Birds of Guernsey (1879) by Cecil Smith

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BIRDS OF GUERNSEY

AND THE NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS

ALDERNEY, SARK, JETHOU, HERM;

BEING A SMALL CONTRIBUTION TO
The Ornitholony of the Channel Islands

BY

CECIL SMITH, F.Z.S.,

MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGIST'S UNION.

LONDON:
R.H. PORTER, 6, TENTERDEN STREET,
HANOVER SQUARE.
1879.

PREFACE.

Though perhaps not possessing the interest to the ornithologist which
Lundy Island (the only breeding-place of the Gannet in the South-West of
England) or the Scilly Islands possess, or being able to produce the
long list of birds which the indefatigable Mr. Gaeetke has been able to
do for his little island, Heligoland, the avifauna of Guernsey and the
neighbouring islands is by no means devoid of interest; and as little
has hitherto been published about the Birds of Guernsey and the
neighbouring islands, except in a few occasional papers published by
Miss C.B. Carey, Mr. Harvie Browne, myself, and a few others, in the
pages of the 'Zoologist,' I make no excuse for publishing this list of
the birds, which, as an occasional visitor to the Channel Islands for
now some thirty years, have in some way been brought to my notice as
occurring in these Islands either as residents, migrants, or occasional
visitants.

Channel Island specimens of several of the rarer birds mentioned, as
well as of the commoner ones, are in my own collection; and others I
have seen either in the flesh or only recently skinned in the
bird-stuffers' shops. For a few, of course, I have been obliged to rely
on the evidence of others; some of these may appear, perhaps, rather
questionable,--as, for instance, the Osprey,--but I have always given
what evidence I have been able to collect in each case; and where
evidence of the occurrence was altogether wanting, I have thought it
better to omit all mention of the bird, though its occasional occurrence
may seem possible.

I have confined myself in this list to the Birds of Guernsey and the
neighbouring islands--Sark, Alderney, Jethou and Herm; in fact to the
islands included in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. I have done this as I
have had no opportunity of personally studying the birds of Jersey, only
having been in that island once some years ago, and then only for a
short time, and not because I think a notice of the birds of Jersey
would have been devoid of interest, though whether it would have added
many to my list maybe doubtful. Professor Ansted's list, included in his
large and very interesting work on the Channel Islands, is hitherto the
only attempt at a regular list of the Birds of the Channel Islands; but
as he, though great as a geologist, is no ornithologist, he was obliged
to rely in a great measure on information received from others, and this
apparently was not always very reliable, and he does not appear to have
taken much trouble to sift the evidence given to him. Professor Ansted
himself states that his list is necessarily imperfect, as he received
little or no information from some of the Islands; in fact, Guernsey and
Sark appear to be the only two from which much information had been
received. This is to be regretted, as it has made the notice of the
distribution of the various birds through the Islands, which he has
denoted by the letters _a, e, i, o, u_[1] appended to the name of each
bird, necessarily faulty. The ornithological notes, however, supplied by
Mr. Gallienne are of considerable interest, and are generally pretty
reliable. It is rather remarkable, however, that Professor Ansted has
not always paid attention to these notes in marking the distribution of
the birds through the various Islands.

No doubt many of the birds included in Professor Ansted's list were
included merely on the authority of specimens in the museum of the
Mechanics' Institute, which at one time was a pretty good one; and had
sufficient care been taken to label the various specimens correctly as
to place and date, especially distinguishing local specimens from
foreign ones, of which there were a good many, would have been a very
interesting and useful local museum; as it is, the interest of this
museum is considerably deteriorated. Some of the birds in the museum are
confessedly foreign, having been brought from various parts of the world
by Guernsey men, who when abroad remembered the museum in their own
Island, and brought home specimens for it. Others, as Mr. Gallienne, who
during his life took much interest in the museum, himself told me had
been purchased from various bird-stuffers, especially from one in
Jersey; and no questions were asked as to whether the specimens bought
were local or set-up from skins obtained from the Continent or England.
Amongst those so obtained may probably be classed the Blue-throated
Warblers, included in Professor Ansted's list and marked as Jersey
(these Mr. Gallienne himself told me he believed to be Continental and
not genuine Channel Island specimens), the Great Sedge Warbler, the
Meadow Bunting, the Green Woodpecker, and perhaps a few others.

This museum, partly from want of interest being taken in it and partly
from want of money, has never had a very good room, and has been
shuffled and moved about from one place to another, and consequently
several birds really valuable, as they could be proved to be genuine
Channel Island specimens, have been lost and destroyed; in fact, had it
not been for the care and energy of Miss C.B. Carey, who took great
pains to preserve what she found remaining of the collection, and place
it in some sort of order, distinguishing by a different coloured label
those specimens which could be proved to be Channel Island (in doing
this she worked very hard, and received very little thanks or
encouragement, but on the contrary met with a considerable amount of
genuine obstructiveness), the whole of the specimens in the museum would
undoubtedly have been lost; as it is, a good many valuable local
specimens--valuable as being still capable of being proved to be genuine
Channel Island specimens--have been preserved, and a good nucleus kept
for the foundation of a new museum, should interest in the subject
revive and the local authorities be disposed to assist in its formation.
In my notices of each bird I have mentioned whether there is a specimen
in the museum, and also whether it is included in Professor Ansted's
list, and if so in which of the Islands he has marked it as occurring.

No doubt the Ornithology of the Channel Islands, as is the case in many
counties of England, has been considerably changed by drainage works,
improved cultivation, and road-making; much alteration of this sort I
can see has taken place during the thirty years which I have known the
Islands as an occasional visitor. But Mr. MacCulloch, who has been
resident in the Islands for a much longer period--in fact, he has told
me nearly double--has very kindly supplied me with the following very
interesting note on the various changes which have taken place in
Guernsey during the long period he has lived in that island; he says, "I
can well recollect the cutting of most of the main roads, and the
improvement, still going on, of the smaller ones. It was about the
beginning of this century that the works for reclaiming the Braye du
Valle were undertaken; before that time the Clos du Valle[2] was
separated from the mainland by an arm of the sea, left dry at low water,
extending from St. Samson's to the Vale Church. This was bordered by
salt marshes only, covered occasionally at spring tides by the sea, some
of which extended pretty far inland. The meadows adjoining were very
imperfectly drained, as indeed some still are, and covered with reeds
and rushes, forming excellent shelter for many species of aquatic birds.
Now, as you know, by far the greater part of the land is well cultivated
and thickly covered with habitations. The old roads were everywhere
enclosed between high hedges, on which were planted rows of elms; and
the same kind of hedge divided the fields and tenements. Every house,
too, in those days had its orchard, cider being then universally drunk;
and the hill-sides and cliffs were covered with furze brakes, as in all
country houses they baked their own bread and required the furze for
fuel. Now all that is changed. The meadows are drained and planted with
brocoli for the early London market, to be replaced by a crop of
potatoes at the end of the summer. The trees are cut down to let in the
sun. Since the people have taken to gin-drinking, cider is out of favour
and the orchards destroyed. The hedges are levelled to gain a few
perches of ground, and replaced in many places by stone walls; the furze
brakes rooted up, and the whole aspect and nature of the country
changed. Is it to be wondered at that those kinds of birds that love
shelter and quiet have deserted us? You know, too, how every bird--from
the Wren to the Eagle--is popped at as soon as it shows itself, in
places where there are no game laws and every man allowed to carry a
gun."

This interesting description of the changes--agricultural and
otherwise--which have taken place in the Islands, especially Guernsey,
during the last fifty or sixty years (for which I have to offer Mr.
MacCulloch my best thanks), gives a very good general idea of many of
the alterations that have taken place in the face of the country during
the period above mentioned; but does not by any means exhaust them, as
no mention is made of the immense increase of orchard-houses in all
parts of Guernsey, which has been so great that I may fairly say that
within the last few years miles of glasshouses have been built in
Guernsey alone: these have been built mostly for the purpose of growing
grapes for the London market. These orchard-houses have, to a certain
extent, taken the place of ordinary orchards and gardens, which have
been rooted up and destroyed to make place for this enormous extent of
glass. But what appeared to me to have made the greatest change, and has
probably had more effect on the Ornithology of the Island, especially of
that part known as the Vale, is the enormous number of granite quarries
which are being worked there (luckily the beautiful cliffs have hitherto
escaped the granite in those parts, probably not being so good); but in
the Vale from St. Samson's to Fort Doyle, and from there to the Vale
Church, with the exception of L'Ancresse Common itself, which has
hitherto escaped, the whole face of the country is changed by quarry
works and covered with small windmills used for pumping the water from
the quarries. These quarry works and the extra population brought by
them into the Island, all of whom carry guns and shoot everything that
is fit to eat or is likely to fetch a few "doubles" in the market, have
done a good deal to thin the birds in that part of the Islands,
especially such as are in any way fit for sale or food, and probably
have done more to make a change in the Ornithology of that part of the
Island than all the agricultural changes mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch.
Indeed, I am rather sceptical as to the agricultural changes above
described having produced so much change in the avifauna of the Islands
during the last fifty years as Mr. MacCulloch appears to think; there is
still a great deal of undrained or badly drained land in the
Island--especially about the Vale, the Grand Mare and L'Eree--which
might still afford a home for Moorhens, Water Rails, and even Bitterns,
and all that class of wading birds which delight in swampy land and reed
beds. Though no doubt, as Mr. MacCulloch said, many orchards have been
destroyed to make room for more profitable crops or for orchard-houses,
still there are many orchards left in the Island. I think, however,
many, if not all the cherry orchards (amongst which the Golden Orioles
apparently at one time luxuriated) are gone. There is also still a great
deal of hedgerow timber, none of it indeed very large, but in places
very thick; in fact, I could point out miles of hedges in Guernsey where
the trees, mostly elm, grow so thick together that it would be nearly
impossible to pick out a place where one could squeeze one's horse
between the trees without rubbing one's knees on one side or the other,
probably on both, against them, if one found it necessary to ride across
the country. True, on a great extent of the higher part of the Island,
all along on both sides of what is known as the Forest Road, there is
little or no hedgerow timber, the fields here being divided by low banks
with furze growing on the top of them. Furze brakes also are still
numerous, the whole of the flat land on the top of the cliffs and the
steep valleys and slopes down to the sea on the south and east side of
the Island, from Fermain Bay to Pleimont, being almost uninterrupted
wild land covered with heather, furze, and bracken; besides this wild
furze land, there are several thick furze brakes inland in different
parts of the Island. All these places seem to me to have remained almost
without change for years. The furze, however, never grows very high, as
it is cut every few years for fuel; in consequence of this, however, it
is more beautiful in blooming in the spring than if it had been allowed
several years' growth, covering the whole face of the ground above the
cliffs like a brilliant yellow carpet; but being kept so short, it is
not perhaps so convenient for nesting purposes as if it was allowed a
longer growth.

The Guernsey Bird Act, which applies to all the Islands in the
Bailiwick, and has been in force for some few years, seems to me to have
had little effect on the numbers of the sea-birds of the district,
though it includes the eggs as well as the birds, except perhaps to
increase the number of Herring Gulls and Shags (which were always
sufficiently numerous) in their old breeding-stations, and perhaps to
have added a few new breeding-stations. These two birds scarcely needed
the protection afforded by the Act, as their nests are placed amongst
very inaccessible rocks where very few nests can be reached without the
aid of a rope, and consequently but little damage was done beyond a few
young birds being shot soon after they had left the nest while they were
flappers, and the numbers were fully kept up; other birds, however,
included in the Act, and not breeding in quite such inaccessible places,
seem to gain but little advantage from it, as nests of the Lesser
Black-backed Gulls, Terns, Oystercatchers and Puffins are ruthlessly
robbed in a way that bids fair before long to exterminate all four
species as breeding birds; perhaps, also, the increase in the number of
Herring Gulls does something to diminish the numbers of other breeding
species, especially the Lesser Black-backs, as Herring Gulls are great
robbers both of eggs and young birds. The Act itself, after reciting
that "le nombre des oiseaux de mer sur les cotes des Isles de cet
Bailliage a considerablement diminue depuis plusieurs annees; que les
dits oiseaux sont utiles aux pecheurs, en ce qu'ils indiquent les
parages ou les poissons se trouvent; que les dits oiseaux sont utiles
aux marins en ce qu'ils annoncent pendant la duree des brouillards la
proximite des rochers," goes on to enact as follows:--"Il est defendu de
prendre, enlever ou detruire les ceufs des oiseaux de mer dans toute
I'entendue de la jurisdiction de cette isle, sur la peine d'une amende
qui ne sera pas moindre de sept livres tournois et n'excedera pas trente
livres tournois."[3] Sec. 2 enacts, "Depuis ce jour[4] au 15 Octobre
prochain, il est defendu de tuer, blesser, prendre ou chasser les
oiseaux de mer dans toute l'entendue de la jurisdiction de cette isle."
Sec. 3, "Ceux qui depuis ce jour au 15 Octobre prochain auront ete
trouves en possession d'un oiseau de mer recemment tue, blesse ou pris,
ou qui auront ete trouves en possession de plumage frais appartenant
d'un oiseau de mer seront censes avoir tue, blesse ou pris tel oiseau de
mer sauf e eux de prouver le contraire. Pareillement ceux qui depuis ce
jour au 15 Octobre prochain auront ete trouves en possession d'un oeuf
de l'annee d'un oiseau de mer seront censes avoir pris et enleve le dit
oeuf sauf a eux de prouver le contraire." The penalty in each case is
the same as in Section 1. Section 4 contains the list of the oiseaux de
mer which come under the protection of the Act, which is as
follows:--Les Mauves Mouettes, Pingouins, Guillemots, Cormorans,
Barbelotes, Hirondelles de mer, Pies-marants, Petrel, Plongeons, Grebes,
Puffins, Dotterells, Alouettes de mer, Toumpierres, Gannets, Courlis et
Martin pecheur.

As far as the eggs of many of the species actually breeding in the
Islands are concerned, this Act seems to be a dead letter: the only
birds of any size whose eggs are not regularly robbed are the Herring
Gulls and Shags, and they take sufficient care of themselves; were the
Act strictly enforced it would probably be found that there would be--as
would be the case in England--a good deal of opposition to this part of
it, which would greatly interfere with what appears to be a considerable
article of food with many of the population. Probably the only
compromise which would work, and could be rigidly enforced, would be to
fix a later date for the protection of the eggs--say as late as the 15th
June; this would allow those who wanted to rob the eggs for food to take
the earlier layings, and the birds would be able to bring up their
second or third broods in peace; and probably the fishermen and others,
who use the eggs as an article of consumption, would be glad to assist
in carrying out such an Act as this, as they would soon find the birds
increase so much that they would be able to take as many eggs by the
middle of June as they do now in the whole year, especially the
Black-back Gulls and the Puffins, which are the birds mostly
robbed,--the latter of which are certainly decreasing considerably in
numbers in consequence.

This plan is successfully carried out by many private owners of the
large breeding-stations of the Gannets, Eider Duck, and other sea-birds
in the north of England and Scotland. Of course, it must not be supposed
that all the birds mentioned in the Act whose eggs are protected breed
in the Islands, or anywhere within ten or fifteen degrees of latitude of
the Islands; in fact, a great many of them are not there at all during
the breeding-season, except perhaps an occasional wounded bird which has
been unable to join its companions on their migratory journey, or a few
non-breeding stragglers.

It has often struck me that a small but rigidly collected and enforced
gun-tax would be a more efficacious protection--not only to the oiseaux
de mer, but also to the inland birds, many of which are quite as much in
want of protection though not included in the Act--than the Sea-bird
Protection Act is. I am glad to see that there is some chance of this
being carried out, for, while this work was going through the press, I
see by the newspaper ('Gazette Officielle de Guernsey' for the 26th
March, 1879) that the Bailiff had then just issued a _Billet d'Etat_
which contained a "Projet de loi" on the subject, to be submitted to the
States at their next meeting; and in concluding its comments on this
_Projet de loi_ the Gazette says, "Il n'est que juste en fait que ceux
qui veulent se lier au plaisir de la chasse paient pour cette fantaisie
et que par ce moyen le trop grand nombre de nos chasseurs maladroits et
inexperimentes se voit reduit au grand avantage de nos fermiers et de
nos promeneurs;" and probably also to the advantage of the chasseurs
themselves.

In regard to the nomenclature, I have done the best I can to follow the
rule laid down by the British Association; but not living in London, and
consequently not having access to a sufficiently large ornithological
library to enable me to search out the various synonyms for myself and
ascertain the exact dates, I have therefore been obliged to rely on the
best authorities whose works I possess, and accept the name given by
them. In doing this, I have no doubt I have been quite as correct as I
should have been had I waded through the various authors who have
written on the subject, as I have invariably accepted the name adopted
by Professor Newton in his edition of Yarrell, and by Mr. Dresser in his
'Birds of Europe', as far as these works are yet complete: for the birds
not yet included in either I have for the most part taken the scientific
names from Mr. Howard Saunders's 'Catalogue des oiseaux du midi de
L'Espagne,' published in the 'Proceedings' of the Societe Zoologique de
France; and for the names of the Gulls and Terns I have entirely
followed Mr. Howard Saunders's papers on those birds published in the
'Proceedings' of our own Zoological Society, for permission to use
which, and for other assistance,--especially in egg-hunting,--I have to
give him my best thanks.

As French is so much spoken in Guernsey and the other Islands included
in my district, I have (wherever I have been able to ascertain it) given
the French name of each bird, as it may be better known to my Guernsey
readers than either the English or the scientific name. I have also,
where there is one and I have been able to ascertain it, mentioned the
local name in the course of my notes on each bird.

It now only remains to give my best thanks to the various friends who
have assisted me, especially to Mr. MacCulloch, who, though he says he
is no naturalist, has supplied me with various very interesting notes,
which he has taken from time to time of ornithological events which have
occurred in Guernsey, and from which I have drawn rather largely; and I
have, also, again to thank him for the interesting accounts he has given
me of the various changes--agricultural and otherwise--which have taken
place during his memory, and which may have had some effect on the
ornithology of the Islands, especially of Guernsey.

My thanks are also due to Col. L'Estrange for the assistance he has
given me in egg-hunting, and also to Captain Hubback for his notes from
Alderney during the times he was quartered there.

BIRDS OF GUERNSEY.

1. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. _Haliaeetus albicilla_, Linnsaeus. French, "Aigle
pygarque," "Pygarque ordinaire."--The White-tailed Eagle is an
occasional but by no means uncommon visitant to all the Islands. I have
seen specimens from Alderney, Guernsey, and Herm, and have heard of its
having been killed in Sark more than once. It usually occurs in the
autumn, and, as a rule, has a very short lease of life after its arrival
in the Islands, which is not to be wondered at, as it is considered, and
no doubt is, mischievous both to sheep and poultry; and in so thickly
populated a country, where every one carries a gun, a large bird like
the White-tailed Eagle can hardly escape notice and consequent
destruction for any length of time. It might, however, if unmolested,
occasionally remain throughout the winter, and probably sometimes
wanders to the Islands at that time, as Mr. Harvie Brown records
('Zoologist' for 1869, p. 1591) one as having been killed, poisoned by
strychnine, in Herm in the month of January. This was, no doubt, a late
winter visitant, as it is hardly possible that the bird can have escaped
for so long a time, as it would have done had it visited the Islands at
its usual time, October or November. All the Channel Island specimens of
the White-tailed Eagle which I have seen have been young birds of the
first or second year, in the immature plumage in which the bird is known
as the Sea Eagle of Bewick, and in which it is occasionally mistaken for
the Golden Eagle, which bird has never, I believe, occurred in the
Islands. Of course in the adult plumage, when this bird has its white
tail and head, no such mistake could occur, but in the immature plumage
in which the bird usually makes its appearance such a mistake does
occasionally happen, and afterwards it becomes difficult to convince the
owner that he has not a Golden Eagle; in fact he usually feels rather
insulted when told of his mistake, and ignores all suggestions of
anything like an infallible test, so it may be as well to mention that
the birds may be distinguished in any state of plumage and at any age by
the tarsus, which in the White-tailed Eagle is bare of feathers and in
the Golden Eagle is feathered to the junction of the toes. I have one in
my possession shot at Bordeaux harbour on the 14th of November, 1871,
and I saw one in the flesh at Mr. Couch's, the bird-stuffer, which had
been shot at Alderney on the 2nd of November in the same year; and Mr.
MacCulloch writes to me that one was wounded and taken alive in the
parish of the Forest in Guernsey in 1845. It was said to be one of a
pair, and he adds--"I have known several instances of its appearance
since both here (Guernsey) and in Herm," but unluckily he gives no dates
and could not remember at what time of year any of the occurrences he
had noted had taken place. This is to be regretted, as although the bird
occurs almost every autumn--indeed, so frequently as to render mention
of further instances of its occurrence at that time of year
unnecessary--its occurrence in the spring is rare, and some of those
noted by Mr. MacCulloch might have been at that time of year. As it is,
I only know of one spring occurrence, and that was reported to me by Mr.
Couch as having taken place at Herm on the 23rd of March, 1877.

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