. 374). The species is a native of North-eastern Africa and Western Asia; but this makes its sixth occurrence in Europe; one of them being in Heligoland. ANGIALITIS VOCIFERA (Linneus). The Killdeer Plover. VOL. Ill. D XxX PREFACE. In noticing an undoubted specimen of this American species said to have been killed in Hampshire (vol. ii. p. 160), I did not then consider the evidence quite sufficient to justify admission to the British list. On the 15th of January, 1885, Mr. Jenkinson shot and sent to Mr. Vingoe for pre- servation (Zool. 1885, p. 113), a specimen which I have since examined. Toranus souirarius (JVilson). The Solitary Sandpiper. In my note on this species (vol. ili. p. 468), I hesitated to include the species on the reported occurrence on the Scilly Islands of an example which had not been authenticated by some expert. Since then, a bird of this species has been shot near Marazion, Cornwall, and has been identified by competent authorities (Zool. 1885, p. 113). CotymBpus Apamst, Gray. The Yellow-billed Northern Diver. Since writing the remarks on this recognizable species (vol. iv. p. 100), Mr. J. H. Gurney has kindly sent me a photograph of the head of the immature bird shot on the Suffolk coast in 1852, and the form of the bill shows clearly that it is an example of Colymbus adamsi. Mr. H. Seebohm has identified a second specimen, in the Newcastle Museum, shot on the coast of Northumberland, and has given his views on the geographical distribution of the species in ‘ The Zoologist,’ 1885, p. 144. Iam only aware of three errors of sufficient importance for notice beyond the inevitable Errata. The first is to be found in vol. iii. p. 678, line 26, in the description of the young of the Aretic Skua, where, by an inadvertence, the words ‘‘the shafts of the two outer feathers white, the others dusky’’; have slipped in; they really refer to the next species, the Long-tailed Skua. In the article on the Puffin, vol. iv. p. 95, line 2, by a slip of the pen consequent upon the transposition of the words ‘summer’ and ‘ winter’ in the revise, the very opposite of what is meant is stated. It is obvious that the bill of the Puffin is larger in summer than in winter, and that word should be substituted for ‘ smaller.” PREFACE. XI Lastly, in the list of Norfolk heronries (vol. iv. p. 166) there is a double error in the statement that there is a colony of Herons at Spixworth, and that their nests are in Portugal laurels. There is no heronry at Spixworth, and the birds which bred in the laurels were Rooks; but although the information has proved to be incorrect, it came from an informant whose name is so well known in connec- tion with Norfolk that there was no primary reason to doubt it. To those who are only acquainted with the Heron as nesting on tall trees, my credulity may appear absurd, but ornithologists of wider experience who have seen, on the one hand, laurels strong enough to sustain the nest of an Eagle, and have found, on the other, Herons nesting on mere bushes, will admit that there was no inherent improb- ability in the statement. Howarp SAUNDERS. 7, RapnoRk Puace, Hype Pars, W., 30th April, 1885, CONTENTS OF VOL. COLUMBA. CoLUMBID®. Columba palumbus. Ring Dove : enas. Stock Dove a livia. Rock Dove Turtur communis. Turtle Dove Ectopistes migratorius. Passenger Pigeon PTEROCLETES. PTEROCLIDA. Syrrhaptes paradoxus. Sand-Grouse GALLINA. TETRAONIDR. Tetrao urogallus. Capercaillie . » tetriz. Black Grouse Lagopus scoticus. Red Grouse » mutus. Ptarmigan PHASIANIDE. Phasianus colehicus. Pheasant. Perdix cinerea. Common Partridge Caccabis rufa. Red-legged Partridge Coturniz communis. Common Quail HEMIPODIL. TURNICID 2. Turnia sylvatica. Andalusian Hemipode . II]. dl 45 60 73 83 93 105 115 123 131 XIV CONTENTS, FULICARI A. RALuLiDaZ. Crea pratensis. Land Rail : Porzana maruetta. Spotted Crake » parva. Little Crake. . baillont. Baillon’s Crake Rallus aquaticus. Water Rail Gallinula chloropus. Moor-Hen Fulica atra. Common Coot ALECTORIDHS. GRUID®. Grus communis. Crane OTIDIDE. Otis tarda, Great Bustard » tetrax. Little Bustard 5, macqueent. Macqueen’s Bustard LIMICOLA. CipicNEMID. (Edicnemus scolopax. Stone-Curlew . GLAREOLID#. Glareola pratincola. Collared Pratincole . CHARADRIIDA. Cursorius gallicus. Cream-coloured Courser Eudromias morinellus. Dotterel Aigialitis hiaticula. Ringed Plover . - curonica. little Ringed Plover a cantiana. Kentish Plover . Charadrius pluvialis. Golden Plover Squatarola helvetica. Grey Plover Vanellus vulgaris. Lapwing. Strepsilas interpres. Turnstone Hematopus ostralegus. Oyster-Catcher PAGE 137 143 148 154 159 164 17 CONTENTS. LIMICOLA— continued. ScoLoPacip ®. Recurvirostra avocetta. Avocet Himantopus candidus. Black-winged Stilt Phalaropus fulicarius. Grey Phalarope % hyperbereus. Red-necked Phalarope Scolopax rusticula. Woodcock . . Gallinago major. Great Snipe . celestis. Common Snipe . os gallinula. Jack Snipe Macrorhamphus griseus. Red-breasted Sei Limicola platyrhyncha. Broad-billed Sandpiper Tringa maculata. Pectoral Sandpiper : » jfuscicollis. Bonaparte’s Sandpiper » alpina. Dunlin : : » minuta. Little Stint » minutilla. American Stint » temmincki. Temminck’s Stint subarquata. Curlew Sandpiper », striata. Purple Sandpiper » eanutus. Knot Calidris arenaria. Sanderling . Machetes pugnax. Ruff Tryngites rufescens. Buff-breasted Banos Bartramia longicauda. Bartram’s Sandpiper Totanus hypoleucus. Common Sandpiper . » macularius. Spotted Sandpiper . » ochropus. Green Sandpiper glareola. Wood Sandpiper . calidris. Common Redshank » fuscus. Spotted Redshank . ; 5 flavipes. Yellow-shanked cia » eanescens. Greenshank Limosa agocephala. Black-tailed Goan » lapponica. Bar-tailed Godwit Numenius arquata. Common Curlew ss pheopus. Whimbrel " borealis. Eskimo Curlew XVI GAVIA. LARID&. CONTENTS, Hydrochelidon nigra. Black Tern. ; : ; ” leucoptera. White-winged Black Tern hybrida. Whiskered Tern . Sterna anglica. Gull-billed Tern ” caspia. Caspian Tern cantiaca. Sandwich Tern dougalli. Roseate Tern . Huviatilis. Common Tern macrura. Arctic Tern minuta. Lesser Tern Suliginosa. Sooty Tern . Anous stolidus. Noddy Tern Nema sabinii. Sabine’s Gull Ithodostethia rosea. Cuneate-tailed Gull Larus philadelphia. Bonapartian Gull 29 minutus. Little Gull ridibundus. Black-headed Gull ichthyaetus. Great Black-headed Gull canus. Common Gull argentatus. Herring Gull Juscus. Lesser Black-backed Gull . marinus. Great Black-backed Gull glaucus. Glaucous Gull. leucopterus. Iceland Gull Rissa tridactyla. Kittiwake Gull Pagophila eburnea. Ivory Gull Stercorarius catarrhactes. Great Skua 5 pomatorhinus. Pomatorhine Skua. - crepidatus. Arctic or Richardson’s Skua e parasiticus. Long-tailed or Buffon’s Skua ERRATA TO VOL. ITI. LINE 28, dele Northern. 6, for Oxfordshire read Cambridgeshire. 19, for porzana read maruetta. 22, for_at Hawold. Across the Humber, it would appear, read at Hawold, across the Humber. It would appear, &e. 28, for St. Michael’s-in-Wyse read St. Michael's-on-Wyre. 5, for Shrenck read Schrenck, 1, insert LimtcoLs. 19, for (1688) read (1678). 13, jor Pryor read Pryer. 31, for Lancashire read Lancashire. 9, for stragger read strageler. 31, for Lyons read Lyon. 20, for is read are. 4, dele recurved. 30, dele late. 35, cele the. 2, for ICHTYAETUS read ICHTHYABTUS. 9, for pray read prey. 27, for of the others dusky read of the others also mainly white, but somewhat dusky towards the tips. BRITISH BIRDS. COLUM BE. COLUMBID. CoLUMBA PALUMBUS, Linneus*. THE RING DOVE OR WOOD PIGEON. Columba palumbus. CotumBa, Linneust+.— Bill moderate, straight at the base, compressed, the point deflected. Base of the upper mandible covered with a soft skin, in which the nostrils are pierced. Tarsi short, anteriorly scutellate, posteriorly scurfy ; feet, three toes in front, entirely divided, one toe behind. Wings, long, broad, rather pointed ; the second quill-feather longest. Tail of twelve feathers nearly even. * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 282 (1766). + Tom. cit. p. 279. VOL.. III. B 2 COLUMBID®. THe Rine Dove, so called from the white feathers which form a partial ring round its neck, and equally well known in many parts of England as the Wood Pigeon, and in the North as the Queest or the Cushat, is the largest member of the genus found in Europe. Itis an abundant and gene- rally distributed species throughout the British Islands ; its numbers having increased of late years to an extent which has caused grave anxiety to the farmers. This is mainly owing to the altered conditions of cultivation; the large proportion of land now under turnips and other green crops supplying food which was formerly wanting during the inclement months; whilst the numerous small plantations which have lately sprung up afford just the kind of shelter that the Ring Dove requires:—open enough to preclude the approach of an unseen adversary,—close enough for protection from the weather and for breeding purposes. Add to this, that its natural foes have been, as far as possible, destroyed by game-preservers and their keepers, and it can hardly be a matter of surprise that under such favourable circumstances the species is now far more numerically abundant than in former years. In addition to those bred in this country, large flocks make their appearance in winter and autumn, crossing the North Sea from the continent by an E. to W. flight. The note of this Dove—a deep coo roo, cod coo—may be frequently heard in the months of March and April in the neighbourhood of woods and plantations, particularly those of firs, in which it delights to build, The nest usually consists of merely a few sticks laid across, at times so thinly that the eges can be distinguished from below ; but it is often more substantial, and occasionally the old nest of some other bird, or a squirrel’s drey, serves as a foundation. Although generally at some distance from the ground, it is also to be found in hedgerows of old hawthorn ; and Mr. R. Gray states that near Arbroath, in Forfarshire, nests have been observed in tall whin bushes.* Not unfrequently it * Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 218. RING DOVE. 3 chooses a site for its nest in gardens in close proximity to habitations, and sometimes even in the matted ivy covering their walls. The first clutch of eggs is generally laid early in April, and the second early in June; even a third laying is not unfrequent, for birds just hatched have been found at least as late as October 18th, so that even a fourth brood is possible, although the young probably succumb to the approach of winter.* The eggs, whose complement, as with all true Pigeons, is invariably two in number, are oval in form and of a pure glossy white, measuring 1°6 by 1:2; they are deposited at an interval of two or three days, and incubation lasts from sixteen to eighteen. The male takes a share in this task, and, as a rule, sits on the eges during the greater portion of the day. The young, when hatched, are helpless and blind, continuing so until about the ninth day, and they remain in the nest until they are quite able to fly. They are nourished by food supplied from the crops of the parent birds, who, opening their bills so that the mandibles of the young enter the pharynx, regurgitate the pulpy and half-digested, curd-like contents of the crop, shewing that ‘‘pigeon’s milk” is not the absolute and unfounded fable it was once supposed to be. Mr. R. Gray (op. eit.) states that he has severa! times reared young birds from eggs placed under a common Pigeon, and in . these cases they maintained a quiet habit, mixing freely and tamely with their domestic neighbours; but in only one instance did he know of a Ring Dove breeding in confine- ment. This was a female, taken young, which received her liberty when fully grown, but, instead of flying back to the woods, she paired with a bachelor domestic Pigeon in a dovecote in the town of Cumnock. The pair had eggs three times, although only one young bird was reared ; it was larger than the domestic Pigeon, and resembled the female parent in its general markings. As mentioned in former Editions of this work, the late Mr. Thomas Allis, of * Mr. Frank Norgate (Zoologist, 1878, p. 106) states that on February 1st he shot four young Ring Doves in Norfolk, one of which retained the long downy filaments on the upper wing-coverts. -t COLUMBID®. York, and the late Earl of Derby, at Knowsley, were success- ful in inducing this species to breed in confinement. When reared from the nest, the birds frequently become much attached to their owner, and even when given their liberty they have been known to sweep down and recognize him with demonstrations of pleasure after an absence of nearly twelve months, although always shy to strangers. Up to six years ago, a pair used to breed in the Green Park, and a few still do so in Kensington Gardens; but the tame- ness of this species, under certain conditions, can nowhere be witnessed better than in Paris, where, in the gardens of the Luxembourg, the Tuileries, the Pare Monceau, and other public promenades, the Ring Doves may be seen taking food from, and even perching upon the arms and shoulders of those who habitually feed them. The Ring Dove is strictly monogamous, and during the breeding season is generally seen in pairs: or singly, when taking turns at the task of incubation. In the autumn, how- ever, it becomes gregarious, and in winter the flocks sometimes consist of many hundreds, and even thousands. During the summer these birds feed on green corn, young clover (the leaves of which they devour by the bushel), grain of all sorts, peas, &e. Mr. R. Gray has shot numbers with their crops perfectly distended with gooseberries; and from the crop of one killed in Forfarshire 1,020 grains of corn were counted. The crops of four of these birds sent by Lord Haddington at different times yielded the following results: the first contained 144 field peas and seven large beans; the second 231 beech nuts; the third 813 grains of barley; and the fourth 874 grains of oats, and fifty-five of barley. Such damage may be better estimated from the fact that the bird is known to feed three times daily; and in a grain-pro- ducing district, like East Lothian, where from 15,000 -to 29,000 Pigeons have been destroyed within twelve months, without effecting any apparent decrease in their numbers, the loss to agriculturists must be enormous. It appears doubt- ful whether the bill of the Wood Pigeon is strong enough to break into the bulbs of turnips, but when that work has \ RING DOVE. 5) been commenced by Rooks, Partridges or hares, the Pigeons continue to hollow them out very successfully ; whilst there can be no doubt that they eat the leaves, and thus check the erowth of the turnip in its earlier stages.* They are fond of bathing in and drinking fresh water, and Mr. Cordeaux states that in summer, but at no other time, this species resorts daily to the marsh drains of the Humber district to which the tide has access for the purpose of drinking the ’ brackish water; Mr. H. Blake-Knox has also observed it eating sea-weed on the rocks left bare by the ebb. It is partial to the seeds of the common buttercup (Ranunculus acris), a8 well as the berries of the holly and the yew; and when it resorts to the stubbles after harvest to consume the scattered grain, it also devours an immense number of the seeds of various weeds, thereby rendering services to the farmer which in some measure counterbalance the depreda- tions of the rest of the year. In England it has long been known as an abundant and generally distributed species, whose numbers have shewn a decided tendency to increase ; but in Scotland the spread of high cultivation has assisted its progress in a remarkable manner. In East Lothian, where less than a century ago the species was quite unknown, the records of the Agricultural Society of that district shew that no less than 130,440 birds were destroyed between 1863-1870 without materially affecting its numbers. The eastern dis- tricts of Scotland frequently suffer from the arrival of im- mense flocks from the continent, a large proportion taking up their abode in the country, but on the western side although on the increase it is less numerous, and although ranging up to Sutherlandshire, it is merely a strageler to the westward of the Inner Hebrides. Even to the Orkneys and the storm-swept, treeless Shetlands, its visits are becoming more frequent, and it has wandered several times as far as the still bleaker Feroes. In Iveland it is generally distri- buted and on the increase. On the continent of Europe it ranges in summer throughout suitable districts up to about * KR. Gray, op. cit. 6 COLUMBID. 65° N. lat., and has even strageled up to 66°10’ N.: in the central portion it is generally resident, but in the southern countries bordering the Mediterranean it is more especially abundant on migration, although it breeds in some numbers down to Morocco, and also in Algeria. Its western limit is the group of the Azores, where according to Mr. Godman it appears to be confined to the central and eastern islands. To the eastward its range cannot be traced with certainty much beyond the Ural, in the north, or beyond the Tigris in the south: in Asia Minor, Palestine, and as far as Bagdad this species is certainly abundant, but in Turkestan, and to the east of the line of the Persian Gulf, it appears to be replaced by an allied species, C. casiotis (Bp.), with neck- patches of a buff colour instead of pure white. In the adult male the bill is yellow towards the tip and orange-red at the base; the soft parts about the nostrils almost white; irides straw-yellow; head and upper part of the neck bluish-grey, the feathers on the sides of the neck elossed with violet and purple, the lower ones being tipped with white, forming parts of four or five oblique rings; back, scapulars, both sets of wing-coverts and tertials a shade darker, and browner than the head; the first four or five feathers of both sets of wing-coverts white, or partially white, which, when the wing is closed, produces only a white line down the edge of the wing, but when they are spread open these feathers then form a conspicuous white patch, which is visible at a great distance; the primary quill- feathers are lead-grey with narrow white margins and black shafts; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts bluish- erey; tail-feathers twelve ; the pair in the centre of two colours, the basal two-thirds bluish-erey, the ends dark lead- erey; the other ten feathers of three shades of grey, the middle part being the lightest in colour; chin bluish-grey ; neck and breast vinous-purple; belly, vent, and under tail- coverts ash-grey ; under surface of tail-feathers pearl-grey in the middle, lead-grey at both ends; tarsi and feet red, claws brown. The whole length is seventeen inches. From the carpal RING DOVE. Uf joint to the end of the wing ten inches; the second quill- feather being the longest in the wing, from which the others decrease gradually. The female is a little smaller than the male, and her colours are somewhat duller. Young birds are fully fledged by the end of the third week, and are then of a lead-grey, with a very conspicuous wing-bar, on the upper parts; the breast being vinous- brown, with numerous yellowish filaments still adhering to the tips of the feathers. The bill, which is tumid and quite out of proportion to the size of the bird, is even more flattened out, and more distinctly notched on the edges of the under mandible, than in most domestic Pigeons. The colour of both bill and feet at this time is a livid grey: the former with a white tip crossed by a narrow black bar. Before their first moult they have no white on the sides of the neck, and the general colour of the plumage is less pure and glossy, but they assume the adult plumage the first year. Varieties more or less spotted over the body with white, and even perfect albinos, are sometimes met with: a remarkable example of the latter is in the collection of Mr. John Marshall, of Belmont, Taunton. 8 COLUMBID. COLUM BE. COLUMBIDE. Cotumpa aNnas, Linnzeus *. THE STOCK DOVE. Columba @nas. By Montagu, Bewick, Fleming, and some of the earlier authors, the Stock Dove was confounded with the Rock Dove, from which, however, it is now well known to be perfectly distinct. Whilst this confusion lasted, the name was sup- posed to be owing to its being considered to be the origin of our domestic stock; but the appellation is now generally attributed to its habit of nesting in the stocks of trees, par- * Columba enas, Linneus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12 (1766), i. p. 279, in part, the description being somewhat confused with that of the Domestic Pigeon, although in the Fauna Succica, p. 75 (1761), tbe author had accurately described the present species. As the name has been long and almost universally applied to this bird, there seems to be no adequate reason for rejecting it. C2nas from oivos, vinum. : STOCK DOVE. 8) ticularly such as have been headed down, and have become rugged and bushy at the top. Its German name [Holhltaube, or Hole-Dove, is similarly owing to the predilection for hollow trees. In fact, the peculiar nesting habits of this Dove are amongst its principal characteristics. In wooded countries it generally selects elms, oaks, and willows especially pollards—and the hollows of beeches: frequently making no nest but depositing its eggs upon the rotten wood which has accumulated; it also makes use of old Crows’ and Magpies’ nests and squirrels’ dreys, the matted boughs of the Scotch fir, and ivy-grown trees and ruins. In such situations as the foregoing its eggs may be found even so near to London as Richmond, Windsor, and Cashiobury Parks, and generally throughout the wooded southern counties of England. But in the open districts— Norfolk and Suffolk—it occupies the deserted rabbit-burrows upon warrens; placing its eggs about a yard from the entrance, generally upon the bare sand, sometimes using a small quantity of dried roots, &c., barely sufficient to keep the eggs from the ground. Besides such situations on the heath, it nestles under thick furze bushes which are imper- vious to rain in consequence of the sheep and rabbits eating off the young and tender shoots as they grow; the birds always preferring those bushes that have a small opening made by the rabbits near the ground.* The young, which are ready for the table early in June, are stated by Professor Newton to be a source of considerable profit to the warreners, whose perquisites they are ; and in consequence almost every warrener keeps a ‘‘ dowe-dawg,” 7.e., a dog trained to discover the burrows in which the Doves breed.f They also breed in the rabbit-burrows of the Lincolnshire coast and of Walney Island, Lancashire. But the nesting pecu- liarities of the Stock Dove do not end here. Mr. Harting (Zoologist, 1867, p. 758) relates how a pair bred for several seasons on a crossbeam in the old spire of Kingsbury Church, and the young birds, which he took and reared, * J. D. Salmon, Loudon’s Mag. Nat. H. ix. p. 520. + Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, i. p. 356. VOL, ELL. Cc 10 COLUMBID#. were seen by many ornithologists. By the same plan Mr. Harting also proved that the Pigeons which frequented the Dorsetshire cliffs about Lulworth Cove were not, as had been generally supposed, Rock Doves, but Stock Doves. There can, indeed, be little doubt that in several locali- ties a similar error has prevailed; and this is certainly the case in the Undercliff district of the Isle of Wight, where the Editor can state from personal knowledge that the Stock Dove is the species which nests in abundance in the holes of the wooded crags near Ventnor. It also nests in the sea cliffs of Flamborough, where, however, the Rock Dove is also found. Under these circumstances it is not so strange that this species should have been confounded with the Rock Dove, for it appears to be about the same size when on the wing, and although it has not a white rump, yet in its light and rapid flight it far more closely resembles the Rock than its larger and heavier congener the Ring Dove. The eggs, two in number, are oval and white, of a some- what more creamy tint than those of C. palumbus, and measure about 1°5 in length by 1:1 in breadth. They are usually laid about the commencement or middle of April, but Mr. C. Mathew Prior states that fledged young may often be found by the third week of that month, and he also found two fresh eggs in a hollow ash-tree on 2nd October, 1875.* Incubation lasts seventeen or eighteen days. In its habits this species resembles the Ring Dove, but its note is far less distinct and less prolonged, and may not inaptly be described as grunting. Its food is naturally somewhat similar; but the late Mr. Rodd remarked that in the case of a bird of each species shot at the same discharge, whereas the crop of the Ring Dove contained a great pulp of clover leaves, turnip- tops and bulbs, that of the Stock Dove contained not a leaf of clover, but an egg-full of charlock seeds, some barley and several weed seeds. Columba a@nas is, in fact, a south-eastern species which is eradually extending its range northwards and westwards. It has occurred in the Scilly Islands, and sometimes visits * Loologist, 1879, p. 338. STOCK DOVE. 11 Cornwall in large flocks in winter, passing upwards into Wales, in some counties of which it certainly breeds—among the rocks of Merthyr Tydfil, for example—although nowhere so numerous as the Ring Dove. In Devonshire it is prob- ably increasing, and Mr. Cecil Smith says that it is twenty- fold more numerous in Somersetshire now than in 1869. Although of somewhat local distribution, it occurs through- out the southern, midland, and eastern counties including Lincolnshire, where, Mr. Cordeaux says, it is distinctly on the increase; and, although scarcer to the north of the Humber, it breeds regularly in the rocks and rabbit- holes of the cliffs in the Hambleton Hills. It has already become common in the neighbourhood of Castle Eden Dene, Durham, and has even pushed its breeding range as far as Northumberland and Berwickshire. Its occurrence in Stirlingshire and southern Perthshire has been recorded by Mr. Dalgleish (Ibis, 1878, p. 382), and Mr. R. Gray says that there is evidence that it has strageled as far as Orkney. The instances already cited in which this species has been mistaken for the Rock Dove on the strength of its selecting holes in cliffs for its nesting-place, lead to the supposition that similar and as yet undiscovered errors may have been made elsewhere. In Iveland its occurrence was first recorded by Lord Clermont, who obtained one in October, 1875,* and subsequently obtained another, and ob- served the birds nesting in a crevice of the rock on the hill- side on the borders of Armagh and Louth—a locality which they had been known to frequent for some years, but until then it had not been decided whether they were this species or the Rock Dove. It has also been obtained, and has bred, in county Down.T On the continent it has once been known to straggle beyond the arctic circle, but its usual northern range nearly coincides with that where the oak grows (about 60° to 61° N. lat.): it being plentiful in south-eastern Norway, Sweden, Germany, and suitable localities in Russia as far as the Ural, migrating southward in winter. In some of the * Zoologist, 1876, p. 4798. + Op. cit., 1877, p. 883. 12 COLUMBIDE. large forests of France it is abundant, and resident, but in the countries bordering the Mediterranean it principally occurs on migration. In Morocco, however, Colonel Irby observed it during the breeding-season near Tangier, and also as far south as Larache; and it certainly visits and probably breeds in Algeria; but its occurrence as far as Egypt is at present open to doubt. In Palestine and Asia Minor it is also found, reaching as far as the Tigris, but beyond the Persian plateau, and eastward of that line and of Turkestan, its place is taken by a very interesting and dis- tinct species, C. eversmanni. The latter, whilst resembling C. enas in the broken and undefined character of the bars on the wing, differs from it in having the basal half of the bill black, the crown of the head vinous, and a pale grey band across the rump, in which latter characteristic it approaches the Rock Dove, C. livia. The beak is horn-white at the tip: the basal portion red ; irides brown; head, neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts bluish-grey ; primary quill-feathers brownish-grey, the ex- ternal margin leghter; secondaries pearl-grey at the base of the outer web, lead-grey at the ends; tertials bluish-grey, the last three with a dark lead-grey spot on the outer web, and a similar spot on some of the wing-coverts above, without, however, forming a regular band in any position of the wing ; rump and upper tail-coverts light bluish-grey; tail of twelve feathers: the basal two-thirds bluish-grey, inclining to white on the outer web of the exterior ones, followed by a band of lighter grey : the ends lead-grey ; chin bluish-grey ; sides of the neck glossy green, with purple reflections ; breast vinous ; belly, flanks, vent, under wing, and under tail-coverts pale bluish-grey; tarsi and feet red. The whole length of the male is about thirteen and a half inches. From the carpal joint to the end of wing nearly nine inches ; the second quill- feather the longest, and the third nearly equal to it. The female is somewhat smaller, and her colours are less brilliant. Young birds before their first moult have no shining metallic feathers in the neck, nor are the spots on the tertials and wing-coverts apparent. ROCK DOVE. hs COLUMBZ. COLUMBIDA. CoLuMBA Livra, Gmelin.* THE ROCK DOVE. Columba livia. Tur Rock Dove, as its name implies, is a species which, in its natural and wild state, inhabits rocks whose cavities afford it shelter during the greater part of the year. Such localities are in these islands principally confined to the sea- coast, and consequently the records of the Rock Dove being found breeding inland are, in many cases, open to the suspicion that either the Stock Dove has been mistaken for it, or that the individuals in question are really domestic birds which have abandoned the dovecote. It has already been pointed out that even on the sea-coast it is frequently * Columba livia, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 769 (1788), ex Brisson. There is some uncertainty about Gmelin’s description, but the name has been universally adopted for this species. 14 COLUMBIDZ. the Stock Dove which has been proved to inhabit the cliffs, as in Dorsetshire, the Isle of Wight, and Yorkshire ; and it seems to the Editor that the only localities in which true wild birds can be with certainty indicated as breeding are those in which the rocks offer deep caves, or at least cavities and fissures. Cliffs of this description are compara- tively rare on the coast of England, and it is in the north and west, and along the rugged, sea-scooped shores of Scotland, Ireland, and their islands, that the true home of the really wild Rock Dove must be sought. There can be no doubt that this, with two or three closely-allied sub-species or geographical races, is the stock whence our domestic Pigeons have sprung, and a very large proportion of the latter have varied so little from the parent stem, that it is often extremely difficult to distinguish between true- bred wild birds and those which have been at least partially domesticated. Both the wild stock, and the varieties pro- duced from it, have been exhaustively treated by the late Charles Darwin,* and to his masterly arrangement of facts the present abstract is much indebted. Tn the eastern and southern districts of England, localities suited to its habits are few and far between, and even in some places which apparently offer the requisite conditions, such as Guernsey, Sark and the smaller Channel Islands, the Rock Dove seems to be little known ; in Devonshire it is also rare and very local, and only a few frequent the cliffs of Cornwall. It can be traced along the coast of Wales to the Isle of Man, to the northwards of which its numbers increase until almost every district up to the confines of the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands, has its ‘* Ua’ Caloman,” or ‘‘doo-cave.”’ In Ireland also, especially on the rugged, wave-worn crags of the western side, it is abundant. On the eastern side of England the breeding-places of this species are necessarily few, and even in Yorkshire and Northumberland the birds found in them are open to the suspicion of not being pure wild birds; but along the coast of Scotland, from the Bass Rock upwards, the wild Rock * Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, i. pp. 187-285, ed, 1875. ROCK DOVE. 15 Dove is generally distributed. In many localities either wild birds, or, more probably, those which have become feral, are chequered with black on the wing-coverts and back, and to such a variety the late Mr. Blyth once doubtfully gave the name of C. affinis. In the Feroes* it is abundant, but in Scandinavia the wild bird is scarce and very local; whilst in the rest of northern and central Europe it is decidedly uncommon, except in a feral state, until mountainous regions are reached, when, as in the Pyrenees, it is again met with. In the Canaries it is common, and Mr. Godman states that it is abundant in the Azores, most of his specimens being so dark in plumage that the band on the wings is no longer visible; dark forms are also found in Madeira, accompanied by so much variability as to raise a strong suspicion that they are domestic Pigeons which have become feral. The same suspicion attaches to C. gymnocyclus, G. R. Gray, from Senegambia, and also to the birds now found in a wild state in the island of St. Helena. On the coasts of the countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, and on the islands, it is generally distributed ; and in the mountain ranges of Spain, especially in the neighbourhood of the Sierra Nevada, the Editor has seen immense flocks pouring forth from the deep cavernous gorges on the way to their feeding-grounds. He estimated that within a short time fully 7,000 birds passed in his immediate vicinity, each flock being led by a pied and doubtless half- bred bird, of which description there were generally a few individuals in every band. It must be remembered that vast numbers of semi-domestic Pigeons exist in Spain, and that there are well-known laws for their protection, such as the prohibition to shoot at them within a certain distance of the dovecote, or when obviously returning to it. In Italy Bonaparte considered that he had discovered a new species, to which he gave the name of C. turricola ; but this is now considered a mere variety or half-breed. * A bird in which the black bars on the wing were replaced by a few spots, was named by Brehm C. amalic. 16 COLUMBID. Many of the birds on both sides of the Mediterranean have a distinctly white ramp, although even in the west, as in Spain, there is a tendency in the white to become less pure than in northern examples, and the band is often narrower. Proceeding eastward, there is a gradual increase in the number of birds which have less white in the rump, until in the Jordan valley, according to Canon Tristram, only the erey-rumped form, to which Bonaparte gave the name of C. schimperi, is found; although in the mountains on either side the true C. livia is abundant. In Egypt, Dr. Leith Adams states that it is not easy to define the limits of wild and domestic Pigeons, all the denizens of the dove- cotes preserving the leading characteristics of the two black bars on the wings and the single black bar on the tail, with the white on the edges of the outer tail-feathers: most of the domestic birds, however, had the grey rump of C. schimperi. True C. livia appears, however, to go as far as Mesopotamia, and has also been obtained in Sindh and Cashmere, but in Gilgit, Dr. Scully found both the white-rumped and the grey- rumped forms ; even the latter, however, being always lighter than the extreme form, C. intermedia, Strickland, which in- habits Southern India and Ceylon, and which has the rump as dark as, or darker than, the back. In Turkestan, Central Asia, Tibet and China, is found a more distinct form, C. rupestris, Pallas, which has a white subterminal band on the tail- feathers. ‘‘ There seems,” says Darwin, ‘‘ to be some rela- tion between the croup being blue or white, and the temperature of the country inhabited by both wild and dovecot pigeons; for nearly all the dovecot pigeons in the northern parts of Europe have a white croup like that of the wild European rock pigeon; and nearly all the dovecot pigeons of India have a blue croup like that of the wild C’. intermedia of India.” In Britain the Rock Pigeon sometimes begins breeding as early as March: birds recently hatched having been noticed on 2nd April,* and young, and even unhatched eggs, are found in September; so that at least two broods are reared R. Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 222, ROCK DOVE. 17, in the year. Deep caverns, moist with the spray from the thundering surge, are its favourite resorts, and on entering one of these in a boat, numbers will dart forth from its dark recesses, and, as the eye becomes accustomed to the twilight, the grey plumage of those which have remained on the more distant ledges, may be discerned against the dark background of the rocks. The nest is slight, con- structed of bents, heather, dried grasses or sea-weed, and the eggs are, as usual, two in number, pure white, of a short oval shape, rather pointed at one end, measuring 1°5 by 1°15. Like its congeners, this species devours considerable quantities of grain; making amends to some extent by eating the roots of the couch-grass (Triticum repens), and the seeds of various troublesome weeds when corn is not procurable. Montagu ascertained that it eats considerable quantities of Helix virgata, and Macgillivray says it picks up several species of shell-snails, especially Helix ericetorum and Bulimus acutus. It drinks frequently, and in Egypt, in places where the banks of the Nile are so steep that the birds cannot alight on the shore to drink, both Mr. R. 8S. Skirving and Mr. E. C. Taylor have observed whole flocks settle on the water like Gulls, and drink whilst they floated down stream. The same habit has been observed in tame pigeons at Cologne when the shore-ice in the Rhine prevented approach to the water. It is migratory in the north to a limited extent, impelled by the necessity of seeking food, but generally it is a resident species. One marked characteristic is its strong objection to settling upon trees—a peculiarity shared by its domesticated relatives. The adult has the beak reddish-brown ; irides pale orange ; head and neck bluish-grey, the sides of the latter shining with green and purple reflections ; shoulders, upper part of the back and both sets of wing-coverts french-grey; all the greater coverts with a black mark forming a conspicuous black band; primary and secondary quill-feathers bluish-grey, darker on the outer webs; tertials pale grey with a broad band of black separated from the above-mentioned band by the light- VOL. III. D 18 COLUMBID&. coloured line of the great wing-coverts; lower back and rump white; upper tail-coverts slate-grey; tail-feathers twelve in number, a shade lighter, with a broad terminal dark leaden band, sometimes paler at the extreme tip; chin bluish-grey ; throat purple and green; breast, and all the under surface of the body grey; under wing-coverts and axillaries white; under tail-coverts slate-grey; tarsi and feet red; claws dark brown. The total length of the male is fourteen inches; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing nine inches; the first quill-feather a little shorter than the second which is the longest. The females are smaller than the males, and their colours, especially on the neck and shoulders, are less brilliant. The young, which are at first covered with loose yellow down, are, when fledged, of a duller colour, but other- wise similar to the old birds, with the exception of the metallic tints on the neck: even then their white rump easily distinguishes them from the young of the Stock Dove, and at the first moult they acquire their full plumage. It hardly comes within the scope of this work to enter into details respecting the domesticated varieties sprung from this stock. Many of them, as Darwin has remarked, would, if found wild, have been ranked as distinct species, whilst not a few present even structural peculiarities, which would certainly have led ornithologists to place them in dif- ferent genera. A peculiar interest, however, attaches itself to the Homing Pigeon, one of the least removed from the original stock, and often erroneously called the Carrier. The practice of using Pigeons for the conveyance of messages is of great antiquity, and Dr. Leith Adams (Ibis, 1864, p. 26) states that on one of the walls of the Temple of Medinet Haboo is a sculpture of the time of Rameses III., n.c. 1297, representing that monarch as having just assumed the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, whilst a priest in the regal procession is sending out four Pigeons to convey the news abroad, shewing that even then they were used for this purpose. The following observations respecting the ROCK DOVE. 19 latest performances of the Homing Pigeon will, therefore, be read with interest; especially as they proceed from that great authority, Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, the originator of the recent utilization of this variety by the Trinity House :— ‘‘ The variation of the Rock Dove in a state of domestica- tion is capable of being carried out to a very remarkable degree by careful selection of brood-stock. Not only can the colours of the original species be varied, or even their arrangement reversed, but strange modifications can be per- petuated; such as the production of frills or hoods, and an increase in the number of the tail-feathers, varying from the normal twelve up to forty. Structural alterations are also effected, as in the rounded head of the short-faced Tumbler, or the elongated beak of the fancy Carrier. The latter breed is frequently confounded with the Homing or Voya- geur Pigeon, which is only altered from the wild original by a larger cerebral development, greater size and muscular power, and an extraordinary increase in the breadth of the primary flight-feathers of the wing. “‘ Careful training, and breeding from the best specimens, have greatly increased the faculty that these Homing birds have for returning to their lofts from long distances. The system of beginning with a few miles, and increasing until fifty and even a hundred miles are taken at a stage, causes the loss of the weaker and the less intelligent birds, and the perpetuation of the best of the race. The result has been remarkable. Some thirty years since it was rarely the case that in the Belgian pigeon-races of 300 miles, even a few birds returned home on the day of their liberation, but now it is unusual, in good weather, for any of the prizes in a 500 miles race, not to be won on the very same day that the birds are flown. Thus in the great Belgian national race of the present year (1882), which took place from Morcenx, south of Bordeaux, to Brussels, a distance of 510 miles, 1,674 birds were liberated at 4.12 a.m., the wind being S.W., and the weather clear, the first bird reached home at 4.37 p.m.; his speed having been about 1,800 yards per minute. One hundred and fifty-five birds were back the 20 COLUMBID&. same day, and the match was over early next day, when the winner of the two hundred and eighth, or last prize, was sent to the club for identification. The return of these birds is not unfrequently spoken of as a peculiar manifestation of instinct, but it depends upon observation and power of flight ; and the best bred birds will be lost if they are taken untrained 100 miles from home. In this island, where the cloudier state of the atmosphere interferes greatly with the view of the birds, distances equal to those on the Continent have not been accomplished, but races are regularly organized, and this year several have been successfully flown from Cherbourg, Arras, St. Quentin, &c., to all parts of England. ‘‘The utilization of Homing pigeons in the conveyance of letters microscopically reduced, from Tours to Paris during the siege of 1870-71, is well known; and birds are now reared by both Germans and French in all those fortresses which are liable to be beleaguered in time of war. In England the Trinity House have utilized them in carrying messages from the light-ships, and they are also being employed by the Government on some of the Indian stations.’’ TURTLE DOVE. 21 COLUMB&. ; COLUMBIDA. TuRTUR comMuNIS, Selby.* THE TURTLE DOVE. Columba turtur. Turtur, Selby}.—Bill rather slender, the tip of the upper mandible gently deflected, that of the lower scarcely exhibiting the appearance of an angle: base of the upper mandible covered with two soft, tumid, bare substances covering the * Naturalist’s Library, Ornithology, vol. v. pp. 153 and 171 (1835). + Tom. cit. p. 169. 22 COLUMBID. nostrils. Tarsi rather shorter than the middle toe ; inner toe longer than the outer. Tail, of twelve feathers, rather Jong and considerably rounded or graduated. Wings rather long and pointed, the first quill a little shorter than the second, which is the longest. THe Turtir Dove is only asummer-visitant to the British Islands, arriving in the southern districts about the end of April or beginning of May, according to the nature of the season. Owing to the great increase of conditions suitable to their habits, these birds are both more numerous and far more widely distributed than in former years. They frequent woods, fir plantations, and high thick hedges dividing arable land, and in such situations they make a flat nest of a few twigs, frequently so slight as to seem incapable of retaining the eggs. Its elevation varies considerably: sometimes it is not more than four feet from the ground ; the average distance is about twelve ; and it has been found at least forty feet up, on the top of a pine in a shrubbery. The eggs, deposited from the middle of May onwards, are, as usual, two in number, of a glossy creamy white, rather pointed at one end, and measure about 1:2 by ‘9 in. The parent birds take turns in the task of incubation, which lasts a fortnight, and, sometimes at least, two broods are reared in the season, Mr. Cecil Smith having shot a bird on the 1st September which could only have just left the nest. They are partial to grain, pulse, and seeds of various sorts, and, like other members of the family, they drink regularly. Their flight is rapid and, amongst trees, remarkably tortuous. The note is a low plaintive coo, uttered more especially by the male, and the pleasure experienced by the lover of nature on hearing this harbinger of returning summer is second only to that caused by the earlier note of the Cuckoo. Being somewhat suscep- tible to cold, the majority of the Turtle Doves take their departure for southern climes in September ; but in sheltered situations, and especially in southern counties, some remain considerably later, and an example has even been obtained as late as 18th November. The Report of the Committee of the British Association on the Migration of Birds in 1880, shews that fifteen struck the Casquets lighthouse between TURTLE DOVE. 23 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. on September 7th-8th. In the autumn, young and old birds may be found in small flocks upon the stubbles and among the root-crops, and are at that time decidedly beneficial to the agriculturist by devouring the seeds of numerous weeds. In Cornwall it appears to be a somewhat irregular visitant, nor is it very common in Devon, but in the other southern counties, and up to Lincoln, it may be described as generally distributed, and breeding where the nature of the country is suitable to it. Shropshire, especially between Shrewsbury and Ludlow, seems to be a favourite district ; and Mr. Eyton says that it is known there by the name of the Wrekin Dove. In western Wales it is rare, but it occurs in Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. As a rule, however, to the north of the line of Sheffield it can only be considered as a strageler on migration; but it has recently been known to breed in Durham, although not as yet in Northumberland. The last remark applies to Scotland, although it has occurred in many counties, especially in those on the western side of the kingdom: on migration it also strays to the Hebrides, to the Orkneys, and to the Shetlands. In some of the wooded parts of Ireland it is generally distributed, but in the western districts it was formerly unknown, and notwithstanding the increase of larch and other plantations, Mr. R. Warren has only observed three specimens in Mayo and Sligo within the last twenty years. A straggler to the Feroes, it occurs throughout a great part of Scandinavia, and even at such an elevation as Quickjok, although somewhat rare and local in Denmark. Throughout Central and Southern Europe it is found from spring to autumn, being especially abundant in the south at the epochs of migration ; in South Russia it occurs in large flocks; it abounds in Asia Minor, Palestine and Persia, chiefly on passage, and was obtained by Dr. Henderson in Yarkand. In Turkestan, South-western Siberia, and India it is represented by TJ’. ferrago, Eversmann, in which the tips of the feathers on the side of the neck are slate-grey and not white ; and eastwards, again, the latter species is 24 COLUMBIDA. replaced by 7’. orientalis. South of the line of the Medi- terranean, it occurs at Madeira and in the Canaries, and is found throughout Northern Africa to Egypt, where Captain Shelley says that it breeds: its representative, JT’. isabel- linus, which is also a migrant, being, however, the more abundant species there. Von Heuglin met with J. com- munis in the Dahlak archipelago, in the Red Sea, and on the shores of the Tzana Lake in Abyssinia (12° N. lat.), at an elevation of over 6,000 feet, during the month of May. The adult male in summer has the beak brown; the irides reddish-brown ; bare skin about the eye red; crown, nape, and hind neck bluish-ash, inclining to brown; on the lower part of the side of the neck are several rows of black feathers broadly margined with white; scapulars, back and rump ash-brown, with darker centres to each feather; the larger and the external smaller wing-coverts dull grey; the remainder with the tertials cinnamon-brown with dark centres ; quill-feathers clove-brown; upper tail-coverts and the two central tail-feathers clove-brown; the other tail- feathers lead-grey broadly tipped with white, which runs up the whole outer webs of the two exterior feathers ; chin nearly white, neck and breast pale vinous; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts white; under surface of the tail-feathers black with broad white tips, as on the upper surface; under wing-coverts and flanks bluish-grey; tarsi and feet red ; claws dark brown. The whole length is about eleven inches and a half: from the carpal joint to the end of the wing seven inches ; the second quill-feather a shade longer than the first, which again is longer than the third. The colours in the female are less bright and pure than those of the male, and she is rather smaller in size. Tn young birds, prior to the autumnal moult, the general colour of the head and body is hair-brown ; the back rather darker than the side of the neck, on which there are no black and white feathers; the wing-coverts tipped with buffy-white ; the quill-feathers slightly tinged on their outer edges with rufous; belly and under tail-coverts white ; flanks TURTLE DOVE. 25 bluish-grey ; tail-feathers above hair-brown, on the under surface blackish-brown: the outer feathers on each side with the external web, and the next two with the ends, white; tarsi and feet brown. Early in September the vinous tint is assumed on the neck and breast, and the black and white feathers which form the half collar begin to make their appearance. The upper figure in the engraving at the head of this subject represents an adult bird; the lower figure was taken from a young bird of the year. The vignette represents in outline the form of the breast-bone of this species, of the natural size. VOL. Iii. E 26 COLUMBID®. COLUMB_.E COLUMBIDA. Ecropistes MIGRATORIUS (Linnwus”). THE PASSENGER PIGEON. Eectopistes migratorvus. Ecroristrs, Swainsont. Bill small, slender and notched. Wings rather elongated, pointed; the second feather longest. Tail very long and extremely cuneate. Tarsi very short, half-covered anteriorly by feathers; anterior scales imbricate ; lateral scales small and reticulate. The American PassENGER PIGkEon was included in the first ‘dition of this work on the strength of the occurrence of a single specimen recorded by Dr. Fleming in his ‘ History of British Animals,’ p. 145, as having been ‘‘ shot while perched on a wall in the neighbourhood of a pigeon-house, Columba migratoria, Linnens, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 285 (1766). + Zoological Journal, ili. p. 362 (1827). PASSENGER PIGEON. 27 at Westhall in the parish of Monymeal, Fifeshire, the 31st -of December, 1825. The feathers were quite fresh and entire, like those of a wild bird.”’ To this in the 2nd and 3rd Editions was added the record of another, which was sent to Mr. John Norman, of Royston, for preservation, the follow- ing notice of the occurrence being contributed by Mr. Hale Wortham. This bird (now in the Saffron Walden Museum) was obtained between Royston and Chishill, early in the month of July, 1844, by the sons of the tenant of the farm called Known’s Folly, about two miles east of Royston. When the lads first saw the bird it appeared so much exhausted that they could have knocked it down with a pole, if they had had one; they, however, fetched a gun and shot it. When examined the crop was quite empty, but in the stomach there were some few seeds, resembling cole-seed, and a few small stones, but no barley or any traces of artificial food. The plumage was perfect, and neither the wings, the tail, nor the legs exhibited any sign that the bird had been in confinement. ' Of the correctness of the identification of these two exam- ples there can be no question; but it will be observed that in neither case does the date of the occurrence corre- spond with that of the usual periods of migration. More- over, although there is no proof that Passenger Pigeons were brought over to this country prior to 1825, yet Audubon states that in March, 1830, he bought about 350 of these birds in the market of New York, and carried most of them alive to England, distributing them amongst several noble- men (Orn. Biog. i. p. 326); thus shewing that there was then no difficulty in bringing them over; and, as a matter of fact, they have subsequently been imported with frequency. The next instance is recorded by Thompson in the ‘ Birds of Ireland,’ iii. p. 443, in which he quotes the following letter from Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, Junr., writing from Tralee in July 1850 :—‘‘I had in my possession, about two years ago, a Passenger Pigeon which was caught near this town when unable to fly from fatigue. From this circumstance there can, I think, be no doubt that it came direct from America,as a bird of its powers of flight would not have 98 COLUMBIDA. been exhausted unless it came from some very great distance. It never became tame, though I had it in confinement for about two years, at first alone, and afterwards in company with other pigeons. It would walk backwards and forwards in a very shy manner when any one looked at it, and always avoided the other birds.”” Thompson adds: ‘ The account of this individual leads one to believe that it may have crossed the Atlantic.”’ The fourth example is recorded in a note by Lord Binning in Turnbull’s ‘ Birds of East Lothian,’ p. 41 (1867), as being in the collection of Lord Haddington, who shot it at Mellerstain in Berwickshire; adding that a gentleman in that county was known to have turned out several Pas- senger Pigeons shortly before this one was shot, and it was rather remarkable that nothing was heard of the others. A supposed Passenger Pigeon was recorded in ‘ The Field,’ September 11th, 1869, as having been shot near Melbourne, in Derbyshire, but the bird was not preserved. The latest undoubted occurrence is that of an example shot near Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire, by Lord Harry Phipps, and examined in the flesh on 13th October, 1876, by Mr. John Hancock, who, in the ‘ Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham,’ v. p. 388, described it as follows:—‘‘ The quill- feathers in the wings were much worn and broken, and in the forehead above the bill they are apparently worn off to the skull, as though the bird had been trying to get out of a cage or some other enclosure ; therefore I cannot come to any other conclusion than that this specimen, a female, had made its escape from confinement.” There is no authentic record of the occurrence of the Passenger Pigeon on the Continent of Europe; or even on Heligoland, famed for its attractiveness to American strag- glers. As regards two at least of the above examples obtained in the British Islands, there seems to be a strong probability that they were birds which had acquired their freedom ; but with regard to the others, it may be borne in mind that this species is capable of long-continued flights, and is known to pass over a great extent of country with a PASSENGER PIGEON, 29 rapidity which Audubon estimated as at least a mile a minute. Passenger Pigeons are frequently captured in the State of New York with their crops still filled with the undigested grains of rice that must have been taken in the distant fields of Georgia and South Carolina, apparently proving that they had passed over the intervening space within a few hours. After weighing these facts, it has been deemed advisable on the whole to retain this species in the present Edition. This beautiful Pigeon is found throughout North America from the Atlantic to the great Central Plains, to the west of which its food supply is limited, and its presence correspond- ingly restricted: it has, however, been recently obtained on the Pacific slopes, and in Nevada. Northwards it was observed on the Mackenzie River as high as 65°, whilst on the coast of Hudson’s Bay it only reached 58°, even in warm summers: as a straggler, however, a young male bird is recorded by Sir James Ross as having flown on board the Victory during a storm, whilst crossing Baffin’s Bay in latitude 731 N., on the 31st July, 1829. In the Southern States it is of comparatively rare occurrence, but it has been found breeding down to 82° N. in Mississippi; as a straggler it has visited Cuba, and, perhaps, the Bermudas. Considera- tions of food, and not of temperature, mainly influence its migrations, for large columns frequently move northwards early in March with 20° of frost. Graphic accounts of its migrations, and its immense breeding communities, will be found in the ornithological works of Audubon, Wilson, and, for more recent information, the ‘ History of North American Birds,’ by Messrs. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, may be con- sulted. Its food consists largely of the service-berry (Ame- lanchier alnifolia), acorns and beech-mast, and as soon as the supply becomes exhausted, the immense flocks suddenly disappear, and do not return for a long period. The nest is composed of a few dried twigs laid crosswise, and eges may be found by the middle of March. It has been stated that only one egg is laid, but subsequent expe- rience has shown that, as with other Pigeons, two is the 30 COLUMBIDZ. usual number: they are white, of an oval shape, and average 1°5 in leneth by 1:1 in breadth. Incubation lasts sixteen days, the male taking turns with the female. An account of the breeding of the Passenger Pigeon in the Zoological Gardens will be found in the Proceedings of the Socicty for 1833, p. 10, and other similar instances are on record. In the adult male the beak is black; head, back of the neck, wing-coverts, back, and upper tail-coverts bluish-grey ; sides of the neck reddish-chestnut, richly glossed with metallic gold and violet; scapulars, tertials, and middle of back olive-brown ; primaries lead-grey with lighter coloured outer margins, the shafts black; the tail, of twelve feathers, long, cuneiform ; the four middle tail-feathers the longest, lanceolate and pointed; the outer four on each side gradu- ated; the middle pair dark brown; the rest pearl-grey on the outer web, white internally, each with a patch of reddish-brown at the base of the inner web, followed by another of black; chin bluish-grey; throat and breast pur- plish-chestnut, becoming violet on the belly and flanks; vent and under tail-coverts white; legs and feet red. Total leneth seventeen inches; wing eight inches and a half. The female is smaller, and much duller in colour ; beneath, pale ash instead of chestnut, except a tinge on the neck. Young birds have most of the feathers of the head and body margined with dirty white. SAND-GROUSE. 351 PTEROCLETES. PTEROCLID2. SYRRHAPTES PARADOXUS (Pallas).* PALLAS’S SAND-GROUSE. Syrruapres, [/liger.+—Bill small, gradually decurved from the base to the point ; nostrils basal, hidden in the feathers ; wings very long, pointed, the first primary longest ; tail, of sixteen feathers, cuneate ; the two central ones long and tapering ; tarsi very short and strong, covered with downy feathers to the toes, which are three in number, all in front, and united by a membrane as far as the claws ; hallux obsolete; soles rugous ; claws broad and obtuse. In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ 1882, pp: 312-332, Dr. Hans Gadow has recently published the results of a careful examination into the affinities of the Pteroclide, with special reference to the opinion expressed * Tetrao paradoxa, Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs, ii., App. p. 712, Tab. F. (2778): + Uliger, Prodromus, p. 243 (1811). 32 PTEROCLIDA. by the late Professor Garrod (P. Z. 5. 1874, pp. 249-259), that they must certainly be included in the same sub-order with the Pigeons, although forming two quite independent families. In arriving at that conclusion, it would, however, appear that a little too much stress was laid upon the points in which the Sand-grouse resemble the Pigeons and differ from the Fowls, without equal consideration having been given to their affinities with the Tetraonide and with the Plovers. Putting aside minor points, the principal features may be briefly summed up as follows:—The nestling- plumage of the Sand-grouse is a thick downy covering like that of the Plovers and Fowls; and, like them, the young can shift for themselves, whereas the Pigeons when hatched are almost nude, and quite helpless. The suppression of the hind toe, characteristic of Syrrhaptes, does not occur in Pigeons or Fowls, but it is a common feature in Plovers. Unlike the majority of the Columbe, the Pteroclide possess a gall-bladder; and in the great development of the ceca, they differ from the Columbide, and resemble the Galline. Their mode of drinking is entirely different from that of the Pigeons; their flight is rapid and Plover-like, without any of the gliding or soaring motion characteristic of Pigeons; their note is certainly unlike a coo; and, lastly, their eggs, although elliptical in shape, are coloured, and are at least three in number, like those of many Plovers, whereas with Pigeons the eggs are two in number, and white. On the other hand, the Sand-grouse resemble those genera of Pigeons which possess an oil-gland, in having it naked: and not tufted as in the Fowls and Plovers; the skull and wing-bones are Columbine, and in their myology also the Sand-grouse are more nearly allied to the Pigeons than to any other group. After much consideration the Editor thinks it advisable to adopt for the Sand-grouse the separate Order to which Pro- fessor Huxley gave the name of Pteroclomorphe,* subse- quently modified by Mr. P. L. Sclater to Pterocletes. No event in the annals of ornithology has excited more * Pp. Z. S. 1868, p. 303. + Ibis, 1880, p. 407. SAND-GROUSE. 33 interest than the irruption of Pallas’s Sand-grouse, which commenced, so far as regards the British Islands, in 1859, and attained its maximum in 1863. The history of the visitation has been admirably narrated by Professor Newton (Ibis, 1864, pp. 185-222): details as regards the eastern counties being subsequently furnished by My. H. Stevenson (Birds of Norfolk, i. pp. 876-404); and from their able treatises the present abbreviated account is mainly derived. The earliest date on record of the appearance of the Sand- srouse in Britain was about the beginning of July, 1859, at Walpole St. Peter’s, about two miles from the Wash, Norfolk; the example, a fine male, being secured for the Lynn Museum; and a notice of its capture communicated to the ‘ Zoologist,’ p. 6764, and to the ‘Ibis’ (1859, p. 472), by the Rev. F. L. Currie. On 9th July, another male was shot from a flock of three, near Tremadoc, at the north end of Cardigan Bay, and presented by Mr. Chaffers to the Derby Museum, at Liverpool. A notice of this had already appeared in the ‘ Zoologist’ (p. 6728), from Mr. T. J. Moore, who subsequently gave a full account of it in the ‘Ibis’ (1860, pp. 105-110), illustrated by one of Mr. Joseph Wolf’s admirable plates. In November, 1859, Mr. George Jell, of Lydd, in Kent, preserved a specimen for Mr. Simmons, of East Peckham, near Tunbridge, and these three are all which are known to have been obtained in Great Britain prior to 1863; all statements as to arrivals during the intervening years having apparently originated in error. On the continent, in the same year, a pair appear to have been obtained at Wilna, in Western Russia, in May; a third example was at Hobro, in Jutland; and a fourth, one of a pair which had haunted the sandhills near Zandvoort, in Holland, since July, was shot there in October. In 1860, one was obtained at Sarepta, on the Lower Volga. In 1863 came the great invasion, extending westwards to Naran, on the coast of Donegal. To understand it, allusion must first be made to a portion of its course on the conti- VOL. III. F 34 PTEROCLIDZ. nent. The most eastern, and also the most northern locality of which there is any record, as regards this migration, is Archangel; a specimen in the Museum of that town being recorded by Messrs. Alston and Harvie- Brown,* another being in a private collection there ; and a specimen was also obtained at Moscow.f The earliest date that can be given with precision is the 6th of May, at Skolonitz, in Moravia. By the 21st of May Heligoland was reached, and the same day the first British examples of that year, two males and one female, were shot out of a flock of fourteen, at Thropton, in Northumberland. The next day birds had reached Eccleshall, in Staffordshire, where two were shot out of a flock of about twenty; and from that date onwards the records become numerous. It is unnecessary to recapitulate the exact localities and details of each capture, so carefully worked out by Professor Newton and Mr. Stevenson; and it will be sufficient to say that in Norfolk and Suffolk seventy-five birds were obtained, a number far exceeding that obtained in any equal area. The most interesting of these instances was that of a slightly wounded bird which was taken alive near Elveden, and sent by Professor Newton to the London Zoological Gardens, where it lived for some time. In Lincolnshire several were obtained in May; and early in December about twenty were shot out of a flock numbering between forty and fifty; many more, however, are believed to have been eaten or destroyed in ignorance of their rarity.{ In Yorkshire about twenty-four examples were killed; and in Durham and Northumberland about twenty-six. On the eastern side of Scotland, birds were obtained in Hadding- tonshire, where, besides the slain, one was kept alive by Lord Haddington; in Forfarshire, seven or cight examples ; in Perthshire, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Elgin, Caithness, and Sutherland ; even on Unst, the northernmost of the Shet- lands, an example was obtained on 4th November, out of a small flock; and one also on Benbecula, in the Outer * This, 1873, p. 66. + Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. p. 77. + Cordeaux, Birds of the Humber District, p. 80. SAND-GROUSE. 39D Hebrides,* on October 13th. In the south, before the end of June, Sand-grouse had visited the flat shores of Essex, Kent, and Sussex; the sands of Slapton, in South Devon; the Land’s End, and St. Agnes, Scilly Islands. At Heanton, in North Devon, a survivor was obtained in December ; and at Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire, another, which was seen in the flesh by the late Mr. Gould, was obtained 8th Feb- ruary, 1864; the latest date for these islands. Eccleshall, in Staffordshire; Oswestry; the sandy coasts of Cheshire and Lancashire ; Penrith, in Cumberland, were visited; and then, after a considerable interval, Sand-grouse turned up again in Renfrewshire and Stirling. Inland they occurred in various localities: on the flats of Cambridgeshire, the sandy heaths of Aldershot, and even so near the metropolis as Barnet. In Ireland examples were killed at Ross; and at Drumbeg and Naran, both in co. Donegal; the latter being the most western locality on record. Judging from the materials available, it would appear that a large majority were obtained from May 21st onwards to the end of June, by which time the awakened and widely-spread interest in the new visitants, taking its usual forms of persecution and extermination, had done its worst. Some may have sought refuge on the continent, which they had left; but, at all events, by the middle of November they had disappeared from the favoured counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. In the remote and scantily peopled districts of the wild West a few individuals lingered throughout the autumn and winter ; but even there, by February 1864, the last of the invaders of 1863 had succumbed. The birds which arrived on our shores formed, however, but a portion of a far larger eastern horde, the main body of which, in all probability, never reached the British Islands. The meagre information as to their occurrence in Russia has already been given. From Galicia, on the 6th of May, the Sand-grouse pressed onwards to Pesth, Vienna, and other Austrian localities; the outlying wing of the army sending forth its stragglers as far south as Rimini, on the Adriatic ; * R. Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 239. 36 PTEROCLID. Belluno and Novara, in Northern Italy; Perpignan at the eastern, and Bayonne at the western extremities of the Pyrenean chain. In France, according to Degland and Gerbe, they were found all over the basins of the Seine, the Loire, the Gironde, and the Rhone, reaching as far as the shores of the Atlantic, where the date of the last capture, at Sables d'Olonne, in Vendée, in February 1864, coincides with that of the last and one of the most western of the occurrences in England. In the Baltic they occurred both on the southern shores, and as far as Nykoping, in Sweden ; whilst examples were obtained in Norway up to 62° N. lat. ; and a flock even reached the distant Freroes in May. The main body appears to have swept through Germany as far as the North Sea, and finding the sandhills of the coasts of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium suited to their habits, they took up their abode there in considerable numbers. The dunes of Zandvoort, already visited by a pair in 1859, again attracted several bands, and at least one clutch of eges was taken; but it was in Denmark that the most interest- ing details were obtained, and the following abstract of a paper by Professor Reinhardt, of Copenhagen, is furnished by Professor Newton :— “Karly in June last, Herr Bulow, an officer in the Custom-house at Ringkjobing, sent the Professor several living birds which had been snared by a gunner on their nests in the above-mentioned district, together with four of their eggs. One of the latter was found by Herr Bulow in the box which conveyed the birds, having been laid on the journey. It was colourless, indicating that it had been prematurely produced. The other three eges were fully coloured. It appears that this gunner found two nests of Syrrhaptes in his own neighbourhood, and a third at a place called Bierregaard. On two of the nests both the birds (in each case the hens first and then the cocks) were caught, on the 6th June. These nests were near one another; and one, containing three eggs, consisted of a slight depression in the sand, lined with a little dry marram. The other had only two eggs, was placed amoung some ling, and furnished SAND-GROUSE. 37 in alike manner. The third nest was similar to the first, and was half-way up a sandhill. Of the three eggs sent to Herr Bulow, he found that two were quite fresh, but in the third the foetus had begun to form, shewing that they had been taken from different nests. Some more nests were found by other people, but unfortunately none of them were taken care of. The gunner, at Herr Bulow’s request, made further search, but not until the 27th of July did he suc- ceed in making any new discoveries. On that day he met with a flock of about a dozen birds, of which he shot two. He then went again to Bierregaard, where at last he put a bird off its nest among some stones in the sand, and con- taining three eggs. Next day he returned to it, set a snare, in which, after two or three hours, the hen-bird was caught ; and a few hours later he procured the cock in the same way. In the interval he found, to his surprise, that one of the egos had hatched. He took away with him the pair of old birds, the newly-born chick, and the remaining two eggs, which, on getting home, he put in a box of wool by the fire, where a second egg was hatched. The third proved to be rotten. ‘The chicks only lived one day, and it seems they were not preserved. On that same day (the 28th), while waiting about for these birds to be caught, he stumbled on another nest, from which he shot both the owners.”’ Returning to the subject of migration: the Sand-grouse visited Heligoland, where about thirty-five were shot in May and June, and a few in autumn, when they also occurred at Norderney ; Borkhum in May and June, and again on their return, in September. The last recorded individual of this invasion was obtained alive, having flown against the telegraph wires in June 1864, near Plauen, in Saxony, and was sent to the Zoological Gardens in Dresden.* Mr. Dresser states that about twenty were said to have been seen in that year, and three of them shot at Brody, Galicia; but this record may possibly refer to the occurrence in previous years already cited. As regards the numbers of this invasion, it is undoubted that a very large proportion passed unrecorded, even in the * KH. Opel, Journal fiir Ornithologie, 1864, p, 312. 38 PTEROCLID. British Islands; and, when writing in 1864, Professor Newton considered that the total could be set down as under 700; an estimate which is probably a very moderate one, especially when the number of birds taken and eaten in France is considered. In 1872 a small flock of Sand-grouse were reported to have frequented the coast of Northumberland, opposite the Fern Islands, from the end of May to 6th June; but a bird which was at first stated to have been shot, proved, on enquiry, to have got away.* On 25th and 29th June four birds of this species were described as having been seen near Girvan, Ayrshire; but there is no confirmatory record of similar occurrences in other parts of the British Islands or on the Continent. On 4th May, 1876, a solitary example, obtained near Modena, in Italy, might have been expected to prove the precursor of another invasion; but no further arrivals either on the Continent or in Britain appear to have been recorded until, on the 4th of October of that same year, a male and female were shot near Kilcock, co. Kildare, Ireland ; a notice both of the occurrence and of the places where the specimens might be inspected, being published in ‘ The Field’ of 14th October, by Mr. W. N. Coates. With these stragglers the list of visitants closes for the present. Essentially a native of the Asiatic steppes, this species was first made known to Pallas as an inhabitant of those Kirghiz plains whose western boundary is the Caspian Sea. A straggler across the political frontier between Asia and Europe, reached Sarepta on the Lower Volga in the winter of 1848, and, coming under the notice of the Moravian settlement there, Herr Moschler enrolled this species in his list in 1858 as a very rare European bird. It is probable that our visitors came from this western extremity of their range. Henke (Ibis 1882, p. 220) says that Sand-grouse are occasionally found near Astrakhan in winter; and in 1876 great numbers bred on the Kirghiz steppes, where the * J. Hancock, N. H. Tr. Northum, and Durham, vi. p. 87. + R. Gray, Ibis, 1872, p. 335. SAND-GROUSE. 39 nomads told him that they had not previously observed them. Eastwards, Pallas’s Sand-grouse is found throughout the sandy wastes of Turkestan to Samarcand ; throughout the Kirghiz steppes to Lake Balkash; in the deserts at the foot of the Tian Shan range; and in both the steppes and the deserts of Mongolia, and in the basin of the Tarei-nor. Colonel Prjevalsky * states that in summer it goes north even beyond the shores of Lake Baikal, where it breeds ; spending the winter in those parts of the Gobi Desert which are free from snow, and in Ala-shan, where it is met with from October onwards in flocks of several thousands. Some winter in the Hoang-ho Valley in South-east Mongolia, and during severe weather the plains between Tien-sin and Pekin and of the Pechili are covered with them; the natives, who call them ‘‘Sha-chee,” taking numbers of them with nets.t Southwards, this species extends to Koko-nor and Tsaidam, but it does not ascend to Kansu or Northern Thibet, being there replaced by the only other known species of the genus, Syrrhaptes thibetanus, an inhabitant of much greater altitudes. These enormous flocks feed largely on the seeds of Agrio- phyllum gobicum, so that the number of wintering birds depends on the supply of that food, although they occasion- ally feed on other seeds and berries. In the crops of some of those killed in Norfolk only the seeds of plants proper to the sandy coast were found, without any trace of animal or mixed food; the gizzards containing an enormous quantity of small stones and sand. They drink several times a day, preferring fresh to brackish water. Most observers agree in describing the flight of this Sand- erouse as much resembling in its style and rapidity that of the Golden Plover. Prjevalsky says that when a large flock is on the wing, the noise is like the sighing of the wind and can be heard at a considerable distance. In the air the male birds utter a peculiar note, like “‘ truck-turuk, truck-turuk,”’ especially when in small flocks. Prjevalsky states that the complement of eggs is three, which is the usual number with other Sand-grouse. In the * In Rowley’s Miscellany, pt. ix. p. 382. + Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 341. 4.0 PTEROCLID®. beginning of June he found in Ala-shan three nests with three eggs in each, one set being quite fresh, the two other sets very much incubated. It will be remembered that three was the largest number of eggs found in one clutch in Denmark, and three is well known to be the complement of eggs with other members of the Pteroclide. Herr Radde, however, who had excellent opportunities of observing this species in Dauria, and whose detailed account is translated a little further on, says that ‘“‘the eggs go up to four,” although it will be observed that he never mentions finding more than three ; and in the frontispiece to the ‘ Reisen im Siiden von Ost-Sibirien,’ Band ii., he figures a pair of birds by the side of a nest containing four eggs. There may be some mistake in this, or it may point to another paradoxical character in this species, indicating a closer affinity to the Plovers than is shewn by the other members of the order ; but, at all events, such a distinct assertion must not be passed over in silence. The eges are elliptical, stone-buff in colour, with darker blotches of purple-brown, and average 1°5 in length by 1:1 in breadth.* The following is a translation of the full account given by Herr G. Radde in his above-cited work, pp. 292-294 :— ““The basin of the Tarei-nor, in Dauria, is situated in about 5O°N. lat. and 116° E. long. The nest is very simple, re- sembling those of the other Sand-grouse, and several pairs, but never many, usually breed in company. In the salt- impregnated soil on the Tarei-nor, usually on the ground which has been dry for years, a shallow hollow about five inches in diameter is scratched out, and the edge is lined with a few salsola shoots and grasses; but the latter are fre- quently absent. Eggs go up to four (t.e., do not exceed four). Syrrhaptes does not winter regularly on the north-eastern edge of the elevated Gobi, in the low spurs of the northern portion of the Himalaya range. On the 10th (22nd) March, * An egg laid in the Zoological Gardens on 21st June, 1861, by one of several birds sent from China, was described and figured by Professor Newton, P. Z. 8. TS61, p. 397, pl. 39, fig. 1. SAND-GROUSE. Al 1856, when at night the thermometer fell to — 13° Réaumur, and at midday rose to + 2°, the first flock of the present species arrived at the Tarei-nor. They flew in close skeins like Plovers. In the spring these flocks are composed of four or six pairs, as the birds have then paired, but in the autumn more than a hundred collect together in one flock. When on the wing they utter a very audible cry, from which their Mongol name (Njiipterjiin) is derived; and the pairs fly close together. A male, shot on the 17th (29th) March, had the testes as large as a cedar-nut; and late in March eggs are to be found, for a female shot on the 30th March (11th April) had an egg ready for exclusion in her ovary. This Sand-grouse breeds twice, and sometimes three times, in the season. On the 20th April (2nd May) I found fully- formed young in three eggs in one nest, and the next day I took two fresh eggs. On the 14th (26th) May I again found fresh eggs. The young are certainly able to shift for themselves when hatched, and this fact places them decidedly near the Fowls, in spite of their manifold relationship to the Pigeons. I first saw the young birds running after their mother on the 30th April (12th May). In the morning, especially in the spring, they visit the fresh water to drink regularly at the same hour, and in April this was at nine o’clock. Single pairs arrived from different directions, calling and being answered by those which had already arrived, and which they then joined: they stood on the edge of the water in a line, usually eight to twelve together, not remaining there long, but soon leaving, apparently to feed. They are fond of the young juicy shoots of the Salicornie, and regularly graze on these as the Bustard does on some of the grasses. In the spring I found the crop and stomach full of the seeds of the Salsola. During the summer they are fond of basking in the sun, and I then generally found several pairs together. Like fowls, they scratch a hole in the greyish-white salty hillocks which cover large tracts on the banks of the Tarei-nor, and on which the salt-plants grow. I have often watched them resting in these places ; at first they run about as if search- ing for something, and then about eleven o’clock, when it VOL. III. G 42 PTEROCLIDE. becomes hot, they rest, scratching a hole in the ground, and, like barn-door fowls, working themselves in comfortably, lying on one side, with their usually smooth plumage puffed out. They do not place a sentinel, but sit motionless, their black-sprinkled plumage assimilating so well with the soil that they can scarcely be distinguished. When disturbed they rise, uttering a cry, and fly off with great rapidity, as do all that hear the alarm-cry, although not belonging to the same flock. They first pack together, then divide into small flocks, and by degrees return to their resting-places. So swift are they on the wing, that it is scarcely possible for the fastest Faleon to catch them; and their flight is more rapid and straighter than that of the Pigeon. I doubt, however, if they can run far, as, when I have been watching them, although they ran swiftly, they did not continue for any distance. It is curious how the large flocks migrate away in the summer. I had a peculiar instance of this from personal observation. Late in May I went to visit the Aral Island, in the Tarei-nor, and had to pass the large tract where the lake was dried out; and in the forenoon I saw a number of flocks of Sand-grouse which inhabited this place, and were so shy that I could not possibly approach them, so, after many unsuccessful attempts to shoot them, I gave up the chase till the evening. At sunset they had collected into two large flocks of at least a thousand indi- viduals each, and were making a great noise; and it was now impossible to approach them. After being several times disturbed, they left the shores of the Tarei-nor and went to the neighbouring wintering-place of the flocks (of sheep, &c.), where, from the numerous droppings, there was always a large blackish-brown patch on the sterile steppe. Here they remained undisturbed, as the darkness prevented me from following them; but they continued calling loudly. On the next day none were to be seen; and later on I did not see one. The herdsmen also assured me that there were no Sand-grouse left, but that they would return in autumn; and such proved to be the case; for in October, when north of the Dalai-nor, a large, noisy flock passed SAND-GROUSE. 43 me, travelling from the south to the north. Here, on the north-east of the Gobi, if they remain in the autumn, the natives calculate on a mild winter. ..... The flesh of this Sand-grouse is white and very good.” From the above narrative it will be observed that this Sand- grouse is liable to sudden movements in large flocks, but of the cause which produced the invasion of 1863 no more is known now than it was then, although various hypotheses have been started. As regards the merits of its flesh, which Herr Radde naturally found excellent in the deserts of the Tarei-nor, Mr. Stevenson, experimenting upon exam- ples which had first been skinned, found them, at their best, nearly equal to a French Partridge; the only resem- blance to Grouse consisting in the two colours of the flesh, the outer portion of which is dark and that nearest the bone white: a feature which, it may be remarked, is common to the other Sand-grouse. In the adult male the bill is horn-colour, the crown of the head yellowish-grey, with dusky streaks; hind neck crossed by a band of orange, more intense at the sides, rest buff-grey ; back and scapulars ochraceous, barred with dark - brown anc black, as are the rump and upper tail-coverts, on which the bars gradually change into streaks; primaries lavender, with black shafts and dark tips, the outer quills attenuate, especially the first, which is the longest ; second- aries buff on the inner and black on the outer webs; wing- coverts buff, bordered with chestnut, forming a conspicuous band along the wing; tail of sixteen feathers, mostly tipped with white, grey centres, and rich buff inner webs barred with dark brown: the central pair buff, barred with black on the upper parts, then passing into grey, and then to dark brown near the filamentous tips, often exceeding the others by fully three inches ; chin buff; throat orange ; lower parts buff, with a narrow band of black-edged feathers on the chest, and a broader dark brown band on the abdomen and flanks ; under wing-coverts pale buff; under tail-coverts white, the lower ones long and pointed, with dark centres; legs and feet, down to the toes, covered with buff-white feathers. A4 PTEROCLIDZ. The young male differs in having the head more streaked with black ; the throat and neck are buff instead of orange, with a faint black gular ring; the band across the chest is at first absent ; the primaries are more sandy-coloured ; the upper parts are much spotted instead of being barred, and the central rectrices are hardly prolonged. The adult female has the crown and nape buff streaked with black, without the golden-orange of the male; the throat and sides of the head orange-buff, with a narrow black gular terminal band; upper parts and wing-coverts rather spotted than barred with black; chest-band very indistinct, but feathers on the abdomen dark brown through- out their greater parts; general colours duller, and central rectrices less elongated than in the adult male. Total length of the male about fifteen inches: wing ten inches; first primary one inch longer than second ; central rectrices extending three and even three and a half inches beyond the others. Female slightly smaller. Weight of well-conditioned birds of both sexes ten and a half ounces. Examples with recently moulted quills were obtained on 26th June, and birds shot in October, after their full change, were remarkable for the beauty and freshness of their plumage. The vignette represents the sternum of this species. CAPERCAILLIE. 45 GALLIN A. TETRAONID.E. ne TETRAO UROGALLUS, Linneus”. THE CAPERCAILLIE, WOOD GROUSE, OR COCK OF THE WOOD. Tetrao urogallus. Terrao.*—Bill short, strong ; upper mandible convex, and arched from the base to the tip. Nostrils basal, lateral, partly closed by an arched scale, and * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 273 (1766). tle. 46 TETRAONIDE. hidden from view by small closely-set feathers. Space above the eye naked, the skin red with papille, and fringed. Wings short, and rounded in form ; the fifth quill-feather the longest. Tail of eighteen feathers. Feet with the toes naked, three in front united as far as the first joint, and one toe behind, short, the edges of all pectinated. ‘Tarsi feathered to the junction of the toes. Tue term Capercaillie, sometimes written Capercally and Capercailzie, is of Gaelic origin, and, as usual, the best authorities differ in their interpretation of it. Both the derivation and the orthography are discussed at some length in Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown’s excellent monograph entitled ‘The Capercaillie in Scotland’ (1879), and, more tersely, by Professor Newton in the ‘ Encyclopzdia Britannica.’ The balance of authority appears to be in favour of the com- ponent words Cabhar, an old man (and by metaphor an old bird), and Coille, a wood; i.e. the old bird of the woed. It has also been derived from the Celtic gobur, a horse, or from gabur, a goat; and, bearing in mind the extension of the feathers on the throat of the male bird, like the beard of a goat, and his amorous behaviour in spring, the derivation seems not unlikely. The Scottish poet Dunbar, who died about 1520, uses Capircalyeane as a term of endearment ; and Hector Boetius, in 1526, alludes to the bird as the Auerecalze, or horse of the woods; it is cited in the bill of fare of the Earl of Atholl when he entertained James V. in 1528-29, and by Bishop Lesly in 1578, who was the first to indicate a definite locality—Lochaber—as its abode. In the account given by John Taylor, the Water-poet, of his ‘‘ visit to the Brea of Marr,” in 1618, Caperkellies are specified along with ‘‘ heathcocks and termagants,’’ names which are subse- quently found in some old Acts of the Scottish Parliament, circa 1621, and in some later records, which, however, con- vey little information. In 1651 it was already scarce ; for in the ‘ Black Book of Taymouth’ a friend of the Laird of Glenorquhy writes to him: ‘I went and shew your Caper- cailzie to the king in his bedchamber, who accepted it weel as a raretie, for he had never seen any of them before.” At the time of Pennant’s 'Tour in Scotland, in 1769, it was nearly extinct, and he appears to have seen only one example, which was killed in the Chisholm’s country to the west of CAPERCAILLIB, 47 Inverness. It is true that Graves, writing in 1813, mentions two males shot respectively about six years, and two years previously, the latter by Captain Stanton, near Burrowsto- ness; but there is really no satisfactory account of its occur- rence from the time of Pennant until its restoration in the present century. The causes of its extinction had probably been at work for a considerable time; the principal ones being the destruction of large tracts of pine forests by fire to get rid of wolves, and other ‘‘vermin”; the wasteful destruction of timber, and the altered conditions thereby produced. In Ireland, where it certainly existed, although Giraldus Cambrensis, Willughby and Ray give little but its name, similar causes led to its extermination. Writing in 1772, J. Rutty (Nat. Hist. of the County of Dublin, i. p. 802) says, ‘‘ one was seen in the county of Leitrim about the year 1710 ; but they have entirely disappeared, owing to the destruction of our woods.’’ Pennant also states that about 1760 a few were to be found about Thomastown, in Tipperary ; and Longfield, in his treatise on ‘The Game Laws in Ireland,’ says that the ‘‘ Wild Turkeys” of Act George III. must have been Capercaillies ; adding that they were not extinct so late as 1787." After careful investiga- tion of the existing evidence, Professor Newton is of opinion that the species was exterminated about the same time in both Scotland and Ireland ; the original British race becom- ing wholly extinct, and no remains of it being known to exist in any museum.T As regards the occurrence of the Capercaillie in England, within the last two years Mr. James Backhouse, of York, has discovered in the caves of the mountain-limestone of Teesdale, at an elevation of about 1,600 feet, numerous bones, which have been pronounced by Professor Newton to be those of this species. In a letter to the Editor, Mr. Backhouse writes as follows : ‘‘ Among these [bones] is one nearly perfect humerus belonging to a male bird of full size; others, less perfect, to the female of ordinary size; whilst others, again, are smaller than those of the type. From the abundance of the remains * J. A. Harvie-Brown, op. céé. p. 154. + Encyc. Brit. Ed. 9, v. p. 54. 48 TETRAONIDA. of this bird, and their association with bone implements, there can be no doubt, I think, that the Capercaillie was, in past ages, a common denizen of the forests of the north of England, and was freely used as an article of food by the cave-dwellers. Remains of the Bear, Wolf, Lynx, Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Woodcock, Curlew, Long-eared Owl, and Grey-lag Goose were found in proximity.” This discovery shews that a large portion of the north of England was formerly covered by coniferous woods. Mr. Harting states that bones of the Capercaillie have been found amongst Roman remains at Settle; and that he has met with old erants (circa 1343-1361) of land in the county of Durham, held by the tenure inter alia of paying ‘‘ one wode-henne yerely”’ to the Bishop of Durham for the time being.* There seems to be no other evidence of the existence of the Capereaillie in England, or in Wales, within historic times, beyond the statement by several authorities that it was known to the Britons by the name of Ceiliog Coed. In the wooded parts of Scandinavia it is abundant, reaching as far as 70° N. lat., but towards the limits of the pine forests a diminution is observable both in numbers and in size. It is also very numerous in the forests of Russia, as far south as the department of Saratov on the left bank of the Volga, in about 52°N. lat. In Denmark its remains are found in the kitehen-middens of the pre- historic races who inhabited the country when it was covered with the pine forests which have long since given way to the oak and the beech; and under these altered con- ditions the bird became extinct. Throughout the forests of Northern and Central Germany, Switzerland, Tyrol, and on the pine-clad mountain frontier of North Italy it still exists ; a few still linger in the Vosges and the Jura; and its remains have been obtained in several of the bone-caves of France. From Auvergne it has nearly, if not altogether, disappeared ; and on the northern slope of the Pyrenees it has become somewhat rare, but itis not uncommon in the wild forests on the Spanish side, ranging to the extreme west of the Asturias, Zoologist, 1879, p. 468. CAPERCAILLIE. 49 along the Cantabrian range. Passing eastward again, it is found in the Carpathians, and, probably, in portions of the Balkans ; but Dr. Kriiper has failed to discover any evidence of its reported occurrence in Akarnania; a few stragglers are said to be found in Bessarabia on the northern side of the Black Sea, but it does not reach to the Caucasus. In Asiatic Siberia, as represented by a very grey form, it is resident in suitable localities as far east as Lake Baikal ; but in Amoorland and Kamtchatka its place is occupied by a distinct species, Tetrao wrogalloides of Middendorf (not to be confounded with the “Tetrao, hybridus, Urogal- loides’’?* or T. urogallidest of Nilsson, which is a hybrid between the Black-cock and the hen Capercaillie). The real Tetrao wrogalloides of Middendorf is a more slender bird: the head and neck are rich purple-blue, in which re- spect alone it resembles the above-mentioned hybrid; the wing-coverts and tertials are much margined with white, and the upper tail-coverts are broadly tipped with the same, and the tail is much longer in proportion and more graduated than in the Capercaillie—not in the least forked, as it is in the hybrid. Owing to the same name having been applied to a genuine, but little-known species, and also to a far more common and well-known hybrid which will be treated later on, much confusion has arisen, and even some recent autho- rities appear to be unaware that 7’. wrogalloides of Eastern Siberia is a perfectly distinct bird from 7’. wrogallus. About the end of the year 1827, or early in January, 1828, Lord Fyfe imported a cock and hen from Sweden, only the former of which reached Braemar; and in 1829 another cock and hen; but although the latter laid a couple of dozen eges in the ensuing April, this attempt at restoration was a failure. The probable reasons for this, with a long account of the experiment, are given in Mr. Harvie-Brown’s able monograph above cited, and from which many subsequent particulars are taken. In 1837, however, Lawrance Banville, head keeper to the late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, of Nor- folk, was sent over to Venersborg, in Sweden, the residence * Skand. Fogl. ii. p. 72 (1835). + Op. cit. ii. p. 73 (1858). VoL. III. H 50 TETRAONIDA, of that veteran sportsman, the late Mr. Lloyd, who had volunteered his services, and by June 24th ‘ Larry’’ was back at Taymouth Castle with thirteen cock and sixteen hen Capercaillies, which were handed over to the successful care of Mr. James Guthrie, Lord Breadalbane’s head keeper. More were brought over in 1838, both to Taymouth and also to East Norfolk, but the latter attempt at introduction was not crowned with success. By the end of 1839 there appear to have been fifty-four adult Capercaillies at Tay- mouth ; in 1841 favourable reports were received of the hatching of eggs under grey-hens; and by 1865 Guthrie estimated the birds on the estate at 2,000. From Taymouth, the centre of restoration, and all along the Tay valley, as far as Dunkeld, Capercaillies spread, and although Perthshire still remains the head-quarters, Forfar- shire ranks not far behind. In Fifeshire, where the woods are of smaller extent, the species is more local, and in Icinross-shire, where there are no extensive pine-woods, it is comparatively rare. It is merely a strageler to Clackmannan- shire, but through Stirlingshire it is advancing, and will probably extend in time to the southern counties of Scot- land by that route. It is needless to enumerate many other localities in which Capercaillies occur, either, as in Arran, owing to separate attempts to emulate the success of the first experiment, or as stragglers. They are much given to migration, especially from forests of an older to those of a younger growth, which are more suitable to their require- ments of food and shelter combined. Spruce, Scotch fir and larch forests are their favourite haunts, but beyond these limits they are pressed by the increase of numbers ; and they are now often found in coverts of birch and oak, and in autumn on the heather-covered hillsides. Naturally they have followed the course of the valleys, choosing by preference a southern exposure : the hens preceding the males by one or two years. Mention has already been made of the attempt to intro- duce the Capereaillie into Norfolk; and similar ill-fortune has attended several other essays. The Hon. Gerald Las- celles is endeavouring to introduce the species into the New CAPERCAILLIE. 51 Forest. In Ireland, Lord Bantry failed to stock the woods of the neighbourhood of Glengariff, and Colonel E. H. Cooper, of Markree Castle, co. Sligo, has informed the Editor that his birds have all perished. The following description of the habits of the Capercaillie is taken from Mr. Lloyd’s ‘ Field Sports of the North of Europe,’ written during his long residence in Sweden :— ‘* The Capercali is to be found in most parts of the Scan- dinavian peninsula; indeed as far to the north as the pine- tree flourishes, which is very near to the North Cape itself. These birds are, however, very scarce in the more southern of the Swedish provinces. The favourite haunts of the Capercali are extensive fir woods. In coppices, or small cover, he is seldom or never to be found. Professor Nilsson observes that those which breed in the larger forests remain there all the year round; but those which, on the contrary, breed on the sides of elevated mountains, or in a more open part of the country, in the event of deep snow, usually fall down to the lower ground. ‘The principal food of the Capercali, when in a state of nature, consists of the leaves and tender shoots of the Scotch fir, Pinus sylvestris. He very rarely feeds upon those of the spruce, Pinus abies. He also eats juniper berries, cranberries, blueberries, and other berries common to the northern forests ; and occasionally also, in the winter time, the buds of the birch, &e. The young Capercali feed principally at first on ants, worms, insects, &c. ‘Tn the spring of the year, and often when the ground is still deeply covered with snow, the cock stations himself on a pine, and commences his love-song, or play, as it is termed in Sweden, to attract the hens about him. This is usually from the first dawn of day to sunrise, or from a little after sunset until it is quite dark. The time, however, more or less, depends upon the mildness of the weather, and the advanced state of the season. During his play, the neck of the Capercali is stretched out, his tail is raised and spread like a fan, his wings droop, his feathers are ruffled up, and, in short, he much resembles in appearance an angry Turkey- LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINGIS 52 TETRAONID. cock. He begins his play with a call something resembling the word peller, peller, peller; these sounds he repeats at first at some little intervals; but as he proceeds they increase in rapidity, until at last, and after perhaps the lapse of a minute or so, he makes a sort of gulp in his throat, and finishes by drawing in his breath. During the continuance of this latter process, which only lasts a few seconds, the head of the Capercali is thrown up, his eyes are partially closed, and his whole appearance would denote that he is worked up into an agony of passion. ‘On hearing the call of the cock, the hens, whose cry in some degree resembles the croak of the Raven, or rather, perhaps, the sound gock, gock, gock, assemble from all parts of the surrounding forest. The male bird now descends from the eminence on which he was perched to the ground, where he and his female friends join company. “The Capercali does not play indiscriminately over the forest, but he has his certain stations, which may be called his playing-grounds. These, however, are often of some little extent. Here, unless very much persecuted, the call of these birds may be heard in the spring for years together. The Capercali does not during his play confine himself to any particular tree, and is seldom to be met with exactly on the same spot for two days in succession. On these playing- grounds several Capercali may occasionally be heard playing at the same time. Old male birds will not permit the young ones, or those of the preceding season, to play. Should the old birds, however, be killed, the young ones, in the course of a day or two, usually open their pipes. Com- bats, as may be supposed, not unfrequently take place on these occasions; though I do not recollect having heard of more than two of these birds being engaged at the same time. ‘«‘ Rxcepting there be a deep snow, the Capercali is much upon the ground in the daytime; very commonly, however, he sits on the pines, sometimes on the very uppermost branches. During the night he generally roosts in the trees; but if the weather be very cold, he not unfrequently CAPERCAILLIE. ays} buries himself in the snow. Considering the large size of the bird, his flight is not particularly heavy or noisy.” Mr. Lloyd has not only seen this bird at a very considerable height in the air, but has known him take a flight of several miles at a time. ‘‘ The Capercali lives to a considerable age; at least so I infer,” says Mr. Lloyd, ‘‘ from the cocks not attaining to their full growth until their third year or upward. The old ones may be easily known from their ereater bulk, their eagle-like bill, and the more beautiful glossiness of their plumage. The size of these birds appears to depend, in a great degree, on the latitude where they are found. In Lapland, for instance, the cocks seldom exceed nine or ten pounds. In Wermeland, and adjacent parts, again, I have never heard of their being killed of more than thirteen pounds; whilst in the more southern provinces of Sweden,—and I have three several authorities for my statement,—they have not unfrequently been met with weighing seventeen pounds and upwards. The hen Caper- cali usually weighs from five to six pounds.* ‘The Capercali is often domesticated in Sweden; in- deed, both at Uddeholm and Risater, as well as other places, I have known them to be kept for a long period in aviaries built for the purpose. These birds were so per- fectly tame as to feed out of the hand. Their food prin- cipally consisted of oats, and of the leaves of the Scotch fir, Pinus sylvestris, large branches of which were usually intro- duced into their cages once or more in the course of the week. They were also supplied with abundance of native berries when procurable. They were amply provided at all times with water and sand; the latter was of a coarse quality, and both were changed pretty frequently.” During the breeding-season the Capercaillie cock, like the males of most of the polygamous birds, are very fierce, and severe combats take place between rivals. Instances are also on record in which old males have not hesitated to attack the passers-by who infringed upon their domain, peck- * Mr. Harvie-Brown has informed the Editor that in Scotland the weight of males rarely reaches 10 lbs., and that of females does not seem to exceed 44 lbs. 54 TETRAONIDA. ing at their legs and feet, and striking with the wings. Mr. Adlerberg mentions such an occurrence. During a number of years, an old Capercali cock had been in the habit of frequenting the estate of Villinge at Wormdo, which, as often as he heard the voice of people in the adjoining wood, had the boldness to station himself on the ground, and, during a continual flapping of his wings, pecked at the legs and feet of those that disturbed his domain. It is also stated that the Capercaillie occasionally has a spel of short duration about Michaelmas. The nest is a mere hole scraped in the ground, under a tree or bush, and the eggs are from six to twelve in number: as many as fifteen being on record; they are of a pale reddish-yellow colour, mottled with brown spots and blotches, and measure about 2°2 in length by 1°5 in breadth. Incubation lasts about a month, and the young are usually hatched early in June: remaining with the mother until the approach of winter. The adult male has the beak of a whitish horn colour ; the irides hazel; over the eye a semilunar patch of naked skin which is bright scarlet; plumage of the head, the neck in front and behind, the back, rump, and upper tail- coverts, minutely freckled with slate-grey on a brownish- black ground; the feathers of the crown of the head and on the throat rather elongated; wing-coverts and wings freckled with light brown on a darker brown ground: the depth of the tint depending on the greater age of the bird ; quill-feathers russet; tail-feathers nearly black, with a few ereyish-white spots on the outer webs; some of the longer and lateral upper tail-coverts tipped with white; the chest of a fine shining dark green; breast black, with a few white spots; flanks and under tail-coverts greyish-black, spotted with white; under wing-coverts white, a small patch appearing on the outside near the shoulder; thighs erey ; legs covered with hair-like brown feathers which over- hang the toes in winter, but are shorter in summer; toes and claws naked and black. The dimensions of the males are subject to considerable CAPERCAILLIE. 55 variation, but the extreme length may be set down at three feet four inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, sixteen inches: the first feather two inches shorter than the second, and the second one inch shorter than the third ; the third and fourth equal in length, and longer than the others. The adult female has the beak brown; the irides hazel ; the feathers of the head, neck, back, wings, upper tail- coverts, and tail, dark brown, barred and freckled with yellow-brown and tipped with white ; those of the neck in front and the breast are of a fine yellowish-chestnut mar- gined with black, and with an extreme edge of greyish- white; the feathers of the flanks, vent, and under tail- coverts with broader edges of white; legs greyish-brown ; toes and claws pale brown. The whole length of the female described was twenty-six inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, thirteen inches. The young birds of both sexes in their first plumage resemble the old female, the young males afterwards ob- taining by slow degrees the colours which distinguish that sex. ull plumage is not attained until the third year. Varieties of both sexes are not unfrequent, and Nilsson mentions several. They are usually of a pale, faded grey, with a few darker markings; and Mr. Lloyd (Game Birds and Wildfowl of Sweden and Norway) figures a nearly-white female, which, when killed, had a brood of young ones with her; one of them being nearly full grown, and of the usual colour of the Capercaillie hen. A male variety in the Thunberg cullection, at Upsala, has received the name of Tetrao eremita. Sterile females, which have assumed to a greater or less extent the plumage of the male, are often met with: indeed Mr. Collett, of Christiania, says that he finds them every winter, and one, obtained on the 18th October, 1872, exhibited so striking a resemblance to an old and fully-coloured male as to be with difficulty distinguished from one. The distinguishing characteristics were the beard-like feathers on the throat speckled with white, the 56 TETRAONIDE. dark bill, and the absence of the large white spot of the male bird on the tail, which was finely spotted with greyish-red.* That this sterility is not always a consequence of old age, is proved by the fact that many of these females are young birds ; but in all those dissected by Nilsson the ovarium was more or less diseased ; and the older the female, the closer was the resemblance she bore to the male. A figure of a barren female of this description is given below from Nilsson. Like many gallinaceous birds, the Capercaillie in confine- ment will breed with other species, and the first result of the earliest importation to Braemar was the production of a hybrid between the sole surviving male and a common barn- door Hen. In Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Game Birds,’ already cited, * Ornithology of Northern Norway, p. 48. CAPERCAILLIE. 57 is an amusing account of a male Capercaillie, which, having paired successfully with a Turkey-hen, deserted her for a white Goose, but was so scared by his reception that he never made any further advances to the Turkey or to any other hen bird. Allusion has already been made to the wild hybrid between the Capercaillie and the Black Grouse: a cross which is not uncommon in all countries inhabited by the two species, and is known in Scandinavia as the Rakkelhane or Rakkelfogel. This hybrid is generally, and some say invariably, produced between the female Caper- eaillie and the Black-cock, and Mr. Harvie-Brown con- siders that it probably results from the fact that the females of the Capereaillie start on their wanderings before the males, and, in the absence of their natural partners, mate with the handsome and amorous Black-cocks whose ter- ritory they have invaded. The male Capercaillies soon follow the females, so this hybridism rarely attains to serious proportions. As regards the paternity, however, the late M. Falk, whose arguments are given at considerable length in Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Game Birds,’ held that many of these hybrids were the offspring of the females of the Black Grouse, and the younger male Capercaillies which had been debarred by the older and stronger birds from uniting with females of their own species. Under the former assump- tion, which has been maintained by Nilsson, Collett, and others, the name of Tetrao urogallo-tetrix has been given as expressive of the origin of this hybrid, and as a sub- stitute for the inapplicable name 7’. urogalloides. From the erroneous belief that it was a distinct species, it had already been called T. medius, T’. intermedius, &e. The male of this hybrid is a handsome black-billed bird, sometimes nearly as large as a young Capercaillie cock, and from six to seven pounds in weight; the shining feathers on the neck are of a rich Orleans-plum colour, and the outer feathers of the tail are longer than the others, giving it a forked appearance, although never to anything like the same extent as in the Black-cock. The figure of this bird on the next page is taken from a coloured illustration to Nilsson’s VOL. III. I on TETRAONID AS. ‘Skandinavisk Fauna.’ Females are either rarer, or, from their similarity to the hens of both species, they are over- looked ; they may, however, be recognized by the shape of the tail, which is perfectly square at the end, whereas in the Capereaillie hen it is rounded, and in the Grey-hen it is slightly forked. The Rakkelfogel are not believed to breed amongst themselves, says Mr. Lloyd, but the males resort to the Lek of the Black-game and disperse the cocks ; and at the Lek of the Capercaillie, they flit from tree to tree and disturb the Spel, for which reasons they are always shot as speedily as possible by Scandinavian sportsmen. In Scotland they have already made their appearance, and it is probable that they existed there in former times contempo- raneously with the Capereaillie. Full descriptions and illustrations of every way of shoot- ing and snaring the Capereaillie will be found in Mr. Lloyd’s ‘Game Birds;’ but the following description of a trap CAPERCAILLIE. 59 used by the peasants in Norway is derived from Mr. Grant, who also contributed the drawing from which the vignette at the end is taken :— Where the trees grow thickly on either side of a foot-path, two long pieces of wood are placed across it; one end of these rests on the ground, the other being raised a foot and a half, or somewhat more, from the surface, and supported by a piece communicating with a triangular twig, placed in the centre of the path, and so contrived that on being slightly touched the whole fabric falls: a few stones are usually placed upon the long pieces of wood to increase the rapidity of the drop, by the additional weight. Birds running along the foot-path attempt to pass beneath the barrier, strike the twig, and are killed by the fall of the trap. uy \I/ LWIA fi Hn VM yf) Hy |) \ AN NA (Arar ik HA Ms 60 TETRAONID.E. GALLIN A, TETRAONID. TETRAO TETRIX, Linneus.* THE BLACK GROUSE. Tetrao tetriz. AurHouGH at the present day the word Grouse, when used alone, is applied in common parlance to the Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus), yet it would appear from Professor * Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 274 (1766). BLACK GROUSE, 61 Newton’s researches that the earliest record of its employ- ment is with reference to the present species. ‘It first seems to occur (ide O. Salusbury Brereton, Archologia, iii. p- 157) as ‘grows’ in an ordinance for the regulation of the royal household dated ‘apud Eltham, mens. Jan. 22, Hen. VIII.,’ i.e., 1581, and, considering the locality, must refer to Black game. It is found in an Act of Parliament i, Jac. I., cap. 27, § 2, 2.e. 1603, and as reprinted in the Statutes at Large, stands as now commonly spelt, but by many writers or printers the final e is now omitted. In 1611 Cotgrave had ‘ Poule griesche. A Moore-henne; the henne of the Grice [in ed. 1673 ‘ Griece’] or Mooregame (Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, sub voce Poule). The most likely derivation seems to be from the old French word Griesche, Greoche, or Griais (meaning speckled, and cognate with Griseus, grisly or grey), which was applied to some kind of Partridge.”** _ Members of this species are now generally known collectively as Black game, and in Devon and Somerset as Heath-poults; the sexes being dis- tinguished as the Black-cock and the Grey-hen. The increase of population, the enclosure of wastes, and the drainage of boggy lands, have combined to curtail the area over which the Black Grouse formerly roamed in the south of England, and neither Eltham—once a favourite resort of Plantagenet and Tudor sovereigns—nor any other part of Kent can now shew any indigenous birds. In Surrey—-in consequence, it is said, of reintroduction early in the present century—Black Grouse are found about Leith Hill, and in the neighbourhood of Guildford; and also in Wolmer Forest, where the species had become extinct in the time of Gilbert White; but having been reintroduced after the planting of the woods by Sir Charles Taylor, then ranger of the forest, they throve exceedingly well. The parents of the present race came from Cumberland, and in 1872 an old man who brought the birds to Wolmer was still living at Liphook.t Descendants of these birds have * Encycl. Brit, Ed. 9, xi. p. 221, note. + H. W. Feilden, ‘The Field,’ March 30th, 1872 (p. 286). 62 TETRAONID, strayed to the heathy portions of the neighbouring counties of Berkshire and Hampshire on the one side, and to the district of the St. Leonard’s and Tilgate Forests in Sussex on the other. In the south-west of Hampshire, however, in the New Forest, they have never become extinct : they are found, although sparingly, in Wiltshire, and in suitable localities in Dorsetshire ; becoming tolerably abundant again on the Quantocks and the Brendons in Somersetshire, and numerous where that county joins Devon on the wilds of Exmoor. They are also met with in some parts of South Devon, and, although by no means common, they breed on the eastern moors of Cornwall. In Glamorganshire they became extinct prior to 1820, but they are found in Brecon, Radnorshire and some other Welsh counties ; in Shropshire ; and in Staffordshire, especially about Cannock Chase, they were recently abundant. MRare,if not extinct, in Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, they still inhabit Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, north of which they are found,— although locally, and in some cases owing to introduction, —in every county in England. An isolated and decreasing colony exists in Norfolk on the wild heathy tracts about Bawsey, Dersingham, Sandringham, and Snettisham ; and as Sir Thomas Browne (temp. Charles II.) says, ‘“‘ I have heard some have been seen about Lynn,” it appears probable that the species is indigenous there. In Lincolnshire, according to Mr. Cordeaux, they were introduced some years ago on the wild district near Frodlingham on Trentside. In Scotland, although less generally distributed than in former years, Black Grouse are found, more or less abun- dantly, on all the mountainous and hilly districts and on many isolated patches of upland heather and sheep-land. They are plentiful in many of the Inner Hebrides, espe- cially on Mull; whilst in the northern portion of Islay, although it is bare of cover, they are, according to Mr. Elwes, rapidly increasing.* They have not as yet been successfully introduced in the Orkneys or the Shetland Islands. Thompson considers that there is no satisfactory R. Gray, ‘ Birds of the West of Scotland,’ p. 231. BLACK GROUSE, 63 evidence of the species having ever been indigenous in Ireland, and attempts at introduction made in Antrim, and recently by Colonel Cooper, of Markree Castle, Sligo, have resulted in failure. In Norway and Sweden the Black Grouse is widely dis- tributed wherever there are woods and moorlands up to the limit of the birch forests in about 69° N. lat., and it even ascends the fells beyond the birch belt. Rare on the heaths of Denmark, and scarcely known in Holland and Belgium, except towards their southern and eastern frontiers, it be- comes tolerably numerous in suitable districts of Germany, and is more or less abundant on both sides of the mountain ranges of Central Europe from the Alps to the Carpathians. A resident in the wooded portions of Lombardy and Liguria, it even occurs as a strageler in the Apennines down to the Modenese. In France it appears to be confined to the mountains on the eastern frontier, but Crespon seems inclined to believe in its occurrence in the Cevennes, which would tend to strengthen the hitherto unsupported state- ment made by Dr. Companyé that it is found in the Eastern Pyrenees: a district which differs in many important natural features from the Central and Western portions of that chain, from which it is not recorded. In Finland, the greater part of Russia, and even in Poland, it is generally distributed, extending as far as Sarepta on the Volga; but in the Caucasus it is unknown, its place being taken by a very distinct although closely allied species, named, after its discoverer, Z'etrao mlokosiewiczi. The male of the latter is a smaller and more slender bird than the Black-cock, and its entire plumage is of a deep glossy black, as may be seen on reference to Mr. Dresser’s fine plate in the ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii. Beyond the Ural the Black Grouse stretches across Siberia with the limit of the forest growth to Mantchuria and Northern China, but precise details as to its southern distribution are as yet wanting. Siberian examples are more feathered about the legs than European ones. The Black-cock is polygamous, and, like the Capereaillie, has his pairing-grounds, which are visited somewhat earlier 64 TETRAONID.E. in the season. The males assemble even before the first dawn of day, and utter a succession of notes which in calm weather can be heard at the distance of a mile or more. At this time it is popularly supposed in Scandinavia that they are deaf; but this is a mistake, although when combating, the cocks are more easily approached than at other times. As the old cocks alight, they begin to make love to the hens, which keep somewhat in the background amongst the bushes ; they strut about with outstretched neck, trailing wings, and expanded tail, occasionally vaulting high in the air, and describing an irregular somersault, coming down with the head turned in the opposite direction. Desperate combats frequently ensue, and at times even a general melée. When the lek is over for the time, the birds separate : each cock accompanied by the hens which he has secured ; and at the conclusion of the pairing-season the latter retire to their breeding-grounds. The females make a slight nest on the ground, frequently under shelter of some low thick bush, and deposit from six to ten eggs of a yellowish- white, spotted and speckled with orange-brown ; measuring about 2 by 1:45 in. There is also a short spel in autumn, when the males again separate from the females and flock together. Although to acertain extent arboreal in their habits, cover is by no means essential to Black Grouse during the whole of the year; but they must have water, and their favourite haunts, especially when young, are moist forest lands and swampy, rushy moors, where they feed freely upon the juicy brown seeds of a coarse thick rush. To the drainage and reclaiming of much of this kind of land, Mr. Harvie-Brown partially attributes the undoubted recent decrease in the number of Black Grouse in Scotland.* Ants’ eggs and other insect food are favourites with very young birds. In spring, says Macgillivray, their food consists principally of twigs and catkins of alder, birch and willow; in summer, of tops of heather, Vaccinium myrtillus, and Empetrum nigrum; in autumn, of heath, crowberries, cranberries, * ©@he Capercaillie in Scotland,’ Chap. xii. BLACK GROUSE. 65 blaeberries, and whortleberries; and in winter, of tops and buds of these plants, and of fir: they also make frequent excursions into the stubble fields in autumn, being espe- cially partial to barley. Birds which had lived in woods during winter have been found to have their stomachs stuffed with the foliage of Polypodium vulgare, which was also taken by Macgillivray from the crop of a Pheasant. In severe weather in Scandinavia they are well known to burrow into the snow. Mr. Lloyd says that the Black Grouse is easily domesti- cated, and if reared from a chick or taken young becomes even tamer than the Capercaillie; requiring similar treat- ment. As an illustration of the familiarity of the bird in the wild state, the following is taken from the ‘ Zoologist,’ p- 4440:—“ As Mr. 8. W. Hurrel was crossing the hill between Carr-bridge and the Spey, on a fishing excursion, with some of his dogs following, one of them pointed, when a Grey- hen offered to do battle in defence of her brood, and flap- ping her wings like fanners, she with heroic bravery actually beat her canine antagonist, and drove him crest-fallen away. Mr. Bass, M.P., and his friends, who have taken the shoot- ings around Carr-bridge, are in the habit of giving presents to the herd-boys in the districts, in order to engage them to preserve the nests, and, if possible, guard them against external violence. One of the keepers lately accosted one of these herd-boys, and, in answer to several queries on the subject of nests, was told by the boy, that, in guarding the game from molestation, he had no difficulty except with one nest, which was situated in a place much frequented by the cattle, and which, he said, must have been destroyed unless by some means protected. ‘ But,’ continued the boy, ‘I have built a little house of stones and turf about it, and that will prevent the cattle getting at it.’ ‘ But,’ replied the keeper, ‘you will certainly scare away the birds.’ ‘ Oh no,’ rejoined the boy, ‘I have left a little door for the hen to get in and out at, and she sits on the eggs as usual ;’ which the keeper, on visiting the place, found to be true.” -In the adult male, at the time of the lek or spel, the VOL. Iil. K 66 TETRAONIDA. semilunar, scarlet, erectile patches of naked skin over each eye become inflated until they stand up firmly above the crown of the head, but shortly after death they collapse, and in autumn they are far less marked; the beak is black ; the irides dark brown ; the feathers of the head, back, wing- coverts and tail, black ; those of the neck and rump metallic blue-black ; the primary quill-feathers brownish-black, with white shafts ; the secondaries and tertials black at the end, but white at the base, forming a conspicuous white bar below the ends of the great wing-coyerts, which, with the lesser coverts, are black ; the feathers of the spurious wing with white spots at the base; tail of eighteen black feathers, of which three, four, and sometimes five of those on each outside are elongated, and curve outwards ; the others nearly equal in length, and square at the end; the chin, breast, belly, and flanks, black ; under wing-coverts, axillary plume, and under tail-coverts, pure white ; vent, thighs, and legs, mixed black and white; toes and claws blackish-brown. The whole length is twenty-two inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, ten inches and a half: the form of the wing rounded; the first quill-feather about as long as the seventh, the second about as long as the sixth, the fourth rather longer than the third or the fifth, and the longest in the wing. The female of the Black Grouse, usually called the Grey- hen, has the beak dark brown, irides hazel; the general colour of the plumage pale chestnut-brown barred and freckled with black: the dark bars and spots larger, and most conspicuous on the breast, back, wings, and upper tail-coverts ; the feathers of the breast edged with greyish- white, particularly in old birds and in those from northern latitudes ; under tail-coverts nearly white; feathers on the legs pale mottled brown; toes and claws brown. The whole length is seventeen to eighteen inches; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing, nine inches. In the young in down a day or two old, the bill is yellowish-brown ; the general colour is yellowish-buff, paler below : ruddier, with dark mottlings, above; a dark brown BLACK GROUSE. 67 spot on the forehead, and a broad chestnut patch, with darker edges, on the crown. When partially fledged, the bill becomes darker, and the feathers on the back and wing-coverts have white tips and centres. The first plumage of the young male is similar to that of the female, but by the beginning of October the female garb has been discarded; the tail is black, although but slightly forked, with a few mottlings on the upper coverts ; dark feathers, only slightly mottled with brown or grey, cover both upper and under parts, and the white bars on the wings are thoroughly defined. The head already is clossy black, but the brown feathers still remaining about the neck give the bird a peculiar appearance, which is, how- ever, soon lost. The mottlings on the wing-coverts and secondaries disappear with increasing age, and by the third year full plumage is assumed. Examples of both sexes are sometimes found with an unusual amount of white about their plumage, and this is especially the case with females from northern and north- eastern localities. Males from Siberia shew more white than Western specimens, but beautiful examples with white- mottled breasts and wing-coverts may also, though rarely, be obtained in Scotland. Isabelle varieties of the female are also met with. Barren Grey-hens sometimes assume the male plumage, and the collection of Mr. F. Bond contains some remark- ably fine examples. One of these is nearly black below, with a few mottlings, and rich bluish-purple above; others shew little more than a tendency to a uniform dull colour, with white bars on the wing and metallic blue on the rump. The weight of an cld Black-cock has been known to reach 4+ lbs.; a young one weighs from 24 to 3 Ibs., and a Grey- hen from 2 to 24 lbs. Hybrids between the Black Grouse and the Capercaillie have been noticed when treating of the former species. Inter- breeding has also taken place between the Black and the Red Grouse, and in many parts of this country both birds inhabit the same ground; but such a union happens more rarely 68 TETRAONIDA, with species which, like the Red Grouse, pair in their season, than with those which, like the Pheasant and the Capercaillie, do not pair. Macgillivray (British Birds, i. 162) has, however, mentioned three, describing in detail one bird supposed to have been thus produced, and which was sent by Lord Mostyn from Wales, for preservation, on the 8th of September, 1855, when a note was made of its appearance. The head, neck, breast, and all the under surface of the body, resembled the plumage of the young Red Grouse ; the back, wings, upper tail-coverts, and the tail-feathers, were as black as those parts in the Black Grouse; the tail-feathers were elongated and forked, but being a young bird of the year, and killed thus early in the season, the most lateral of the tail-feathers had not begun to curve outwards ; the legs were feathered to the junction of the toes, but the toes were naked and pectinated, like those of the Black Grouse. Another was recorded in ‘ The Field’ of March 15th, 1863, and a very handsome example, more like the Black-cock about the upper parts, was obtained by Mr. H. E. Dresser in Leadenhall Market, the 12th October, 1876. In Scandinavia the Black Grouse occasionally mates with the Dal-Ripa or Willow-Grouse (Lagopus albus), the repre- sentative there of our Scotch Grouse; the offspring being known as “ Rypeorre ”’ or “ Riporre.”” A representation of one of these hybrids is given on the opposite page from Nilsson’s ‘Skandinavisk Fauna.’* 438 SCOLOPACID. Orn. U.S. and Canada, ii. p. 113), ‘‘ This elegant species, some seasons, is not uncommon in the market of Boston, in the months of August and September, being met with near the capes of Massachusetts Bay. My friend Mr. Cooper has also obtained specimens from the vicinity of New York. Its food, while here, consists principally of land and marine insects, particularly grasshoppers, which, abounding in the autumn, become the favourite prey of a variety of birds.” But although generally diffused on migration throughout the United States, it is not as a rule abundant, and its visits are somewhat irregular. Vieillot originally described the species from a specimen obtained in Louisiana. Mr. Dresser found it in small flocks of from six to a dozen individuals in August, 1863, near Matamoras in Mexico, close to the frontier of Texas, and also between the former and San Antonio de Bejar in Texas itself, but Dr. Heerman said he had not observed it there for several seasons. The birds obtained were very fat, and delicious eating; they never seemed to frequent the edge of the small ponds, but preferred the sandy plains, and the dry tracks made by the cotton-teams ; the call-note was low and weak. Canon Tristram obtained a specimen in the Bermudas on the 14th November, 1848 ; it has oceurred in Cuba; and in South America it has been recorded from Colombia, the Upper Amazon, Brazil, and the shores of the Rio de la Plata, the latter being apparently the southern limit of its migration. According to Dr. E. Coues, who has examined at least a dozen sets, taken by Mr. MacFarlane, the eggs of the Buff- breasted Sandpiper are usually four in number, of a clay- coloured or greyish ground, with bold blotches and spots of rich umber-brown ; the average measurements appear to be 1:45 by 1 in. The nest is a slight depression in the sround, lined with a little grass or a few leaves. This species is readily distinguished from all the other birds of this genus by the peculiar markings of the under surface of the wings. The beak is slender, and very slightly curved, three- guarters of aninch in length, and greenish-black ; from the BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 439 point to the gape it measures one inch, and from the gape to the occiput is also one inch: the irides hazel; the fea- thers on the top of the head dark brown, approaching to black, each feather edged with very light brown, giving a mottled appearance ; the back of the neck light brown, the dark spots formed by the centre of each feather minute ; the back very dark brown, the extreme edges only of the feathers light brown; the wing-coverts brown; the pri- maries nearly black, tipped with white ; the shafts white ; the tertials brown, edged with light brown; upper tail- coverts brown, with lighter-coloured borders; the tail cuneiform, the centre feathers black, the shafts and edges lighter ; the feathers on each side light brown, enclosed by a zone of black, and edged with white; the chin, sides of the neck, throat, and breast, light brown, tinged with buff; abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts, white, but per- vaded also with the buff-colour of the higher parts; the sides of the neck spotted, from the dark centres of the feathers occupying a larger surface than upon the front ; axillary plume pure white; under surface of the broad web of the primaries beautifully mottled with dark specks ; under surface of the secondaries ending in sabre-shaped points, presenting a series of lines formed by alternating shades of white, black, and dusky bands, which in the adult bird are well defined, and present a beautifully-variegated appearance, peculiar to this species. The legs are bare for half an inch above the joint; the tarsus measures one inch and a quarter; legs and toes clay-yellow, the claws black. The whole length of the bird is about eight inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, five inches and a quarter. The female is a trifle smaller than the male. In the young bird of the year the back and rump are somewhat darker than in the adult, and the under parts are whiter. 440 SCOLOPACID., LIMICOLA. SCOLOPACIDE, SSSS AS VY Ws a BaRTRAMIA LONGICAUDA (Bechstein*). BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. Totanus Bartram. Bartramia, Lessont.—Bill scarcely longer than the head, moderately slender, straight, the nasal groove extending nearly to the tip, which is narrowed but obtuse ; nostrils linear, basal. Wings not reaching to the end of the tail, pointed, the first quill-feather the longest, the inner secondaries rather elongated. Tail of twelve feathers, rather long, much rounded. Legs rather long and slender, the tibia bare for a considerable distance ; tarsus scutellate ; toes three in front, long and slender; a slight web between the outer and the middle ones; hind toe elevated, Tue earliest recorded occurrence of this American species in Great Britain was that of a bird shot near Warwick, “ Tringa longicauda, Bechstein, Kurze Uebersicht aller bekannten Vigel, p. 453 (1811). + Traité d’Ornithologie, p. 553 (1831). It is clear that the generic name Bartramia has precedence of Actiturus of Bonaparte, as that author quotes it (Sagg. Distrib. met. Animali Verteb. p. 143, 1831). = BARTRAM’S SANDPIPER. 441 sitting on a bean-stubble, by Mr. R. Barnard, and sent to the late Hugh Reid of Doncaster for preservation on the 31st October, 1851 (Zool. pp. 3330, 3388, 4254). It afterwards passed into the collection of Lord Willoughby de Broke, at Compton Verney, near Stratford-on-Avon. The next specimen, which is now in the collection of Mr. J. H. Gurney, was shot on the 12th December, 1855, in a ploughed field between Cambridge and Newmarket, and an illustration of the bird, with the following details of its capture from the pen of the Rev. Frederick Tearle, of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, appeared in ‘ The Illustrated News’ of 20th January, 1855 :—‘‘ Some farm labourers, who were eugaged in thrashing near the spot, observed a strange bird flying round in large circles over the adjoining field, and uttering a whistling cry at short intervals. It fre- quently alighted, and ran along the ground like a Corncrake. One of the men thought he could catch it with his hat, and gave chase; but the bird, as soon as he came near, rose, and flew around, whistling as before. On seeing that it did not fly away, the son of a gamekeeper, who lived close by, -went into his father’s cottage for a gun, and came out and shot it. He sent it to mea few days afterwards, calling it a Whistling Plover.’’ Another correspondent of the same newspaper, under the initials N.S. R., stated that he had shot a bird of this species on the 19th of January, 1855, at Bigswear, in Gloucestershire, but the assertion must be taken for what it is worth. The third authenticated example was shot near Mullion in Cornwall, from a piece of pasture- turnips, and brought into a game-shop on the 18th November, 1865, when Dr. Bullmore obtained and recorded it.*