Birds of Guernsey (1879) by Cecil Smith

C >> Cecil Smith >> Birds of Guernsey (1879)

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

115. BARTAILED GODWIT. _Limosa lapponica_, Linnaeus. French, "Barge
rousse."--The Bar-tailed Godwit is a regular and sometimes rather
numerous spring and autumn visitant. In May, 1876, a considerable number
of these birds seem to have rested on the little Island of Herm, where
the keeper shot three of them; two of these are now in my possession,
and are very interesting, as though all shot at the same time--I believe
on the same day--they are in various stages of plumage, the most
advanced being in thorough breeding-plumage, and the other not nearly so
far advanced; and the third, which I saw but have not got, was not so
far advanced as either of the others. In the two which I have the change
of colour in the feathers, without moult, may be seen in the most
interesting manner, especially in the least advanced, as many of the
feathers are still parti-coloured, the colouring matter not having
spread over the whole feather; in the most advanced, however, nearly all
the feathers were fully coloured with the red of the breeding-plumage.
This red plumage remains till the autumn, when it is replaced, after the
moult, by the more sombre and less handsome grey of the winter plumage.
Though the Bar-tailed Godwit goes far north to breed, not breeding much
nearer than Lapland and the north of Norway and Sweden, both old and
young soon show themselves again in the Channel Islands on their return
journey, as I shot a young bird of the year in Herm the last week in
August. Most of the autumn arrivals, however, soon pass on to more
southern winter quarters, only a few remaining very late, perhaps quite
through the winter, as I have one shot in Guernsey as late as the 14th
of December; this one, I need hardly say, is in full winter plumage, and
of course presents a most striking difference to the one shot in Herm in
May.

The Bar-tailed Godwit is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only
marked as occurring in Guernsey. It is, however, as I have shown,
perhaps more common in Herm, and it also occurs in Alderney. There is a
series of these in the Museum in change and breeding-plumage.

The Blacktailed Godwit is also included in Professor Ansted's list, but
I have never seen the bird in the Islands or been able to glean any
information concerning it, and there is no specimen in the Museum.

116. GREENSHANK. _Totanus canescens_, Gmelin. French, "Chevalier gris,"
"Chevalier aboyeur."--The Greenshank can only be considered a rare
occasional visitant. I have never shot or seen it myself in the Islands,
but Miss C.B. Carey records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1872 as having
been shot on the 2nd of October of that year, and brought to Mr.
Couch's, at whose shop she saw it.

The Greenshank is included in Professor Ansted's list, but there is no
letter to note which of the Islands it has occurred in. There is no
specimen in the Museum.

117. RUFF. _Machetes pugnax,_ Linnaeus. French, "Combatant," "Combatant
variable."--The Ruff is an occasional but not very common autumn and
winter visitant; it occurs, probably, more frequently in the autumn than
the winter. Mr. MacCulloch writes me, "I have a note of a Ruff shot in
October, 1871." This probably was, like all the Guernsey specimens I
have seen, a young bird of the year in that state of plumage in which it
leads to all sorts of mistakes, people wildly supposing it to be either
a Buff-breasted or a Bartram's Sandpiper. Miss C.B. Carey records one in
the 'Zoologist' for 1871 as shot in September of that year; this was a
young bird of the year. Miss C.B. Carey also records two in the
'Zoologist' for 1872 as having been shot about the 13th of April in that
year; these she describes as being in change of plumage but having no
ruff yet; probably the change of colour in the feathers was beginning
before the long feathers of the ruff began to grow; and this agrees with
what I have seen of the Ruff in confinement; the change of colour in the
feathers of the body begins before the ruff makes its appearance.

Professor Ansted includes the Ruff in his list, and only marks it as
occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum at present.

118. WOODCOCK. _Scolopax rusticola_, Linnaeus. French, "Becasse
ordinaire."--The Woodcock is a regular and tolerably common autumnal
visitant to all the Islands, arriving and departing about the same time
as in England,--none, however, remaining to breed, as is so frequently
the case with us. There might be some good cock shooting in the Islands
if the Woodcocks were the least preserved, but as soon as one is heard
of every person in the Island who can beg, borrow, or steal a gun and
some powder and shot is out long before daylight, waiting for the first
shot at the unfortunate Woodcock as soon as there should be sufficient
daylight. In fact, such a scramble is there for a chance at a Woodcock
that a friend of mine told me he got up long before daylight one morning
and went to a favourite spot to begin at; thinking to be first on the
ground, he sat on a gate close by waiting for daylight; but so far from
his being the first, he found, as it got light, three other people, all
waiting, like himself, to begin as soon as it was light enough, each
thinking he was going to be first and have it all his own way with the
cocks. Besides the gun, another mode of capturing the Woodcocks used
till very lately to be, and perhaps still is, practised at Woodlands and
some other places where practicable in Guernsey. Nets are set across
open paths between the trees, generally Ilex, through which the
Woodcocks take their flight when going out "roading," as it is
called--that is, when on their evening excursion for food; into these
nets the Woodcocks fly and become easy victims.

Professor Ansted includes the Woodcock in his list, but only marks it as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is one specimen in the Museum.

119. SOLITARY SNIPE. _Scolopax major_, Gmelin. French, "Grande
becassine."--I have never been fortunate enough to shoot a Solitary
Snipe myself in the Channel Islands, neither have I seen one at any of
the bird-stuffers; but that is not very likely, as the shooter of a
Solitary Snipe only congratulates himself on having killed a fine big
Snipe, and carries it off for dinner, but, from some of the
descriptions I have had given me of these fine big Snipes, I have no
doubt it has occasionally been a Solitary Snipe. Mr. MacCulloch also
writes me word that the Solitary Snipe occasionally occurs.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked by him as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen at present in the
Museum.

120. SNIPE. _Gallinago gallinaria_, Gmelin. French, "Becassine
ordinaire."--The Common Snipe is a regular and rather numerous autumnal
visitant to all the Islands, remaining through the winter and departing
again in the spring, some few remaining rather late into the summer. I
am very sceptical myself about the Snipe breeding in the Channel Islands
in the present day, although I was told one or two were seen about Mr.
De Putron's pond late this summer, and were supposed to be breeding
there; however, I could see nothing of them when there in June and July,
although, as I have said before, Mr. De Putron kindly allowed me to
search round his pond for either birds or eggs. Mr. MacCulloch, however,
thinks they still breed in Guernsey, as he writes to me to say, "I
believe that Snipes continue to breed here occasionally; I have heard of
them, and put them up myself in summer." If they do, I should think the
most likely places would be the wild gorse and heath-covered valleys
leading down to the Gouffre and Petit Bo Bay, as there is plenty of
water and soft feeding places in both; I have never seen one there,
however, though I have several times walked both those valleys and the
intervening land during the breeding-season, and I should think all
these places were much too much overrun with picnic parties and
excursionists to allow of Snipes breeding there now. Should the Snipe,
however, still breed in the Island, it would be as well to give it a
place in the Guernsey Bird Act, as it is much more worthy of protection
during the breeding-season than many of the birds there mentioned.
Sometimes in the autumn I have seen and shot Snipe in the most unlikely
places when scrambling along between huge granite boulders lying on a
surface of hard granite rock, where it would be perfectly impossible for
a Snipe to pick up a living; indeed with his sensitive bill I do not
believe a Snipe, if he found anything eatable, could pick it off the
hard ground. Probably the Snipes I have found in these unlikely places
were not there by choice, but because driven from their more favourite
places by the continual gunning going on in almost every field inland.

The Snipe is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey: it is difficult to say why this should be, when
the Solitary Snipe and the Jack Snipe are marked as occurring in
Guernsey and Sark, and all three are, at least, as common in Alderney as
in the other two Islands. There is one specimen in the Museum.

121. JACK SNIPE. _Gallinago gallinula_, Linnaeus. French, "Becassine
Jourde."--The Jack Snipe is a regular autumnal visitant to all the
Islands, but never so numerous as the Common Snipe. A few may always be
seen, however, hung up in the market with the Common Snipes through the
autumn and winter.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, and marks it only as occurring
in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.

122. KNOT. _Tringa canutus_, Brisson. French, "Becasseau canut,"
"Becasseau maubeche."--Common as the Knot is on the south and west coast
of England during autumn and winter, it is by no means so common in the
Channel Islands. I have never shot it there myself in any of my autumnal
expeditions. Miss C.B. Carey records one, however, in the 'Zoologist'
for 1871, as having been shot on September the 23rd of that year; and
Mr. Harvie Brown mentions seeing a solitary Knot far out on the shore at
Herm in January, 1869. These are the only occasions I am certain about,
although it probably occurs sparingly every year, but I have never seen
it even in the market, and were it at all common a few certainly would
have occasionally found their way there.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring
in Guernsey. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.

123. CURLEW SANDPIPER. _Tringa subarquata_, Gueldenstaedt. French,
"Becasseau cocorli."--The Curlew Sandpiper, or Pigmy Curlew as it is
sometimes called, can only be considered a rare occasional visitant to
the Channel Islands. I have never seen or shot one there myself, but Mr.
Couch records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1874 as having been shot near
the Richmond Barracks on the 5th of October of that year. Colonel
L'Estrange told me also that some were seen in a small bay near Grand
Rocque in the autumn of 1877. It may, however, have occurred at other
times and been passed over or looked upon as only a Purre, from which
bird, however, it may immediately be distinguished by its longer legs
and taller form when on the ground, and by the white rump.

It is not included in Professor Ansted's list, and there is no specimen
in the Museum.

124. PURRE or DUNLIN. _Tringa alpina_, Linnaeus. French, "Becasseau
brunette," "Becasseau variable."--The Purre is resident in all the
Islands throughout the year in considerable numbers, which however are
immensely increased in the autumn by migratory arrivals, most of which
remain throughout the winter, departing in the spring for their breeding
stations. Though resident throughout the year, and assuming full
breeding plumage, I am very doubtful as to the Purre breeding in the
Islands; I have never been able to find eggs, nor, as a rule, have I
found the bird anywhere but on its ordinary winter feeding-ground,
amongst the mud and seaweed between high and low water mark. The most
likely parts to find them breeding seem to be some of the high land and
heather in Guernsey and the sandy common on the northern part of Herm,
near which place I saw a few this summer (1878) in perfect breeding
plumage, and showing more signs of being paired than they generally do,
and in parts of Alderney.

Professor Ansted has not mentioned it in his list. There are two
specimens in the Museum, both in breeding plumage.

125. LITTLE STINT. _Tringa minuta_, Leishler. French, "Becasseau
echasses," "Becasseau minute."--The Little Stint is only an occasional
and never numerous autumnal visitant. I have seen one or two in the
flesh at Mr. Couch's, killed towards the end of October, but I have
never seen one alive or shot one myself.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in
Guernsey only. There is no specimen in the Museum.

126. SANDERLING. _Calidris arenaria_, Linnaeus. French, "Sanderling
variable."--The Sanderling is a regular and rather early autumn visitant
to all the Islands, as I have shot one as early as the end of August in
Cobo Bay in Guernsey; this is about the time the Sanderling makes its
first appearance on the opposite side of the Channel at Torbay. I have
not met with it later on in October and November, but no doubt a few
remain throughout the winter as they do in Torbay, where I have shot
Sanderlings as late as the 27th of December; a few also probably visit
the Islands on their return migration in the spring. The two in the
Museum seem to bear out this, as one is nearly in winter plumage, and
the other is assuming the red plumage of the breeding season, and could
not have been killed before April or May.

The Sanderling is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked by him
as occurring in Guernsey and Sark.

127. GREY PHALAROPE. _Phalaropus fulicarius_, Linnaeus. French,
"Phalarope gris," "Phalarope roussatre," "Phalarope
phatyrhinque."[19]--The Grey Phalarope is a tolerably regular and
occasionally numerous autumnal visitant to all the Islands, not,
however, arriving before the end of October or beginning of November. At
this time of year the greater numbers of birds are in the varied
autumnal plumage so common in British-killed specimens, showing partial
remains of the summer plumage; but one I have, killed in November, 1875,
was in most complete winter plumage, there not being a single dark or
margined feather on the bird. This perfect state of winter plumage is by
no means common either in British or Channel Island specimens, so much
so that I do not think I have seen one in such perfect winter plumage
before.

The Grey Phalarope is included in Professor Ansted's list, but no
letters marking its distribution through the Islands are added, perhaps
because it was considered to be generally distributed through all of
them. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.

128. HERON. _Ardea cinerea_, Linnaeus. French, "Heron cendre", "Heron
huppe."--A good many Herons may be seen about the Islands at all times
of the year; those that remain through the summer, though scattered over
all the Islands, are probably all non-breeding birds. I have seen them
fishing along the shore in Guernsey, Herm, Alderney, and the rocky
islands north of Herm, but I have never seen or heard of an egg being
found in either of the Islands, nor have I ever seen anything that bore
the most remote resemblance to the nest of a Heron. Mr. MacCulloch,
however, writes to me as follows: "The Heron is said to breed
occasionally on the Amfrocques and others of those small islets north of
Herm." Mr. Howard Saunders, Col. L'Estrange, and myself, however,
visited all these islets this last breeding season (1878), and though we
saw Herons about fishing in the shallow pools left by the tide, we could
see nothing that would lead us to suppose that Herons ever bred there,
in fact, though Herons have been known to breed on cliffs by the sea;
the Amfroques and all the other little wild rocky islets are apparently
the most unlikely places for Herons to breed on. In Guernsey itself,
however, it is more likely that a few Herons formerly bred, and that
there was once a small Heronry in the Vale. As Mr. MacCulloch writes to
me, "There is a locality in the parish of St. Samson, at the foot of
Delancy Hill, in the vicinity of the marshes near the Ivy Castle,
formerly thickly wooded with old elms, which bears the name of La
Heroniere. It may have been a resort of Herons, but I am bound to say
the name may have been derived from a family called 'Heron,' now
extinct." It seems to me also possible that the family derived their
name from being the proprietors of the only Heronry in Guernsey. In the
place mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch there are still a great many elm
trees quite big enough for Herons to build in, supposing they were
allowed to do so, which would not be likely at the present time. The
number of Herons in the Channel Islands seems to me to be considerably
increased in the autumn, probably by wanderers from the Heronries on the
south coast of Devon and Dorset; on the Dart and the Exe, and near
Poole.

The Heron is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.

129. PURPLE HERON. _Ardea purpurea_, Linnaeus. French, "Heron
pourpre."--The Purple Heron is an occasional accidental wanderer to all
the Islands. Mr. MacCulloch writes me word, "I have notes of that
beautiful bird, the Purple Heron, being killed here (Guernsey) in May,
1845, and in 1849; also in Alderney on the 8th May, 1867." Curiously
enough Mr. Rodd records the capture of one, a female, near the Lizard,
in Cornwall, late in April of the same year.[20] When at Alderney this
summer (1878) I was told that a Heron of some sort, but certainly not a
Common Heron, had been shot in that Island about six weeks before my
visit on the 27th of June. Accordingly I went the next morning to the
bird-stuffer, Mr. Grieve, and there I found the bird and the person who
shot it, who told me that it rose from some rather boggy ground at the
back of the town--that he shot at it and wounded it, but it flew on
towards the sea; and as it was getting rather late he did not find it
till next morning, when he found it dead near the place he had marked it
down the night before. It was in consequence of going to look up this
bird that I found the Greenland Falcon before mentioned, which had been
shot by the same person. These are all the instances I have been able to
collect of the occurrence of the Purple Heron in the Channel Islands.

It is, however, included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey, probably on the authority of one of the earlier
specimens mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch. There is no specimen at present
in the Museum.

130. SQUACCO HERON. _Ardeola cornuta_, Pallas. French, "Heron
crabier."--I have in my collection a Guernsey-killed specimen of the
Squacco Heron, which Mr. Couch informed me was shot in that island in
the summer of 1867, and from inquiries I have made I have no doubt this
information is correct. Mr. MacCulloch also writes to me to say, "A
Squacco Heron was shot in the Vale Parish on the 14th of May, 1867, no
doubt the one Couch sent to you." This was duly recorded by me in the
'Zoologist' for 1872, and is, I believe, the first recorded instance of
its occurrence in the Channel Islands.

It is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and there is no specimen
in the Museum.

131. BITTERN. _Botaurus stellaris_, Linnaeus. French, "Heron grand
butor," "Le grand butor."--Bitterns were probably at one time more
common in Guernsey than they are at present, drainage and better
cultivation having contributed to thin their numbers, as it has done in
England; and Mr. MacCulloch tells me that in his youth they were by no
means uncommon. Of late years, however, they have become much more
uncommon, though, as he adds, specimens have been shot within the last
three or four years. They seem now, however, to be confined to
occasional autumnal and winter visitants. Mr. Couch says ('Zoologist'
for 1871):--"On the 30th December, 1874, after a heavy fall of snow, I
had a female Bittern brought to me to be stuffed, shot in the morning in
the Marais; and on the 2nd of January following another was shot on the
beach near the Vale Church. I had also part of some of the
quill-feathers of a Bittern sent to me for identification by Mrs. Jago,
which had been killed in the Islands the last week in January, 1879."
These are the most recent specimens I have been able to get any account
of. The bird-stuffer in Alderney (Mr. Grieve) and his friend told me
they had shot Bitterns in that island, but did not remember the date.

The Bittern is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum.

132. AMERICAN BITTERN. _Botaurus lentiginosus_, Montagu. French, "Heron
lentigineux."[21]--This occasional straggler from the New World has
once, in its wanderings, reached the Channel Islands, and was shot in
Guernsey on the 27th October, 1870, and was duly recorded by me in the
'Zoologist' for 1871; it is now in my collection. This is the only
occurrence of this bird in the Channel Islands yet recorded; but as the
bird occasionally crosses to this side of the Atlantic--several
specimens having occurred in the British Islands--it may possibly occur
in Guernsey or some of the Channel Islands again. It may, therefore, be
as well to point out the principal distinctions between this bird and
the Common Bittern last mentioned. Between the adult birds there can be
no mistake: the longer and looser feathers on the fore part of the neck,
which are slightly streaked and freckled with dark brown, may be
immediately distinguished from the much shorter and more regularly
marked feathers on the neck of the adult American Bittern. This
distinction, however, is not perfectly clear in young birds; but, at
any age or in any state of plumage, the birds may be immediately
distinguished by the primary quill-feathers, which in the American
Bittern are a uniform dark chocolate-brown without any marks whatever,
while in the Common Bittern they are much marked and streaked with pale
yellowish brown; this may be always relied on at any age or in any
plumage.

The American Bittern is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, no
specimen having been found in the Channel Islands till after the
publication of his list, and of course there is no specimen in the
Museum.

133. LITTLE BITTERN. _Ardetta minuta_, Linnaeus. French, "Heron
Blongios."[22]--I only know of one occurrence of the Little Bittern in
the Channel Islands, and that was towards the end of November, 1876; and
Mr. Couch writes to me as follows on the 3rd of December: "A very good
Little Bittern was caught alive in the Vale Road; after being shot at
and missed by two men, a young man in the road threw his
pocket-handkerchief at it and brought it in to me alive." Mr. Couch also
informed me, when he forwarded me the specimen, that it was a male by
dissection. It is now in my collection, and is a young bird of the year.
I am rather sorry that as Mr. Couch got it alive he did not forward it
to me in that state, as, unless it had been wounded by the two shots, I
have no doubt I should have been able to keep it alive and observe its
habits and changes of plumage as it advanced towards maturity.

The Little Bittern is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum.

134. SPOONBILL. _Platalea leucorodia_, Linnaeus. French, "Spatule
blanche."--An occasional but by no means common visitant to the Channel
Islands. I have been able to hear of but very few instances of its
occurrence or capture of late years; Mr. Couch, however, writes me, in a
letter dated November, 1873, that a Spoonbill was brought to him to
stuff. In all probability this is the same bird recorded by Mr.
Broughton in the 'Field' for October 25th, 1873, and in the 'Zoologist'
for January, 1874. This is the only very recent specimen I have been
able to trace; but Mr. Broughton in his note mentions the occurrence of
one about twenty years before; and Mrs. Jago, who, when she was Miss
Cumber, did a good deal of bird-stuffing in Guernsey, told me she had
stuffed a Spoonbill for the Museum about twenty years ago. This is
probably the other one mentioned by Mr. Broughton, and he may have seen
it in the Museum; it is not there, however, now--either having become
moth-eaten, and consequently thrown away, or lost when the Museum
changed its quarters across the market-place. Mr. MacCulloch does not
seem to consider the Spoonbill such a very rare visitant to the Channel
Islands, as he writes to me, "The Spoonbill is not near so rare a
visitor as you seem to think; specimens were killed here in 1844, and in
previous years, and again in 1849, and in October, 1873.[23] They are
seldom solitary, but generally appear in small flocks. I forget whether
it was in 1844 or 1849 that flocks were reported to have been seen in
various parts of England, even as far west as Penzance. I think that in
one of these years as many as a dozen were seen here in a flock." Mr.
Rodd, in his 'List of the Birds of Cornwall,' does not mention either of
these years as great years for Spoonbills, only saying, "Occasionally,
and especially of late years, observed in various parts of the county; a
flock of several was seen and captured at Gwithian; others have been
obtained from the neighbourhood of Penzance, and also from Scilly."[24]

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13