Title: Birds of Guernsey (1879) - And the Neighbouring Islands: Alderney, Sark, Jethou, Herm; Being a Small Contribution to the Ornitholony of the Channel Islands
Author: Smith, Cecil
Language: English
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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. Gäetke 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 côtes des Isles de cet
Bailliage a considerablement diminué depuis plusieurs années; que les
dits oiseaux sont utiles aux pêcheurs, 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 durée des brouillards la
proximite des rochers," goes on to enact as follows:--"Il est défendu de
prendre, enlever ou détruire 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'excédera pas trente
livres tournois."[3] Sec. 2 enacts, "Depuis ce jour[4] au 15 Octobre
prochain, il est défendu 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 été
trouvés en possession d'un oiseau de mer récemment tué, blessé ou pris,
ou qui auront été trouvés en possession de plumage frais appartenant
d'un oiseau de mer seront censés avoir tué, blessé ou pris tel oiseau de
mer sauf è eux de prouver le contraire. Pareillement ceux qui depuis ce
jour au 15 Octobre prochain auront été trouvés en possession d'un oeuf
de l'annee d'un oiseau de mer seront censés avoir pris et enleve le dit
oeuf sauf à 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 pêcheur.

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
inexpérimentes se voit réduit 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 Société 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.

The White-tailed Eagle is included in Professor Ansted's list, but its
range in the Islands is restricted to Guernsey. There is one in the
museum, probably killed in Guernsey, in the plumage in which the Channel
Island specimens usually occur, but no note is given as to locality or
date.


2. OSPREY. _Pandion halioeetus_, Linnaeus. French, "Balbusard."--I have
never met with the Osprey myself in the Channel Islands, nor have I, as
far as I remember, seen a Channel Island specimen. I include it,
however, on the authority of a note kindly sent to me by Mr. MacCulloch,
who says:--"An Osprey was shot at St. Samsons, in Guernsey, on the 29th
of October, 1868. I cannot, however, say whether at the time it was
examined by a competent naturalist, and as both the Osprey and the
White-tailed Eagle are fishers, a mistake may have been made in naming
it." Of course such a mistake as suggested is possible, but as the
Guernsey fishermen and gunners, especially the St. Samsons men, are well
acquainted with the White-tailed Eagle, I should not think it probable
that the mistake had been made. The bird, however, cannot be considered
at all common in the Islands; there is no specimen in the Guernsey
Museum, and Mr. Couch has never mentioned to me having had one through
his hands, or recorded it in the 'Zoologist,' as he would have done had
he had one; neither does Mrs. Jago (late Miss Cumber), who used to do a
good deal of stuffing in Guernsey about thirty years ago, remember
having had one through her hands. There can be no reason, however, why
it should not occasionally occur in the Islands, as it does so both on
the French and English side of the Channel. The wonder rather is that it
is so rare as it appears to be.

The Osprey, however, is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and only
marked as occurring in Guernsey.


3. GREENLAND FALCON. _Falco candicans_, Gmelin.--I was much surprised
on my last visit to Alderney, on the 27th of June, 1878, on going into a
small carpenter's shop in the town, whose owner, besides being a
carpenter, is also an amateur bird-stuffer, though of the roughest
description, to find, amongst the dust of his shop, not only the Purple
Heron, which I went especially to see, and which is mentioned
afterwards, but a young Greenland Falcon which he informed me had been
shot in that island about eighteen months ago. This statement was
afterwards confirmed by the person who shot the bird, who was sent for
and came in whilst I was still in the shop. Unfortunately, neither the
carpenter nor his friend who shot the bird had made any note of the
date, and could only remember that the one had shot the bird in that
Island about eighteen months ago and the other had stuffed it
immediately after. This would bring it to the winter of 1876-77, or,
more probably, the late autumn of 1876. In the course of conversation it
appeared to me that the Snow Falcon--as they called this bird--was not
entirely unknown to the carpenter or his friend, though neither could
remember at the time another instance of one having been killed in that
Island. It is, however, by no means improbable that either this species
or the next mentioned, or both, may have occurred in the Islands before,
as Professor Ansted, though he gives no date or locality, includes the
Gyr Falcon in his list of Channel Island birds. As all three of the
large northern white Falcons were at one time included under the name of
Gyr Falcons, and, as Professor Ansted gives no description of the bird
mentioned by him, it is impossible to say to which species he alluded.
We may fairly conclude, however, that it was either the present species
or the Iceland Falcon, as it could hardly have been the darker and less
wandering species, the Norway Falcon, the true Gyr Falcon of falconers,
_Falco gyrfalco_ of Linnaeus, which does not wander so far from its
native home, and has never yet, as far as is at present known, occurred
in any part of the British Islands, and certainly not so far south as
the Channel Islands. This latter, indeed, is an extremely southern
latitude for either the Greenland or Iceland Falcon, the next being in
Cornwall, from which county both species have been recorded by Mr. Rodd.
Neither species, however, is recorded as having occurred in any of the
neighbouring parts of France.


4. ICELAND FALCON. _Falco islandus_, Gmelin.--An Iceland Falcon was
killed on the little Island of Herm on the 11th of April, 1876, where it
had been seen about for some time, by the gamekeeper. It had another
similar bird in company with it, and probably the pair were living very
well upon the game-birds which had been imported and preserved in that
island, as the keeper saw them kill more than one Pheasant before he
shot this bird. The other fortunately escaped. The bird which was killed
is now in my possession, and is a fully adult Iceland Falcon, and Mr.
Couch, the bird-stuffer who skinned it, informed me a male by
dissection. Though to a certain extent I have profited by it, so far as
to have the only Channel Island example of the Iceland Falcon in my
possession, I cannot help regretting that this bird was killed by the
keeper, as it seems to me not impossible that the two birds being
together in the island so late as the 11th of April, and certainly one,
probably both, being adult, and there being plenty of food for them,
might, if unmolested, have bred in the island. Perhaps, however, this is
too much to have expected so far from their proper home. It would,
however, have been interesting to know how late the birds would have
remained before returning to their northern home; but the
breeding-season for the Pheasants was beginning, and this was enough for
the keeper, as he had actually seen two or three Pheasants--some
hens--killed before he shot the Falcon. As these Falcons can only be
considered very rare accidental visitants to the Islands, it may be
interesting to some of my readers to mention that they may distinguish
them easily by colour, the Greenland, _Falco candicans_, being always
the most white, and the Norway bird--the Gyr Falcon of falconers--being
the darkest, the Iceland Falcon (the present species) being
intermediate. This is generally a good guide at all ages, but
occasionally there may be some difficulty in distinguishing young birds,
especially as between the Iceland and the Norway Falcon. In a doubtful
case in the Channel Islands, however, it would always be safer to
consider the bird an Iceland rather than a Norway Falcon.


5. PEREGRINE FALCON. _Falco peregrinus_, Tunstall. French, "Faucon
pèlerin."--The Peregrine can now, I think, only be considered an
autumnal visitant to the Islands, though, if not shot or otherwise
destroyed, it would, no doubt, remain throughout the winter, and might
perhaps have been resident, as Mr. MacCulloch sends me a note of one
killed in Herm in December. All the Channel Island specimens I have seen
have been young birds of the year, and generally killed in October or
November. Adult birds, no doubt, occasionally occur, but they are
comparatively rare, and it certainly does not breed anywhere in the
Islands at present, though I see no reason why it should not have done
so in former times, as there are many places well suited to it, and a
constant supply of sea-birds for food. Mr. MacCulloch also seems to be
of opinion that the Peregrine formerly bred in the Islands, as he says,
speaking, however, of the _Falconidae_ generally, "There must have been
a time when some of the species were permanent residents, for the high
pyramidal rock south of the little Island of Jethou bears the name of
'La Fauconnière,' evidently denoting that it must have been a favourite
resort of these birds, and there are other rocks with the same name."
Certainly the rock here mentioned looks much like a place that would be
selected by the Peregrine for breeding purposes, but that must have been
before the days of excursion steamers once or twice a week to Jethou and
Herm. Occasionally a young Peregrine is made to do duty as a Lanner, and
is recorded in the local papers accordingly (see 'Star' for November
11th, 1876, copying, however, a Jersey paper), but in spite of these
occasional notes there is no satisfactory reason for supposing that the
true Lanner has ever occurred in either of the Islands. The birds,
however, certainly resemble each other to a certain extent, but the
young Lanner in which state it would be most likely to occur, may always
be distinguished from the young Peregrine by its whiter head, and the
adult has more brown on the head and neck.

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


6. HOBBY. _Falco subbuteo_, Linnaeus. French, "Le Hobereau." The Hobby
can only be considered as a rather rare occasional visitant, just
touching the Islands on its southern migration in the autumn, and late
in the autumn, for Mr. MacCulloch informs me that a Hobby was killed in
the Islands, probably Guernsey, in November, 1873, and Mr. Couch,
writing to me on the 10th of November, told me he had had a Hobby
brought to him on the 8th of the same month. Both of these occurrences
seem rather late, but probably the Hobby only touches the Islands for a
very short time on passage, and quite towards the end of the migratory
period. I do not know of any instance of the Hobby having occurred in
the Islands on its northern migration in the spring, or of its remaining
to breed.

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


7. MERLIN. _Falco aesalon_,[5] Bris., 1766. French, "Faucon
Emérillon."--The pretty little Merlin is a much more common autumnal
visitant to the Islands than the Hobby, but, like the Peregrine, the
majority of instances are young birds of the year which visit the
Islands on their autumnal migration. When I was in Guernsey in November,
1875, two Merlins, both young birds, were brought in to Mr. Couch's.
Both were shot in the Vale, and I saw a third near Cobo, but did not
shoot it. This also was a young bird. In some years Merlins appear to be
more numerous than in others, and this seems to have been one of the
years in which they were most numerous. Unlike the Hobby, however, the
Merlin does occasionally visit the Islands in the spring, as I saw one
at Mr. Jago's, the bird-stuffer in Guernsey, which had been killed at
Herm in the spring of 1876. This is now in the collection of Mr.
Maxwell, the present owner of Herm. Though the Merlin visits the Islands
both in the spring and autumn, I do not know that there is any instance
of its having remained to breed, neither do I know of an occurrence
during the winter. In the 'Zoologist' for 1875 Mr. Couch, in a
communication dated November 29th, 1874, says--"A Merlin--a female--was
shot in the Marais, which had struck down a Water Rail a minute or two
before it was shot. After striking down the Rail the Merlin flew into a
tree, about ten yards from which the man who shot it found the Rail
dead. He brought me both birds. The skin of the Rail was broken from the
shoulder to the back of the skull."

The more common prey, however, of the Merlin during the time it remains
in the Islands is the Ring Dotterell, which at that time of year is to
be found in large flocks mixed with Purres and Turnstones in all the
low sandy or muddy bays in the Islands.

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


8. KESTREL. _Falco tinnunculus_, Linnaeus. French, "Faucon
cresserelle."--The Kestrel is by far the commonest hawk in the Islands,
and is resident throughout the year. I do not think that its numbers are
at all increased during the migratory season. It breeds in the rocky
parts of all the Islands. The Kestrel does not, however, show itself so
frequently in the low parts--even in the autumn--as on the high cliffs,
so probably Ring Dotterell, Purres, and Turnstones do not form so
considerable a part of its food as they do of the Merlin. Skylarks, Rock
and Meadow Pipits, and, in the summer, Wheatears, with a few rats and
mice, seem to afford the principal food of the Kestrel, and to obtain
these it has not to wander far from its breeding haunts.

The Kestrel is quite as common in Alderney and Herm, and even in the
little Island of Jethou, as it is in Guernsey and Sark. One or two
pairs, perhaps more, breed on the before-mentioned rock close to Jethou
"La Fauconnière," though a few pairs of Kestrels breeding there would
scarcely have been sufficient to give it its name.

It is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens, a male and
female, in the Museum.


9. SPARROWHAWK. _Accipiter nisus_, Linnaeus. French, "L'Epervier,"
"Tiercelet."--The Sparrowhawk, though a resident species and breeding in
the Islands, is by no means so common as the Kestrel. In fact, it must
certainly be considered rather a rare bird, which perhaps is not to be
wondered at, as it is a more tree-breeding bird and less given to
nesting amongst the rocks than the Kestrel. It does so sometimes,
however, as I saw one fly out of some ivy-covered rocks near Petit Bo
Bay the last time I was in the Islands on the 27th of May, 1878. I am
certain this bird had a nest there, though the place was too
inaccessible to be examined closely. The trees, however, at the Vallon
or Woodlands would be much more likely nesting-places, especially as it
might have an opportunity of appropriating a deserted nest of a Magpie
or a Wood Pigeon, rather a favourite nesting-place of the Sparrowhawk.

Professor Ansted includes the Sparrowhawk in his list, but confines it
to Guernsey and Sark; and probably, as a resident and breeding bird, he
is right as far as my district is concerned, but I should think it must
occasionally occur both in Alderney and Herm, though I have never seen a
specimen from either Island, nor have I seen the bird about alive in
either. There is one specimen in the Museum.


10. COMMON BUZZARD. _Buteo vulgaris_, Leach. French, "Buse."--The
Buzzard is a tolerably regular, and by no means uncommon, autumnal
visitant, specimens occurring from some of the Islands almost every
autumn. But it is, I believe, an autumnal visitant only, as I do not
know of a single specimen taken at any other time of year, nor can I
find a record of one. I have seen examples in the flesh from both
Alderney and Herm, in both of which Islands it occurs at least as
frequently as it does in Guernsey, though still only as an autumnal
visitant.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring
in Guernsey, and there is one specimen in the Museum.


11. ROUGHLEGGED BUZZARD. _Buteo lagopus_, Gmelin. French, "Archibuse
pattue" or "Buse pattue."--Though its visits seem not so absolutely
confined to the autumn as the Common Buzzard, the Rough-legged Buzzard
is a much more uncommon visitant to the Channel Islands, and can only be
looked upon as a rare occasional straggler. Mr. MacCulloch informs me
that one was killed near L'Hyvreuse, which is perhaps now more commonly
known as the New Ground, in Guernsey, about Christmas, 1870, and I
found one at the bird-stuffer and carpenter's shop at Alderney, which
had been shot by his friend who shot the Greenland Falcon, but I could
get no information about the date except that it was late autumn or
winter, and about two years ago. These are the only Channel Island
specimens of which I have been able to glean any intelligence. Probably,
however, it has occurred at other times and been overlooked. As it may
have occasionally been mistaken for the more common Common Buzzard, I
may say that it is always to be distinguished from that bird by the
feathered tarsus. On the wing, perhaps, when flying overhead, the most
readily observed distinction is the dark band on the lower part of the
breast. I have, however, seen a very dark variety of the Rough-legged
Buzzard, in which nearly the whole of the plumage was a uniform dark
chocolate-brown, and consequently the dark band on the breast could not
be seen even when one had the bird in one's hand, and had it not been
for the feathered tarsus this bird might easily have been mistaken for a
very dark variety of the Common Buzzard, and when on the wing it would
have been impossible to identify it. Indeed, though it was immediately
distinguishable from the Common Buzzard by its feathered legs, there was
some little difficulty about identifying it, even when handling it as a
skin.

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


12. MARSH HARRIER. _Circus Oeruginosus_, Linnaeus. French, "Busard
des Marais."--This seems to be the least common of the Harriers in the
Channel Islands, though it does occur occasionally, and perhaps more
frequently than is generally supposed.

There are two specimens in the Museum in Guernsey both in immature
plumage; in that state, in fact, in which this bird most commonly
occurs, and in which it is the Bald Buzzard of Bewick.

Miss C.B. Carey records one in the November number of the 'Zoologist'
for 1874 in the following words:--"In the May of this year an adult male
Marsh Harrier was found in Herm. Unfortunately it got into the hands of
some person who, I believe, kept it too long before bringing it over to
be preserved, so that all that remains of it is the head." I had no
opportunity of examining this bird myself, not even the head, but I am
disposed to doubt its being fully adult, as it seems to me much more
probable that it was much in the same state as those in the Museum, in
which state it is much more common than in the fully adult plumage. Miss
Carey seems only to have seen the head herself, so there may easily
have been a mistake on this point.

Mr. MacCulloch writes me word that a Marsh Harrier was killed in Herm in
May, 1875. It may be just possible, however, that this is the same bird
recorded by Miss C.B. Carey, and that Mr. MacCulloch only heard of it in
the May of the following year, and noted it accordingly. This, however,
is mere supposition on my part, for which I have no reason except that
both birds were said to have been killed in Herm, and both in May.

Professor Ansted mentions the Marsh Harrier in his list, but marks it as
only found in Guernsey.


12. HEN HARRIER. _Circus cyaneus_, Linnaeus. French, "Busard St.
Martin."[6]--The Hen Harrier, perhaps, occurs rather more frequently
than the Marsh Harrier, but it can only be considered a rare occasional
visitant. In June, 1876, I saw one young Hen Harrier, which had been
shot in Herm in the April of that year, about the same time as the
Iceland Falcon, and by the same keeper, who had brought it to Mr. Couch
to stuff. Another was shot in Herm on the 19th of June, 1877. This bird
is now in Mr. Maxwell's collection, where I saw it on the 27th of June.
It was first reported to me by Mr. Jago, the bird-stuffer in Guernsey.

These are the only two Channel Island specimens of the Hen Harrier
which I have been able to find. I have never shot it myself or seen it
alive. It is, however, included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked
as occurring in Guernsey only.


[13. Omitted.]


14. MONTAGU'S HARRIER. _Circus cineraceus_, Montagu. French, "Busard
Montagu," "Busard cendré."--Montagu's Harrier is certainly a more
frequent visitant to the Islands than either the Hen Harrier or the
Marsh Harrier. Miss C.B. Carey records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1873
as having been shot in Alderney in July of that year. She adds that it
was an adult male in full plumage, and that she saw it herself at Mr.
Couch's shop. In the 'Zoologist' for 1874 she records another Montagu's
Harrier--a young one--shot in Herm in July of that year. She adds
that--"It was brought to Mr. Couch to skin. He found a whole Lark's egg,
and also the shell of another, in its throat. He showed me how the whole
egg was sticking in the empty shell of the broken one."

All the Harriers seem to have a special liking for eggs. In his notice
of the Marsh Harrier Professor Newton says, in his edition of Yarrell,'
that birds' eggs are an irresistible delicacy; and, in speaking of the
food of the present species, he says it consists chiefly of
grasshoppers, reptiles, small mammals, birds and their eggs; these last,
if their size permit, being often swallowed whole, as was the case in
the instance mentioned by Miss Carey. Mr. Howard Saunders also says he
can bear witness to the egg-eating propensities of the Harriers.

Besides the two recorded by Miss C.B. Carey, I saw one--a young bird--in
Mr. Maxwell's collection, which had been killed at Herm, and another--a
young male--at Mr. Jago's, the bird-stuffer, which had also been killed
at Herm. There were also two young birds in the bird-stuffer and
carpenter's shop at Alderney, both of which had been killed in that
Island shortly before my last visit, June, 1878.

As mistakes may occasionally arise in identifying specimens, especially
in immature plumage, it may be as well to notice a distinction between
the Hen Harrier and Montagu's Harrier, which has been pointed out by Mr.
Howard Saunders, and which holds good in all ages and in both sexes.
This distinction is, that in the Hen Harrier the outer web of the fifth
primary is notched, whereas in Montagu's Harrier it is plain, or, in
other words, the Hen Harrier has the exterior web of the primaries, up
to and including the fifth, notched, and in Montagu's Harrier this is
only the case as far as the fourth.[7] This distinction is very useful
in identifying young birds and females, which are sometimes very much
alike. In fully adult males the orange markings on the flanks and
thighs, and the greyish upper tail-coverts of Montagu's Harrier,
distinguish it immediately at a glance from the Hen Harrier, in which
those parts are white.

Montagu's Harrier is not included by Professor Ansted in his list, nor
is there a specimen in the Museum.


15. LONGEARED OWL. _Asiootus_, Linnaeus. French, "Hibou vulgaire,"
"Hibou moyen due."--The Long-eared Owl seems only a very rare and
accidental visitant to the Channel Islands. I have never met with it
myself, but Mr. Couch records the occurrence of one in the 'Zoologist'
for 1875, p. 4296:--"I have a Long-eared Owl, shot at St. Martin's on
the 9th of November in that year." This is the only occurrence I can be
sure of, except that Mr. Couch, about two years afterwards, sent me a
skin of a Guernsey-killed Long-eared Owl; but this may have been the
bird mentioned above, as he sent me no date with it.

As it is partially migratory, and its numbers in the British Islands,
especially in the Eastern Counties, are increased during the autumn by
migratory arrivals, a few may wander, especially in the autumn, to the
Channel Islands, but it can only be rarely.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, and marks it as having been
found both in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen of the Long-eared
Owl at present in the Museum. If there has been one it must have got
moth-eaten, like many of the other birds there, and been destroyed.


16. SHORTEARED OWL. _Asio accipitrinus_, Pallas. French, "Hibou
brachyôte."--Unlike the Long-eared Owl, the Short-eared Owl is a regular
autumnal visitant to the Channel Islands, arriving about October in
considerable numbers, but remaining only for a short time, as I do not
know of any making their appearance after the end of November, and the
majority of those that have arrived seem to pass on about that time, not
remaining throughout the winter, and I hear of no instances of their
occurring on the spring migration, so the majority must pass north by a
different line from that pursued by them on the southern migration.

There is only one specimen at present in the Museum. Professor Ansted
mentions it in his list, but only as found in Guernsey and Sark; but it
is quite as common in Alderney, from which Island I have seen
specimens, and I think also from Herm, but I cannot be quite sure about
this, though of course there can be no reason why it should not be found
there, as Herm is only three miles as the crow flies from Guernsey.


17. BARN OWL. _Aluco flammeus_, Linnaeus. French, "Chouette effraie."--I
have never seen the Barn or Yellow Owl alive in the Channel Islands
myself, but Mr. MacCulloch does not consider it at all rare in Guernsey,
and Mr. Jago informs me the Barn Owls have taken possession of a
pigeon-hole in a house in the Brock Road opposite his, and that he sees
and hears them every night. Some years ago he told me he shot one near
the Queen's Tower. He was not scared like the man who shot one in the
churchyard, and thought he had shot a cherubim, but he had to give up
shooting owls, as the owner of the pigeon-hole where the owls have taken
up their abode remonstrated with him, and he has since refrained, though
he has had several chances. The vacancy caused by the one being shot was
soon filled up.

The Barn Owl is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and restricted to
Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum, both of which
are said to have been killed in Guernsey.


18. REDBACKED SHRIKE. _Lanius Collurio_, Linnaeus. French, "Pie-grieche
écorcheur."--The Red-backed Shrike may be considered a tolerably
regular, but not very common, summer visitant to the Channel Islands. In
June, 1876, I several times saw a male bird about the Vallon, in
Guernsey. The female no doubt had a nest at the time in the Vallon
grounds, but I could not then get in there to search for it.

As the Red-backed Shrike frequently returns to the same place every
year, I expected again to find this bird, and perhaps the female and the
nest this year, 1878, about the Vallon, but I could see nothing of
either birds or nest, though I searched both inside and outside the
Vallon grounds.

Young Mr. Le Cheminant, who lives at Le Ree and has a small collection
of Guernsey eggs mostly collected by himself in the Island, had one
Red-backed Shrike's egg of the variety which has the reddish, or rather
perhaps pink, tinge. There were also some eggs in a Guernsey collection
in the Museum. These were all of the more ordinary variety. There were
also two skins--a male and female--in the Museum. The bird seems rather
local in its distribution about the Island, as I never saw one about the
Vale in any of my visits, not even this year, 1878, when I was there for
two months, and had ample opportunity of observing it had it been there.
There are, however, plenty of places nearly as well suited to it in the
Vale as about the Vallon or Le Ree. I have never seen it in either of
the other Islands, though no doubt it occasionally occurs both in Sark
and Herm, if not in Alderney.

Professor Ansted includes the Red-backed Shrike in his list, and marks
it only as occurring in Guernsey. I have no evidence of any other Shrike
occurring in the Islands, though I should think the Great Grey Shrike,
_Lanius excubitor_, might be an occasional autumn or winter visitant to
the Islands; but I have never seen a specimen myself or been able to
glean any satisfactory information as to the occurrence of one, either
from the local bird-stuffers or from Mr. MacCulloch, or any of my
friends who have so kindly supplied me with notes; neither does
Professor Ansted mention it in his list.


19. SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. _Muscicapa grisola_, Linnaeus. French,
"Gobe-mouche gris."--The Spotted Flycatcher is a regular and numerous
summer visitant, generally quite as numerous in certain localities as in
England, its arrival and departure being about the same time. It occurs
also in Sark and Herm, and probably in Alderney, but I do not remember
having seen one there. In Guernsey it is perhaps a little local in its
distribution, avoiding to a great extent such places as the Vale and the
open ground on the cliffs, but in all the gardens and orchards it is
very common.

Spotted Flycatchers appear, however, to vary in numbers to a certain
extent in different years. This year, 1878, they came out in great
force, especially on the lawn at Candie where they availed themselves to
a large extent of the croquet-hoops, from which they kept a good
look-out either for insects on the wing or on the ground, and they might
be as frequently seen dropping to the ground for some unfortunate
creeping thing that attracted their attention as rising in the air to
give chase to something on the wing. Certainly, when I was in Guernsey
about the same time in 1866, Spotted Flycatchers did not appear to be
quite so numerous as in 1878. This was probably only owing to one of
those accidents of wind and weather which render migratory birds
generally, less numerous in some years than they are in others, however
much they may wish and endeavour, which seems to be their usual rule, to
return to their former breeding stations.

Professor Ansted mentions the Spotted Flycatcher in his list, but does
not add, as he usually does, any letter showing its distribution through
the Islands. This probably is because it is generally distributed
through them all. There is no specimen in the Museum.


20. GOLDEN ORIOLE. _Oriolus galbula_, Linnaeus. French, "Le Loriot."--I
have never seen the bird alive or found any record of the occurrence of
the Golden Oriole in Guernsey or the neighbouring Islands, and beyond
the fact that there was one example--a female--in the Museum (which may
have been from Jersey) I had been able to gain no information on the
subject except of a negative sort. No specimen had passed through the
hands of the local bird-stuffers certainly for a good many years, for
Mr. Jago's mother who about twenty or thirty years ago, when she was
Miss Cumber, had been for some considerable time the only bird-stuffer
in the Island, told me she did not know the bird, and had never had one
through her hands. It seemed to me rather odd that a bird which occurs
almost every year in the British Islands, occasionally even as far west
as Ireland, as a straggler, and which is generally distributed over the
continent of Europe in the summer, should be totally unknown in the
Channel Islands. Consequently writing to the 'Star' about another
Guernsey bird--a Hoopoe--which had been recorded in that paper, I asked
for information as to the occurrence of the Golden Oriole in the
Islands, and shortly after the following letter signed "Tereus"[8]
appeared in the 'Star':--"Concerning the occurrence of the Golden Oriole
I cannot speak from my own personal knowledge, but I believe there can
be no doubt that the bird has been occasionally seen here. Its presence,
however, must be much more rare than that of the Hoopoe, for a bird of
such plumage as the Oriole would be more likely to attract even more
attention than the comparatively sober-coloured Hoopoe, and if half so
common as the latter would be sure to fall before the gun of the fowler.
There was a specimen of the female bird in the Museum of the Mechanics'
Institution, but I am not sure about its history, and I have some reason
to suppose it was shot in Jersey. Our venerable national poet, Mr.
George Métivier, has many allusions to the Oriole in his early
effusions, whether written in English, French, or our vernacular
dialect. It seems to have been an occasional visitor at St. George's;
but in Mr. Métivier's early days the island was far more wooded than it
is at present, and it is possible that the wholesale destruction of
hedgerow elms and the grubbing-up of so many orchards in order to employ
the ground more profitably in the culture of early potatoes and brocoli,
by which the island has lost much of its picturesque beauty, may have
had the effect of deterring some of the occasional visitors from
alighting here in their periodical migrations." Signed "Tereus."

A short time after the appearance of this letter in the 'Star' on the
16th of May, 1878, Mr. MacCulloch himself wrote to me on the subject and
said:--"I had yesterday a very satisfactory interview with Mr. George
Métivier. He is now in his 88th or 89th year. He told me he was about
thirteen when he went to reside with his relations, the Guilles, at St.
George. There was then a great deal of old timber about the place and a
long avenue of oaks, besides three large cherry orchards. One day he was
startled by the sight of a male Oriole. He had never seen the bird
before. Whether it was that one that was killed or another in a
subsequent year I don't know, but he declares that for several years
afterwards they were seen in the oak trees and among the cherries, and
that he has not the least doubt but that they bred there. One day an old
French gentleman of the name of De l'Huiller from the South of France,
an emigrant, noticed the birds and made the remark--'Ah! vous avez des
loriots ici; nous en avons beaucoup chez nous, ils sont grands gobeurs
de cerises.' It would appear from this that cherries are a favourite
food with this bird, and the presence of cherry orchards would account
for their settling down at St. George. I believe they are said to be
very shy, and the absence of wood would account for their not being seen
in the present day."

I have no doubt that Mr. MacCulloch is right that the cherry orchards,
to say nothing of other fruit trees, tempted the Golden Orioles to
remain to breed in the Island, for they are "grand gobeurs" not only of
"cerises," but of many other sorts of fruit, particularly of grapes and
figs--in grape countries, indeed, doing a deal of damage amongst the
vineyards. This damage to grapes would not, however, be much felt in
Guernsey, as all the grapes are protected by orchard-houses. But though
the grapes are protected, and most, if not all, the cherry orchards cut
down, still there is plenty of unprotected fruit in Guernsey to tempt
the Golden Oriole to remain in the Islands, and to bring the wrath and
the gun of the gardener both to bear upon him when he is there. This,
however, only shows that from the time spoken of by Mr. Métivier down to
the present time very few Golden Orioles could have visited Guernsey,
and still fewer remained to breed; for what with their fruit-eating
propensities and their bright plumage, hardly a bird could have escaped
being shot and subsequently making its appearance in the bird-stuffers'
windows, and affording a subject for a notice in the 'Star,' or some
other paper. I think therefore, on the whole, that though Guernsey still
affords many temptations to the Golden Oriole, and is sufficiently
well-wooded to afford shelter to suit its shy and suspicious habits, yet
for some reason or other the bird has not visited the Island of late
years even as an accidental visitant, or, if so, very rarely.

The Golden Oriole is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
having occurred in Guernsey and Sark, but nothing more is said about the
bird. Probably Guernsey was mentioned as a locality on account of the
female specimen in the Museum, but with this exception I have never
heard of its making its appearance in Sark even as a straggler.


21. DIPPER. _Cinclus aquaticus_, Bechstein. French, "Aquassière,"
"Cincle plongeur."--The Dipper or Water Ouzel, though not very common,
less so, indeed, than the Kingfisher, is nevertheless a resident
species, finding food all through the year in the clear pools left by
the tide, and also frequenting the few inland ponds, especially the
rather large ones, belonging to Mr. De Putron in the Vale, where there
is always a Dipper or a Kingfisher to be seen, though I do not think the
Dipper ever breeds about those ponds--in fact there is no place there
which would suit it; but though I have never found the nest myself in
Guernsey, I have been informed, especially by Mr. Gallienne, that the
Dipper makes use of some of the rocky bays, forming his nest amongst the
rocks as it would on the streams of Dartmoor and Exmoor.

Captain Hubboch, however, writes me word he saw one in Alderney in the
winter of 1861-62, and there seems no reason why a few should not remain
there throughout the year as in Guernsey.

All the Guernsey Dippers I have seen, including the two in the Museum,
which are probably Guernsey-killed, have been the common form, _Cinclus_
_aquations_. The dark-breasted form, _Cinclus melanogaster_, may occur
as an occasional wanderer, though the Channel Islands are somewhat out
of its usual range. There being no trout or salmon to be protected in
Guernsey, the Dipper has not to dread the persecution of wretched
keepers who falsely imagine that it must live entirely by the
destruction of salmon and trout ova, though the contrary has been proved
over and over again.

Professor Ansted includes the Dipper in his list, but only marks it as
occurring in Guernsey.


22. MISTLETOE THRUSH. _Turdus viscivorus_, Linnaeus. French, "Merle
Draine," "Grive Draine."--I quite agree with the remarks made by
Professor Newton, in his edition of 'Yarrell,' as to the proper English
name of the present species, and that it ought to be called the
Mistletoe Thrush. I am afraid, however, that the shorter appellation of
Missel Thrush will stick to this bird in spite of all attempts to the
contrary. In Guernsey the local name of the Mistletoe Thrush is "Geai,"
by which name Mr. Métivier mentions it in his 'Dictionary of Guernsey
and Norman French.' He also adds that the Jay does not exist in this
Island. This is to a certain extent confirmed by Mr. MacCulloch, who
says he is very doubtful as to the occurrence of the Jay in the Island,
and adds that the local name for the Mistletoe Thrush is "Geai." Mr.
Gallienne, in a note to Professor Ansted's list, confirms the scarcity
of the Jay, as he says the Rook and the Jay are rarely seen here,
although they are indigenous to Jersey. The local name "Geai" may
perhaps have misled him as to the occasional appearance of the Jay. I
have never seen a real Jay in Guernsey myself.

As far as I am able to judge from occasional visits to the Island for
the last thirty years the Mistletoe Thrush has greatly increased in
numbers in Guernsey, especially within the last few years, and Mr.
MacCulloch and others who are resident in the Island quite agree with me
in this. I do not think its numbers are much increased at any time of
year by migrants, though a few foreigners may arrive in the autumn, at
which time of year considerable numbers of Mistletoe Thrushes are
brought into the Guernsey market, where they may be seen hanging in
bunches with Common Thrushes, Redwings, Blackbirds, Fieldfares,
Starlings, and an occasional Ring Ouzel. Fieldfares and Mistletoe
Thrushes usually sell at fourpence each, the rest at fourpence a couple.

Professor Ansted mentions it in his list, but confines it to Guernsey
and Sark. This is certainly not now the case, as I have seen it nearly
as numerous in Alderney and Herm as any of the other Islands. There is a
specimen in the Museum.


23. SONG THRUSH. _Turdus musicus_, Linnaeus. French, "Grive," "Merle
Grive."--Very common and resident in all the Islands, and great is the
destruction of snails by Thrushes and Blackbirds--in fact, nowhere have
I seen such destruction as in the Channel Islands, especially in
Guernsey and Herm, where every available stone seems made use of, and to
considerable purpose, to judge from the number of snail-shells to be
found about; and yet the gardeners complain quite as much of damage to
their gardens, especially in the fruit season, by Blackbirds and
Thrushes, as the English gardeners and seem equally unready to give
these birds any credit for the immense destruction of snails, which, if
left alone, would scarcely have left a green thing in the garden.

The local name of the Thrush is "Mauvis." It is, of course, included in
Professor Ansted's list, but with the Fieldfare, Redwing, and Blackbird,
marked as only occurring in Guernsey and Sark. All these birds, however,
are equally common in Alderney, Herm, and Jethou. There is also a
specimen of each in the Museum.


24. REDWING. _Turdus iliacus_, Linnaeus. French, "Grive mauvis," "Merle
mauvis."--A regular and numerous winter visitant to all the Islands,
arriving about the end of October, and those that are not shot and
brought into the market departing again in March and April.


25. FIELDFARE. _Turdus pilaris_, Linnaeus. French, "Grive litorne,"
"Merle litorne."--Like the Redwing, the Fieldfare is a regular and
numerous winter visitant, and arrives and departs about the same time.

When in Guernsey in November, 1871, I did not see either Redwings or
Fieldfares till a few days after my arrival on the 1st; after that both
species were numerous, and a few days later plenty of them might be seen
hanging up in the market with the Thrushes and Blackbirds, but for the
first few days there were none to be seen there. Probably this was
rather a late year, as neither bird could have arrived in any numbers
till the first week in November, and in all probability not till towards
the end of the week.


26. BLACKBIRD. _Turdus merula_, Linnaeus. French, "Merle noir."--- The
Blackbird is a common and numerous resident in all the Islands in the
Bailiwick of Guernsey. The Guernsey gardeners, like their brethren in
England, make a great fuss about the mischief done by Blackbirds in the
gardens, and no doubt Blackbirds, like the Golden Orioles, are "grand
gobeurs" of many kinds of fruit; but the gardeners should remember that
they are equally "grand gobeurs" of many kinds of insects as well, many
of the most mischievous insects to the garden, including wasps (I have
myself several times found wasps in the stomach of the blackbird)
forming a considerable portion of their food, the young also being
almost entirely fed upon worms, caterpillars, and grubs; and when we
remember that it is only for a short time of the year that the Blackbird
can feed on fruit, which in most cases can be protected by a little
care, and that during the whole of the other portion of the year it
feeds on insects which would do more damage in the garden than itself,
it will be apparent that the gardener has really no substantial ground
of complaint.

As in England, variations in the plumage of the Blackbird are not
uncommon. I have one Guernsey specimen of a uniform fawn colour, and
another rather curiously marked with grey, the tail-feathers being
striped across grey and black. This is a young bird recently out of the
nest, and I have no doubt would, after a moult or two, have come to its
proper plumage, probably after the first moult, as seems to me
frequently the case with varieties of this sort, though I have known a
Blackbird show a good deal af white year after year in the winter,
resuming its proper plumage in the summer; and Mr. Jago mentions a case
of a Blackbird which passed through his hands which was much marked
with grey. This bird was found dead, and the owner of the estate on
which it was found informed Mr. Jago that it had frequented his place
for four years, and that he had seen it with its mate during the summer;
so in this case the variation certainly seems to have been permanent.


27. RING OUZEL. _Turdus torquatus_, Linnaeus. French, "Merle à
plastron."--I do not think the Ring Ouzel is ever as common in the
Channel Islands as it is on migration in South Devon. A few, however,
make their appearance in each of the Islands every autumn, but they are
never very numerous, and do not remain very long, arriving generally
about the end of September and remaining till the end of November or
beginning of December, during which time a few may always be seen hung
up in the market. Many of the autumnal arrivals are young birds of the
year, with the white crescent on the breast nearly wanting or only very
faintly marked.

Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks appended to Professor Ansted's list, says
the Ring Ouzel stays with us throughout the year, but is more plentiful
in winter than in summer. But I have never myself seen one either dead
or alive in the spring or summer. It may, however, occasionally visit
the Island in the spring migration, but I know of no authentic instance
of its remaining to breed, nor have I seen the eggs in any Guernsey
collection. I have seen specimens of the Ring Ouzel from Alderney, and
it appears to me about equally common at the same time of year in all
the Islands. Mr. MacCulloch, however, writes to me:--"From what I have
heard the Ring Ouzel is more common in Alderney than Guernsey, where it
is seen mostly on the southern cliffs." The south end of the Island is
no doubt its favourite resort in Guernsey. As far as Alderney is
concerned Captain Hubback, R.A., who has been quartered there at
different times, says he has never seen one there; but I do not think he
has been much there in the early autumn.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, and marks it as occurring in
Guernsey and Sark. There are several, both male and female and young, in
the Guernsey Museum.


28. HBDGESPARROW. _Accentor modularis_, Linnaeus. French, "Mouchet,"
"Traîne buisson," "Accenteur mouchet."--The Hedgesparrow is, I think,
quite as common as in England, and resident throughout the year in all
the Islands. According to Mr. Métivier's 'Dictionary' its local name is
"Verdeleu," and he describes it as "Oiseau qui couvre les oeufs de
Coucou." In Guernsey, however, Cuckoos are much too numerous for the
Hedgesparrow to afford accommodation for them all.

Professor Ansted mentions the Hedgesparrow in his list, but restricts
it to Guernsey and Sark. I have, however, frequently seen it in Alderney
and Herm, and the little Island of Jethou.


29. ROBIN. _Ericathus rubecula_, Linnaeus. French. "Bec-fin
rouge-gorge," "Rouge gorge." The Robin, like the Hedgesparrow, is a
common resident in all the Islands, and I cannot find that its numbers
are increased at any time of year by migration. But on the other hand I
should think a good many of the young must be driven off to seek
quarters elsewhere by their most pugnacious parents, for of all birds
the Robin is by far the most pugnacious with which I am acquainted, and
deserves the name of "pugnax" much more than the Ruff, and in a limited
space like Jethou and Herm battles between the old and the young would
be constant unless some of the young departed altogether from the
Island.

Professor Ansted includes the Robin in his list, but, as with the
Hedgesparrow, only mentions it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. It is,
however, equally common in Alderney, Jethou, and Herm.


30. REDSTART. _Ruticilla phoenicurus_, Linnaeus. French, "Rouge-queue,"
"Bec-fin des murailles."--I should not have included the Redstart in
this list, as I have never seen it in the Islands myself, but on
sending a list of the birds I intended to include to Mr. MacCulloch, he
wrote to say--"You mention Tithy's Redstart; the common one is also seen
here." In consequence of this information I looked very sharply out for
the birds during the two months (June and July) which I was in Guernsey
this year (1878), but I never once saw the bird in any of the Islands,
nor could I find any one who had; and such a conspicuous and generally
well known bird could hardly have escaped observation had it been in the
Island in any numbers. I may add that I have had the same bad luck in
all my former visits to the Islands, and never seen a Redstart. I
suppose, however, from Mr. MacCulloch's note that it occasionally visits
the Islands for a short time on migration, very few, if any, remaining
to breed.

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


31. BLACK REDSTART. _Ruticilla titys_, Scopoli. French, "Rouge queue
Tithys."--The Black, or Tithys Redstart, as it is sometimes called, is a
regular and by no means uncommon autumnal visitant to Guernsey. It seems
very much to take the place of the Wheatear, arriving about the time the
Wheatear departs, and mostly frequenting the same places. In Guernsey
it is most common near the sea about the low part of the Island, from
L'ancresse Common to Perrelle Bay. In habits it puts one very much in
mind of the Wheatear, being very fond, like that bird, of selecting some
big stone or some other conspicuous place to perch on and keep a
look-out either for intruders or for some passing insect, either flying
or creeping, for it is an entirely insect-feeding bird.

I have never seen the Black Redstart about the high part of the Island
amongst the rocks, which I am rather surprised at, as in the south coast
of Devon it seems particularly partial to high cliffs and rocks, such as
the Parson and Clerk Rock near Teignmouth; but in Guernsey the wild
grassy commons, with scattered rocks and large boulders, and
occasionally a rough pebbly beach, especially the upper part of it where
the pebbles join the grass, seem more the favourite resort of this bird
than the high rocks, such places probably being more productive of food.
It is of course quite useless to look for this bird in the interior of
the Island in gardens and orchards, and such places as one would
naturally look for the Common Redstart.

The male Black Redstart may be immediately distinguished from the Common
Redstart by the black breast and belly, and by the absence of the white
mark on the forehead. The male Black Redstart has also a white patch on
the wing caused by the pale, nearly white, margins of the feathers. The
females are more alike, but still may easily be distinguished, the
general colour of the female Black Redstart being much duller--a dull
smoke-brown instead of the reddish brown of the Common Redstart.

Some slight variations of plumage take place in the Black Redstart at
different ages and seasons, which have led to some little difficulties,
and to another supposed species, _Ruticilla cairii_ of Gerbe being
suggested, but apparently quite without reason. I have never seen the
Black Redstart in the Islands at any time of year except the autumn, and
do not know of its occurrence at any other time.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but gives no locality; and
there is no specimen in the Museum.


32. STONECHAT. _Pratincola rubicola_, Linnaeus. French, "Tarier
rubicole," "Traquet pâtre," "Traquet rubicole."--The Stonechat is a
numerous and regular summer visitant, breeding in all the Islands, but I
do not think any remain throughout the winter; of course a few scattered
birds may occasionally do so in some sheltered locality, but I have
never seen one in the Islands as late as November. Both in the Vale and
on the Cliffs in the higher part of the Island the Stonechat is very
common, and the gay little bird, with its bright plumage and sprightly
manner, may be seen on the top of every furze bush, or on a conspicuous
twig in a hedge in the wilder parts of the Island, but is not so common
in the inland and more cultivated parts, being less frequently seen on
the hedges by the roadside than it is here, Somersetshire, or in many
counties in England. In Alderney it is quite as common as in Guernsey,
and I saw two nests this year (1878) amongst the long grass growing on
the earthworks near the Artillery Barracks; it is equally common also
both in Jethou, Sark, and Herm.

There were a great many Stonechats in the Vale when I was there this
year (1878). Generally they seemed earlier in their breeding proceedings
than either Wheatears, Tree Pipits, or Sky Larks, which were the three
other most numerous birds about that part of the Island, as there were
several young ones about when we first went to live in the Vale early in
June; still occasionally nests with eggs more or less hard sat might be
found, but the greater number were hatched when fresh eggs of Tree
Pipits and Sky Larks were by no means uncommon.

Professor Ansted includes the Stonechat in his list, but marks it as
confined to Guernsey and Sark. There is a specimen in the Museum.

33. WHINCHAT. _Pratincola rubetra_, Linnaeus. French, "Tarier
ordinaire," "Traquet tarier."--The Whinchat seems to me never so
numerous as the Stonechat, and more local in its distribution during the
time it is in the Islands. It is only a summer visitant, and I doubt if
it always remains to breed, though it certainly does so occasionally, as
I have seen it in Guernsey through June and July mostly in the south
part of the Island, near Pleimont. In my last visit to the Islands,
however, in June and July, 1878, I did not see the Whinchat anywhere,
neither did I see one when there in June, 1876.

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


34. WHEATEAR. _Saxicola Oenanthe,_ Linnaeus. French, "Motteux cul
blanc," "Traquet moteux."--A very common summer visitant to all the
Islands, arriving in March and departing again in October, none
remaining through the winter--at least, I have never seen a Wheatear in
the Islands as late as November on any occasion. In the Vale, where a
great many breed, the young began to make their appearance out of the
nest and flying about, but still fed by their parents, about the 16th of
June. In Guernsey it is rather locally distributed, being common all
round the coast, both on the high and low part of the Island, but only
making its appearance in the cultivated part in the interior as an
occasional straggler. It is quite as common in Alderney and the other
Islands as it is in Guernsey, in Alderney there being few or no
enclosures, and no hedgerow timber. It is more universally distributed
over the whole Island, in the cultivated as well as the wild parts.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but marks it as only occurring
in Guernsey and Sark. There are several specimens in the Museum, but I
did not see any eggs either there or in young Le Cheminant's collection.
This is probably because in Guernsey the Wheatear has a great partiality
for laying its eggs under large slabs and boulders of granite perfectly
immovable; the stones forming one of the Druids' altars in the Vale,
were made use of to cover a nest when I was there.


35. REED WARBLER. _Acrocephalus streperus_, Vieillot. French,
"Rousserolle effarvatte," "Bec-fin des roseaux."--I did not find out the
Reed Warbler as a Guernsey bird till this year (1878), though it is a
rather numerous but very local summer visitant. But Mr. MacCulloch put
me on the right track, as he wrote to me to say--"The Reed Warbler
builds in the Grand Mare. I have seen several of their curious hanging
nests brought from there." This put me on the right scent, and I went
to the place as soon as I could, and found parts of it a regular
paradise for Reed Warblers, and there were a considerable number there,
who seemed to enjoy the place thoroughly, climbing to the tops of the
long reeds and singing, then flying up after some passing insect, or
dropping like a stone to the bottom of the reed-bed if disturbed or
frightened. On my first visit to the Grand Mare I had not time to search
the reed-beds for nests. But on going there a second time, on June 17,
with Colonel l'Estrange, we had a good search for nests, and soon found
one with four eggs in it which were quite fresh. This nest was about
three feet from the ground, tied on to four reeds,[9] and, as usual,
having no support at the bottom, was made entirely of long dry bents of
rather coarse grass, and a little of the fluff of the cotton plant woven
amongst the bents outside, but none inside. We did not find any other
nests in the Grand Mare, though we saw a great many more birds; the
reeds, however, were very thick and tall, high over our heads, so that
when we were a few feet apart we could not see each other, and the place
was full of pitfalls with deep water in them, which were very difficult
to be seen and avoided. Many of the nests, I suspect, were amongst the
reeds which were growing out of the water. Subsequently, on July the
12th, I found another Reed Warbler's nest amongst some reeds growing by
Mr. De Putron's pond near the Vale Church; this nest, which was attached
to reeds of the same kind as those at the Grand Mare, growing out of
water about a foot deep: it was about the same height above the water
that the other was from the ground; it had five eggs in it hard sat.
There were one or two pairs more breeding amongst these reeds, though I
could not very well get at the place without a boat, but the birds were
very noisy and vociferous whenever I got near their nests, as were the
pair whose nest I found. There were also a few pairs in some reed-beds
of the same sort near L'Eree.

These are all the places in which I have been able to find the Reed
Warbler in Guernsey. I have not found it myself in Alderney, but Mr.
Gallienne, in his remarks published with Professor Ansted's list,
says:--"I have put the Reed Wren as doubtful for Guernsey, but I have
seen the nest of this bird found at Alderney." In the list itself it is
marked as belonging to Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark.

The Reed Warbler, though entirely insectivorous, is a very tame and
amusing cage-bird, and may easily be fed on raw meat chopped fine and a
little hard-boiled egg; but its favourite food is flies, and of these it
will eat any quantity, and woe even to the biggest bluebottle that may
buzz through its cage, for the active little bird will have it in a
moment, and after a few sharp snaps of the beak there is quite an end of
the bluebottle. Daddy long-legs, too, are favourite morsels, and after a
little beating about disappear down the bird's throat--legs, wings, and
all, without any difficulty. The indigestible parts are afterwards cast
up in pellets in the same manner as with Hawks.

I have never seen the nearly-allied and very similar Marsh Warbler,
_Acrocephalus palustris_, in Guernsey, but, as it may occasionally
occur, it may be as well perhaps to point out what little distinction
there is between the species. This seems to me to consist chiefly in the
difference of colour, the Reed Warbler, _Acrocephalus streperus_, at all
ages and in all states of plumage, being a warmer, redder brown than
_Acrocephalus palustris_, which is always more or less tinged with
green. The legs in _A. streperus_ are always darker than in _A.
palustris_; the beak also in _A. palustris_ seems rather broader at the
base and thicker. This bird also has a whitish streak over the eye,
which seems wanting in _A. streperus._ These distinctions seem to me
always to hold, good even in specimens which have been kept some time
and have faded to what has now generally got the name of "Museum
colour."

Mr. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe,' points out another distinction
which no doubt is a good one in adult birds with their quills fully
grown, but fails in young birds and in adults soon after the moult,
before the quills are fully grown, and also before the moult if any
quills have been shed and not replaced. This distinction is that in _A.
streperus_ the second (that is the first long quill, for the first in
both species is merely rudimentary) is shorter than the fourth, and in
_A. palustris_ it is longer.

Though I think it not at all improbable that the Marsh Warbler,
_Acrocephalus palustris_, may occur in Guernsey, I should not expect to
find it so much in the wet reed-beds in the Grand Mare and at the Vale
pond as amongst the lilac bushes and ornamental shrubs in the gardens,
or in thick bramble bushes in hedgerows and places of that sort.


36. SEDGE WARBLER. _Acrocephalus schoenobaenus_, Linnaeus. French,
"Bee-fin phragmite."--The Sedge Warbler is by no means so common as the
Reed Warbler, though, like it, it is a summer visitant, and is quite as
local. I did not see any amongst the reeds which the Reed Warbler
delighted in, but I saw a few amongst some thick willow hedges with
thick grass and rushes growing by the side of the bank, and a small
running stream in each ditch. Though perfectly certain the birds were
breeding near, we could not find the nests. So well were they hidden
amongst the thick grass and herbage by the side of the stream that
Colonel l'Estrange and myself were quite beaten in our search for the
nest, though we saw the birds several times quite near enough to be
certain of their identity. I did not shoot one for the purpose of
identification, as perhaps I ought to have done, but I thought if I shot
one it would be extremely doubtful whether I should ever find it amongst
the thick tangle--certainly unless quite dead there would not have been
a chance. I felt quite certain, however, that all I saw were Sedge
Warblers; had I felt any doubt as to the possibility of one of them
turning out to be the Aquatic Warbler, _Acrocephalus aquaticus_, I
should certainly have tried the effect of a shot. As it is quite
possible, however, that the Aquatic Warbler may occasionally, or perhaps
regularly, in small numbers, visit the Channel Islands, as they are
quite within its geographical range, I may point out, for the benefit of
any one into whose hands it may fall, that it may easily be
distinguished from the Sedge Warbler by the pale streak passing through
the centre of the dark crown of the head.

The Sedge Warbler is not mentioned by Professor Ansted in his list, and
there is no specimen of either this or the Reed Warbler in the Museum.


37. DARTFORD WARBLER. _Melizophilus undatus,_ Boddaert. French, "Pitchou
Provencal," "Bee-fin Pittechou."--The Dartford Warbler is by no means
common in the Channel Islands--indeed I have never seen one there
myself, but Miss C.B. Carey records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1874 as
having been knocked down with a stone in the April of that year and
brought into Couch's shop, where she saw it. I have no doubt of the
correctness of this identification, as Miss Carey knew the bird well. I
see no reason why it should not be more common in Guernsey than is
usually supposed, as there are many places well suited to it, but its
rather dull plumage, and its habit of hiding itself in thick
furze-bushes, and creeping from one to another as soon as disturbed,
contribute to keep it much out of sight, unless one knows and can
imitate its call-note, in which case the male bird will soon answer and
flutter up to the topmost twig of the furze-bush in which it may have
previously been concealed, fluttering its wings, and repeating the call
until again disturbed. This is the only occurrence of which I am aware
in any of the Islands, included in the limits I have prescribed for
myself; but Mr. Harvie Brown has recorded two seen by him near Grève de
Lecq, in Jersey, in January. See 'Zoologist' for 1869, p. 1561.

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


38. WHITETHROAT. _Sylvia rufa_, Boddaert. French, "Fauvette grise,"
"Bec-fin Grisette."--The Whitethroat has hitherto perhaps been better
known by the name used in the former edition of 'Yarrell' and by Messrs.
Degland and Gerbe, _Curruca cinerea_, but in consequence of the
inexorable rule of the British Association the name "_rufa_," given by
Boddaert in 1783, has now been accepted for this bird. I have not
generally thought it necessary to point out these changes, but in this
instance it seemed necessary to do so, as in the former edition of
'Yarrell' the Chiffchaff was called by the name _Sylvia rufa_, and this
might possibly have caused some confusion unless the change had been
pointed out.

The Whitethroat is by no means so common in the Channel Islands as it is
in England, and though a regular summer visitant it only makes its
appearance in small numbers. A few, however, may be seen about the
fields and hedgerows in the more cultivated parts of the country. It
certainly has not got the reputation for mischief in the garden it has
in England, as none of the gardeners I asked about it, and who were
complaining grievously of the mischief done by birds, ever mentioned the
Whitethroat, or knew the bird when asked about it.

Professor Ansted includes the bird in his list, and restricts it to
Guernsey, but I see no reason why it should not occur equally in Sark
and Herm. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.


39. LESSER WHITETHROAT. _Sylvia curruca_, Linnaeus. French, "Bee-fin
babillard."--Like the Whitethroat, the Lesser Whitethroat is a regular,
but by no means a numerous summer visitant to Guernsey. I saw a few in
the willow-hedges about the Grand Mare, and in one or two other places
near there, and young Le Cheminant had one or two eggs in his
collection, probably taken about L'Eree.

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


40. BLACKCAP. _Sylvia atricapilla_, Linnaeus. French, "Fauvette à tête
noire," "Bec-fin à tête noire."--Though generally known as the Guernsey
Nightingale, the Blackcap, though a regular, is by no means a numerous
summer visitant. I have, however, always seen a few about every time I
have been in the Island in the summer. There are a few eggs in the
Museum, and in Le Cheminant's collection.

The Blackcap is mentioned by Professor Ansted in his list, and
restricted to Guernsey. There is only one specimen--a female--at present
in the Museum.


41. WILLOW WREN. _Phylloscopus trochilus_, Linnaeus. French, "Bee-fin
Pouillat."--The Willow Wren is a tolerably numerous summer visitant, I
believe, to all the Islands, though I have only seen it myself in
Guernsey and Sark. In Guernsey I have seen it about the Grand Mare, and
in some trees near the road about St. George, and about the Vallon on
the other side of the Island. It remains all the summer and breeds.

Professor Ansted has not included it in his list, although it seems
tolerably well known, and has a local name "D'mouâiselle," which Mr.
Métivier, in his 'Dictionary,' applies to the Willow Wren of the
English. This name, however, is probably equally applicable to the
Chiffchaff.


42. CHIFFCHAFF. _Phylloscopus collybita_, Vieillot. French, "Bee-fin
veloce."--The Chiffchaff is certainly more common in Guernsey than the
Willow Wren. In Guernsey I have seen it in several places; about Candie,
where a pair had a nest this summer in the mowing-grass before the
house; near the Vallon; and about St. George. I have also seen it in
Sark, but not in either of the other Islands, though no doubt it occurs
in Herm, if not in Alderney.

It is mentioned by Professor Ansted as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. I
have never seen the Wood Wren in Guernsey, and, judging from its
favourite habitations here in Somerset, I should not think it at all
likely to remain in the Channel Islands through the summer, though an
occasional straggler may touch the Islands on migration. There is no
specimen of either the Chiffchaff or Willow Wren in the Museum.


43. GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. _Regulus cristatus_, Koch. French, "Roitelet
ordinaire."--The Golden-crest is resident in the Islands, but not very
numerous, and I doubt if its numbers are regularly increased in the
autumn by migrants, as is the case in the Eastern Counties of England.
Migratory flocks, however, sometimes make their appearance; and Mr.
MacCulloch writes to me--"The Golden-crest occasionally comes over in
large flocks, apparently from Normandy, flying before bad weather. This,
however, cannot be said to have been the cause of the large flight that
appeared here so recently as the last days in April," 1878. This flock
was mentioned in the 'Star' of April the 27th as follows:--"A countryman
informs us that a few days since, whilst he was at L'ancresse Common, he
saw several flocks of these smallest of British birds, numbering many
hundreds in each, settle in different parts of the Common before
dispersing over the Island. In verification of his words he showed us
two or three of these tiny songsters which he had succeeded in knocking
down with a stick." This large migratory flock had entirely disappeared
from L'ancresse Common when we went to live there for two months in May
of the same year; there was not then a Golden Crest to be seen about the
Common. The whole flock had probably resumed their journey together,
none of them having "dispersed over" or remained in the Island, and
certainly, as far as I could judge, the numbers in other parts of the
Island had not increased beyond what was usual and one might ordinarily
expect. I have not been able to learn that the migratory flock above
spoken of extended to any of the other Islands.

The Golden-crested Wren is mentioned by Professor Ansted, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two--a male and female--in the
Museum.


44. FIRE-CRESTED WREN. _Regulus ignicapillus_, C.L. Brehm. French,
"Roitelet a triple bandeau."--I have a pair of these killed in Guernsey
about 1872, but I have not the exact date; and Mr. Couch, who knew the
Fire-crested Wren well, writing to me on the 23rd of March, 1877,
says:--"I had the head and part of a Fire-crest female brought me by a
young lady. She told me her brother knocked down two, and the other had
a beautiful red and gold crest; so it must have been the male." As Mr.
Couch knew both the Goldcrest and Fire-crest well, and the distinction
between them, I have no doubt he rightly identified the bird which was
brought to him. These and the pair in my collection are the only
Guernsey specimens I can be certain of.

The 'Star' newspaper, however, in the note above quoted as to the
migratory flock of Golden-crests, says:--"It may be a fact hitherto
unknown to many of our readers that the Fire-crested Wren, very similar
in appearance to the Golden-crested Wren, is not very uncommon in our
Island. The Fire-crested Wren so closely resembles its _confrère_, the
Golden-crested Wren, that only a practised eye can distinguish the
difference between them." I do not quite agree with the 'Star' as to the
Fire-crest not being "very uncommon," though it occasionally occurs. I
do not think it can be considered as anything but a rare occasional
straggler. And this from its geographical distribution, which is rather
limited, is what one would expect; it is not very common on the nearest
coast of France or England, though it occasionally occurs about Torbay,
which is not very far distant.

The name Fire-crest has probably led to many mistakes between this bird
and the Golden-crest, as a brightly-coloured male Gold-crest has the
golden part of the crest quite as bright and as deeply coloured as the
Fire-crest; and the female Fire-crest has a crest not a bit more deeply
coloured than the female Gold-crest. In point of fact the colour of the
crest is of no value whatever in distinguishing between the birds, and
the "practised eye" would find itself puzzled if it only relied upon
that.

The French name for the Fire-crest, however, "Roitelet à triple
bandeau," is much more descriptive, as under the golden part of the
crest there is a streak of black, and under that again a streak of white
over the eye, and a streak of black through the eye; there is also a
streak, or rather perhaps a spot of white, under the eye. The Gold-crest
has only the streak of black immediately under the gold crest; below
that the whole of the side of the face and the space immediately
surrounding the eye is a uniform dull olive-green. If this distinction
is once known and attended to the difference between the two birds may
be immediately detected by even the unpractised eye.

A very interesting account of the nesting of this bird is given by Mr.
Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe,' he having made a journey to
Altenkirchen, where the Fire-crest is numerous, on purpose to watch it
in the breeding-season. The nest he describes as very like that of the
Golden-crest; the eggs also are much like those of that bird, though a
little redder in colour.

The Fire-crest is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and there is
no specimen at present in the Museum.


45. WREN. _Troglodytes parvulus_, K.L. Koch. French, "Roitelet,"
"Troglodyte mignon," "Troglodyte ordinaire."--The Wren is common and
resident in all the Islands, and very generally distributed, being
almost as common amongst the wild rocks on the coast as in the inland
parts. On the 7th of July, 1878, I found a Wren's nest amongst some of
the wildest rocks in the Island; the hinder part of the nest was wedged
into a small crevice in the rock very firmly, the nest projecting and
apparently only just stuck against the face of the rock. A great deal of
material had been used, and the nest, projecting from the face of the
rock as it did, looked large, and when I first caught sight of it I
thought I might have hit upon an old Water Ouzel's nest. On getting
close, however, I found it was only a Wren's, with young birds in it. I
visited this nest several times, and saw the old bird feeding her young.
I could not, however, quite make out what she fed them with, but I think
with insects caught amongst the seaweed and tangle amongst the rocks.
After the young were flown I took this nest, and was astonished to find,
when it was taken out of the crevice, how much material had been used in
wedging it in, and how firmly it was attached to the rock. This was
certainly necessary to keep it in its place in some of the heavy gales
that sometimes happen even at that time of year; in a very heavy
north-westerly gale it would hardly have been clear of the wash of the
waves at high water.

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


46. TREE-CREEPER. _Certhia familiaris_, Linnaeus. French, "Grimpereau,"
"Grimpereau familier."--The Tree-creeper is resident and not uncommon in
all the Islands, except perhaps Alderney, in which Island I have never
seen it. In Guernsey it may be seen in most of the wooded parts, and
frequently near the town, in the trees on the lawns at Candie, Castle
Carey, and in the New Ground. I have never seen it take to the rocks
near the sea, like the Wren.

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


47. GREAT TIT. _Parus major_, Linnaeus. French, "Mésange
Charbonnière."--The Paridae are by no means well represented in the
Islands, either individually or as to number of species; and the
Guernsey gardeners can have very little cause to grumble at damage done
to the buds by the Tits. The Great Tit is moderately common and resident
in Guernsey, but by no means so common as in England. During the whole
two months I was in the Island this last summer, 1878, I only saw two
or three Great Tits, and this quite agrees with my experience in June
and July, 1866, and at other times.

The Great Tit is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked by
him as occurring in Sark.


48. BLUE TIT. _Parus caeruleus_, Linnaeus. French, "Mésange
bleue."--Like the Great Tit, the Blue Tit is resident in all the
Islands, but by no means numerous. In Guernsey it is pretty generally
distributed over the more cultivated parts, but nowhere so numerous as
in England. It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark.

I have not included either the Cole Tit or the Marsh Tit in this list,
as I have never seen either bird in the Islands, and have not been able
to find that they are at all known either in Guernsey or any of the
other Islands.

Professor Ansted, however, includes the Cole Tit in his list, and marks
it as occurring in Guernsey, but no other information whatever is given
about it; and there is no specimen in the Museum, as there is of both
the Great and the Blue Tits. I have not succeeded in getting a specimen
myself.


49. LONG-TAILED TIT. _Acredula caudata_, Linnaeus. French, "Másange à
longue queue."[10]--The Long-tailed Tit is certainly far from common in
Guernsey at present, and I have never seen it in the Islands myself. But
Mr. MacCulloch writes me word--"The Long-tailed Tit is, or at least was,
far from uncommon. Probably the destruction of orchards may have
rendered it less common. The nest was generally placed in the forked
branch of an apple-tree, and so covered with grey lichens as to be
almost indistinguishable. I remember, in my youth, finding a nest in a
juniper-bush."

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

I am very doubtful as to whether I ought to include the Bearded Tit,
_Panurus biarmicus_ of Linnaeus, in this list. There are a pair in the
Museum, but these may have been obtained in France or England. One of
Mr. De Putron's men, however, described a bird he had shot in the reeds
in Mr. De Putron's pond in the Vale, and certainly his description
sounded very much as if it had been a Bearded Tit; but the bird had been
thrown away directly after it was shot, and there was no chance of
verifying the description.


50. WAXWING. _Ampelis garrulus_, Linnaeus. French, "Jaseur de Bohême,"
"Grand Jaseur."--As would seem probable from its occasional appearance
in nearly every county in England, the Waxwing does occasionally make
its appearance in Guernsey as a straggler. I have never seen it myself,
but Mr. MacCulloch writes me word--"I have known the Bohemian Waxwing
killed here on several occasions, but have not the date."

An interesting account of the nesting habits of this bird, and the
discovery of the nests and eggs by Mr. Wolley, was published by
Professor Newton in the 'Ibis' for 1861, and will be found also in
Dresser's 'Birds of Europe.' and in the new edition of 'Yarrell,' by
Professor Newton.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in
Guernsey; and there is one specimen in the Museum.


51. PIED WAGTAIL. _Motacilla lugubris_, Temminck. French, "Bergeronette
Yarrellii."[11]--The Pied Wagtail has probably been better known to
some of my readers as _Motacilla Yarrellii_, but, according to the
rules of nomenclature before alluded to, _Motacilla lugubris_ of
Temminck seems to have superseded the probably better-known name of
_Motacilla Yarrellii_.

For some reason or other the Pied Wagtail has grown much more scarce in
Guernsey than it used to be; at one time it was common even about the
town, running about by the gutters in the street, and several were
generally to be seen on the lawn at Candie. But this last summer--that
of 1878--I did not see one about Candie, or indeed anywhere else, except
one pair which were breeding near the Vale Church; and when there in
November, 1875, I only saw one, and that was near Vazon Bay. Mr.
MacCulloch has also noticed this growing scarcity of the Pied Wagtail,
as he writes to me--"Of late years, for some reason or other, Wagtails
of all sorts have become rare." In the summer of 1866, however, I found
the Pied Wagtail tolerably common.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in
Guernsey and Sark.


52. WHITE WAGTAIL. _Motacilla alba_, Linnaeus. French, "Lavendière,"
"Hoche-queue grise," "Bergeronette grise."--The White Wagtail is still
scarcer than the Pied, but I saw one pair evidently breeding between
L'ancresse Road and Grand Havre. The White Wagtail so much resembles
the Pied Wagtail, that it may have been easily overlooked, and may be
more common than is generally known.

The fully adult birds may easily be distinguished, especially when in
full breeding plumage, as the back of the Pied Wagtail is black, while
that of the White Wagtail is grey. After the autumnal moult, however,
the distinction is not quite so easy, as the feathers of the Pied
Wagtail are then margined with grey, which rather conceals the colour
beneath; but if the feathers are lifted up they will be found to be
black under the grey margins. The young birds of the year, in their
first feathers, cannot be distinguished, and the same may be said of the
eggs.

The White Wagtail is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as
only occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen either of the Pied or
White Wagtail in the Museum.


53. GREY WAGTAIL. _Motacilla melanope_, Pallas. French, "Bergeronette
jaune."--The Grey Wagtail is by no means common in the Islands, though
it may occasionally remain to breed, as I have seen it both in Guernsey
and Sark between the 21st of June and the end of July in 1866, but I
have not seen it in any of the Islands during the autumn. It is,
however, no doubt an occasional, though never very numerous, winter
visitant, probably more common, however, at this time of year than in
the summer, as I have one in winter plumage shot in Guernsey in
December, and another in January, 1879, and there is also one in the
Museum in winter plumage.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, and marks it as occurring in
Guernsey and Sark.


54. YELLOW WAGTAIL. _Motacilla raii_, Bonaparte. French, "Bergeronnette
flavéole."--As far as I have been able to judge the Yellow Wagtail is
only an occasional visitant on migration. A few, however, may sometimes
remain to breed. I have one Channel Island specimen killed in Guernsey
the last week in March. Mr. MacCulloch, however, writes me word that in
some years they--_i.e._, Yellow Wagtails--are not very uncommon, but of
late, for some reason or other, Wagtails of all sorts have become rare.
He adds--"I am under the impression that we have more than one Yellow
Wagtail." It is, therefore, possible that the Greyheaded Wagtail, the
true _Motacilla flava_ of Linnaeus, may occasionally occur, or in
consequence of the bright yellow of portions of its plumage the
last-mentioned species--the Grey Wagtail--may have been mistaken for a
second species of Yellow Wagtail. I have not myself seen the Yellow
Wagtail in either of the Islands during my summer visits in 1866, 1876,
or 1878; so it certainly cannot be very common during the
breeding-season, or I could scarcely have missed seeing it.

Professor Ansted has not included it in his list, and there is no
specimen at present in the Museum.


55. TREE PIPIT. _Anthus trivialis_, Linnaeus. French, "Pipit des
arbres," "Pipit des buissons."--A very numerous summer visitant to all
the Islands, breeding in great numbers in the parts suited to it. In the
Vale it was very common, many of the furze-bushes on L'Ancresse Common
containing nests. The old male might constantly be seen flying up from
the highest twigs of the furze-bush, singing its short song as it
hovered over the bush, and returning again to the top branch of that or
some neighbouring bush. This continued till about the middle of July,
when the young were mostly hatched, and many of them flown and following
their parents about clamorous for food, which was plentiful in the Vale
in the shape of numerous small beetles, caterpillars, and very small
snails. The young were mostly hatched by the beginning of July, but I
found one nest with young still in it in a furze-bush about ten yards
from high water-mark as late as the 27th of July, but the young were all
flown when I visited the nest two days afterwards. The Tree Pipits have
all departed by the middle of October, and I have never seen any there
in November.

The Tree Pipit is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but no letters
marking the distribution of the species amongst the Islands are given.
There is no specimen of this or either of the other Pipits in the
Museum.


56. MEADOW PIPIT. _Anthus pratensis_, Linnaeus. French, "Le cujelier,"
"Pipit des prés," "Pipit Farlouse."--The Meadow Pipit is resident and
breeds in all the Islands, but is by no means so numerous as the Tree
Pipit is during the summer. I think, however, its numbers are slightly
increased in the autumn, about the time of the departure of the Tree
Pipits, by migrants.

It is included by Professor Ansted in his list, but marked as occurring
only in Guernsey.


57. ROCK PIPIT. _Anthus obscurus_, Latham. French, "Pipit obsur," "Pipit
spioncelle."--Resident and numerous, breeding amongst the rocks and
round the coast of all the Islands. It is also common in all the small
outlying Islands, such as Burhou, and all the little rocky Islands that
stretch out to the northward of Herm, and are especially the home of the
Puffin and the Lesser Black-backed Gull. On all of these the Rock Pipit
may be found breeding, but its nest is generally so well concealed
amongst the thrift samphire, wild stock, and other seaside plants which
grow rather rankly amongst those rocks, considering how little soil
there generally is for them and what wild storms they are subject to,
that it is by no means easy to find it, though one may almost see the
bird leave the nest.

The Bock Pipit is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as
only occurring in Guernsey. All the Rock Pipits I have seen in the
Channel Islands have been the common form, _Anthus obscurus_; I have
never seen one of the rufous-breasted examples which occur in
Scandinavia and the Baltic, and have by some been separated as a
distinct species under the name of _Anthus rupestris_.


58. SKY LARK. _Alauda arvensis_, Linnaeus. French, "Alouette des
champs."--Mr. Métivier, in his 'Dictionary,' gives Houèdre as the local
Guernsey-French name of the Sky Lark. As may be supposed by its having a
local name, it is a common and well-known bird, and is resident in all
the Islands. I have not been able to find that its numbers are much
increased by migrants at any time of year, though probably in severe
weather in the winter the Sky Larks flock a good deal, as they do in
England. The Sky Lark breeds in all the Islands, and occasionally places
its nest in such exposed situations that it is wonderful how the young
escape. One nest we found by a roadside near Ronceval; it was within
arm's length of the road, and seemed exposed to every possible danger.
When we found it, on the 15th of June, there were five eggs in it,
fresh, or, at all events, only just sat on, as I took one and blew it
for one of my daughters. On the 19th we again visited the nest; there
were then four young ones in it, but they were so wonderfully like the
dry grass which surrounded the nest in colour that it was more difficult
to find it then than when the eggs were in it, and except for the young
birds moving as they breathed I think we should not have found it a
second time. A few days after--July the 3rd--there was very heavy rain
all night. Next day we thought the Sky Larks must be drowned (had they
been Partridges under the care of a keeper they would have been), but as
it was only one was washed out of the nest and drowned; the rest were
all well and left the nest a few days after. So in spite of the exposed
situation close to a frequented road, on a bit of common ground where
goats and cows were tethered, nets and seaweed, or "vraic," as it is
called in Guernsey, spread for drying, dogs, cats, and children
continually wandering about, and without any shelter from rain, the old
birds brought off three young from their five eggs.

The Sky Lark is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list as occurring only
in Guernsey and Sark. It is, however, quite as common in Alderney and
Herm. There is no specimen in the Museum.


59. SNOW BUNTING. _Plectrophanes nivalis_, Linnaeus. French, "Ortolan
de neige," "Bruant de neige."--The Snow Bunting is probably a regular,
though never very numerous, autumnal visitant, remaining on into the
winter. It seems to be more numerous in some years than others. Mr. Mac
Culloch tells me a good many Snow Buntings were seen in November, 1850.

Mr. Couch records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1874 as having been killed
at Cobo on the 28th of September of that year. This seems rather an
early date. When I was in Guernsey in November, 1875, I saw a few flocks
of Snow Buntings, and one--a young bird of the year--which had been
killed by a boy with a catapult, was brought into Couch's shop about the
same time, and I have one killed at St. Martin's, Guernsey, in November,
1878; and Captain Hubbach writes me word that he shot three out of a
flock of five in Alderney in January, 1863.

Professor Ansted mentions the Snow Bunting in his list as occurring in
Guernsey and Sark, and there is a specimen at present in the Museum.

60. BUNTING. _Emberiza miliaria_, Linnaeus. French, "Le proyer," "Bruant
proyer."--The Bunting is resident in Guernsey and breeds there, but in
very small numbers, and it is very local in its distribution. I have
seen a few in the Vale. I saw two or three about the grounds of the
Vallon in July, 1878, which were probably the parents and their brood
which had been hatched somewhere in the grounds.

It is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list as occurring only in
Guernsey. There is one specimen in the Museum.


61. YELLOW HAMMER. _Emberiza citrinella_, Linnaeus. French, "Bruant
jaune."--The Yellow Hammer, though resident and breeding in all the
Islands, is by no means as common as in many parts of England. In
Alderney perhaps it is rather more common than in Guernsey, as I saw
some near the Artillery Barracks this summer, 1878, and Captain Hubbach
told me he had seen two or three pairs about there all the year. In
Guernsey, on the other hand, I did not see one this summer, 1878. I
have, however, shot a young bird there which certainly could not have
been long out of the nest. I have never seen the Cirl Bunting in any of
the Islands, nor has it, as far as I know, been recorded from them,
which seems rather surprising, as it is common on the South Coast of
Devon, and migratory, but not numerous, on the North Coast of
France;[12] so it is very probable that it may yet occur.

The Yellow Hammer is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are also a pair in the Museum.


62. CHAFFINCH. _Fringilla caelebs_, Linnaeus. French, "Pinson
ordinaire," "Grosbec pinson."--- The Chaffinch is resident, tolerably
common, and generally distributed throughout the Islands, but is nowhere
so common as in England. In Guernsey this year, 1878, it seemed to me
rather to have decreased in numbers, as I saw very few,--certainly not
so many as in former years,--though I could not find that there was any
reason for the decrease.

It is, of course, mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but by him only
marked as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is only one--a
female--at present in the Museum.


63. BRAMBLING. _Fringilla montifringilla_, Linnaeus. French, "Pinson
d'Ardennes." "Grosbec d'Ardennes."--The Brambling can only be considered
an occasional autumn and winter visitant, and probably never very
numerous. I have never seen the bird in the Channel Islands myself. I
have, however, one specimen--a female--killed in Brock Road, Guernsey,
in December, 1878, and I have been informed by Mr. MacCulloch that he
had a note of the occurrence of the Brambling or Mountain Finch in
January, 1855. It cannot, however, be looked upon as anything more than
a very rare occasional straggler, by no means occurring every year.

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


64. TREE SPARROW. _Passer montanus_, Linnaeus. French, "Friquet."--The
Tree Sparrow breeds, and is probably resident in the Islands. Up to this
year, 1878, I have only seen it once myself, and that was on the 7th of
June, 1876, just outside the grounds of the Vallon in Guernsey. From the
date and from the behaviour of the bird I have no doubt it had a nest
just inside the grounds. I could not then, however, make any great
search for the nest without trespassing, though I got sufficiently near
the bird to be certain of its identity. This year, 1878, I could not see
one anywhere about the Vallon, either inside or outside the grounds. I
saw, however, one or two about the Vale, but they were very scarce. I
have not myself seen the Tree Sparrow in any of the other Islands.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in
Sark only. I have not seen a specimen at Mr. Couch's, or any of the
other bird-stuffers, but there is one in the Museum and some eggs, all
of which are probably Guernsey.


65. HOUSE SPARROW. _Passer domesticus_, Linnaeus. French, "Moineau
domestique," "Grosbec moineau."--The House Sparrow is very numerous
throughout the Islands, abounding where there are any buildings
inhabited by either man, horses, or cattle. In the gardens near the town
of St. Peter's Port, in Guernsey, it is very common, and does a
considerable amount of mischief. It is, however, by no means confined to
the parts near the town, as many were nesting in some ilex trees near
the house we had on L'Ancresse Common, although the house had been empty
since the previous summer, and the garden uncultivated; so food till we
came must have been rather scarce about there. As the wheat is coming
into ear the Sparrows, as in England, leave the neighbourhood of the
town and other buildings and spread themselves generally over the
country, for the purpose of devouring the young wheat while just coming
into ear and still soft. In Alderney, owing probably in a great measure
to the absence of cottages, farm-buildings, and stables at a distance
from the town, and also perhaps owing to the absence of hedges, it is
not so numerous in the open part, and consequently not so mischievous,
being mostly confined to the town, and to the buildings about the
harbour-works. The young wheat, however, is still a temptation, and is
accordingly punished by the Sparrows.

The House Sparrow is mentioned by Professor Ansted in his list, but no
letters are given marking the general distribution over the Islands,
probably because it is so generally spread over them. The local
Guernsey-French name is "Grosbec," for which see Métivier's
'Dictionary.'


66. HAWFINCH. _Coccothraustes vulgaris_, Pallas. French, "Grosbec."--The
Hawfinch or Grosbeak, as it is occasionally called, is by no means
common in Guernsey, and I have never seen it there myself, but I have a
skin of one killed in the Catel Parish in December, 1878; and Mr.
MacCulloch informs me it occasionally visits that Island in autumn, but
in consequence of its shy and retiring habits it has probably been
occasionally overlooked, and escaped the notice of the numerous gunners
to whom it would otherwise have more frequently fallen a victim. The
bird-stuffer and carpenter in Alderney had one spread out on a board and
hung up behind his door, which had been shot by his friend who shot the
Greenland Falcon, in the winter of 1876 and 1877, somewhere about
Christmas. I know no instance of its remaining to breed in the Islands,
though it may occasionally do so in Guernsey, as there are many places
suited to it, and in which it might well make its nest without being
observed. As it seems increasing in numbers throughout England, it is by
no means improbable that it will visit the Channel Islands more
frequently. The Hawfinch is included in Professor Ansted's list, and by
him marked as occurring only in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the
Museum.


67. GREENFINCH. _Coccothraustes chloris_, Linnaeus. French, "Grosbec
verdier," "Verdier ordinaire."--The Greenfinch is a common resident, and
breeds in all the Islands, but is certainly not quite so common as in
England. It is more numerous perhaps in Guernsey and Sark than in
Alderney; it is also pretty common in Jethou and Herm.

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


68. GOLDFINCH. _Carduelis elegans_, Stephens. French, "Chardonneret,"
"Grosbec chardonneret."--The Goldfinch is resident in and breeds in all
the Islands. In Guernsey I was told a few years ago that it had been
much more numerous than it then was, the bird-catchers having had a good
deal to answer for in having shortened its numbers. It is now, however,
again increasing its numbers, as I saw many more this year (1878) than I
had seen before at any time of year. There were several about the Grand
Mare, and probably had nests there, and I saw an old pair, with their
brood out, at St. George on the 5th of June, and soon after another
brood about Mr. De Putron's pond, where they were feeding on the seeds
of some thistles which were growing on the rough ground about the pond.
I have also seen a few in Alderney; and Captain Hubbach writes me word
that the Goldfinch was quite plentiful here (Alderney) in the winter of
1862 and 1863. But he adds--"I have not seen one here this year." So
probably its numbers are occasionally increased by migratory flocks in
the winter.

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


69. SISKIN. _Carduelis spinus_, Linnaeus. French, "Tarin," "Grosbec
tarin."--The Siskin can only be looked upon as an occasional, accidental
visitant--indeed, I only know of one instance of its occurrence, and
that is recorded by Mr. Couch at p. 4296 of the 'Zoologist' for 1875 in
the following words:--"I have the first recognised specimen of the
Siskin; a boy knocked it down with a stone in an orchard at the Vrangue
in September." This communication is dated November, 1874. I have never
seen the Siskin in any of the Channel Islands myself, and Mr. MacCulloch
writes me word--"I have never heard of a Siskin here, but, being
migratory, it may occur." I see, however, no reason to doubt Mr.
Couch's statement in the 'Zoologist,' as the bird was brought into his
shop. He must have had plenty of opportunity of identifying it, though
he does not tell us whether he preserved it. There can, however, be no
possible reason why the Siskin should not occasionally visit Guernsey on
migration, as it extends its southern journey through Spain to the
Mediterranean and across to the North-western Coast of Africa; and the
Channel Islands would seem to lie directly in its way.

The Siskin, however, is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and
there is no specimen at present in the Museum.


70. LINNET. _Linota cannabina_, Linnaeus. French, "Linotte," "Grosbec
linotte."--The Linnet is resident and the most numerous bird in the
Islands by far, outnumbering even the House Sparrow, and it is equally
common and breeds in all the Islands. The Channel Islands Linnets always
appear to me extremely bright-coloured, the scarlet on the head and
breast during the breeding-season being brighter than in any British
birds I have ever seen. Though the Linnet is itself so numerous, it is,
as far as I have been able to ascertain, the only representative of its
family to be found in the Channel Islands; at least I have never seen
and had no information of the occurrence of either the Lesser Redpole,
the Mealy Redpole, or the Twite, though I can see no reason why each of
these birds should not occasionally occur.

The Linnet is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked by him as
only occurring in Guernsey and Sark; and there is a specimen in the
Museum.


71. BULLFINCH. _Pyrrhula europaea_, Vieillot. French, "Bovreuil
commun."--Miss C.B. Carey, in the 'Zoologist' for 1874, mentions a
Bullfinch having been brought into Couch's shop in November of that
year, and adds--"This bird is much more common in Jersey than it is
here." Miss Carey is certainly right as to its not being common in
Guernsey, as I have never seen the bird on any of my expeditions to that
Island, nor have I seen it in either of the other Islands which come
within my district.

Professor Ansted includes the Bullfinch in his list, but oddly enough
only marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark, although Mr. Gallienne,
in his remarks published with the list, says--"The Bullfinch
occasionally breeds in Jersey, but is rarely seen in Guernsey," so far
agreeing with Miss Carey's note in the 'Zoologist,' but he does not add
anything about Sark. There is no specimen in the Museum.


72. COMMON CROSSBILL. _Loxia curvirostra_, Linnaeus. French,
"Bec-croisé," "Bec-croisé commun."--The Crossbill is an occasional
visitant to all the Islands, and sometimes in considerable numbers, but,
as in England, it is perfectly irregular as to the time of year it
chooses for its visits. Mr. MacCulloch writes me word--"The Crossbill is
most uncertain in its visits. Many years will sometimes pass without a
single one being heard of. When they do come it is generally in large
flocks. I have known them arrive in early autumn, and do great havoc
amongst the apples, which they cut up to get at the pips. Sometimes they
make their appearance in the winter, seemingly driven from the Continent
by the cold."

My first acquaintance with the Crossbill was in Sark on the 25th of
June, 1866, when I saw a very fine red-plumaged bird in a small
fir-plantation in the grounds of the Lord of Sark. It was very tame, and
allowed me to approach it very closely. I did not see any others at that
time amongst the fir-trees, though no doubt a few others were there. On
my return to Guernsey on the following day I was requested by a
bird-catcher to name some birds that were doing considerable damage in
the gardens about the town. Thinking from having seen the one in Sark,
and from his description, that the birds might be Crossbills, I asked
him to get me one or two, which he said he could easily do, as the
people were destroying them on account of the damage they did. In a day
or two he brought me one live and two dead Crossbills, and told me that
as many as forty had been shot in one person's garden. The two dead ones
he brought me were one in red and the other in green plumage, and the
live one was in green plumage. This one I brought home and kept in my
aviary till March, 1868, when it was killed by a Hawk striking it
through the wires. It was, however, still in the same green plumage when
it was killed as it was when I brought it home, though it had moulted
twice.

The Crossbill did not appear at that time to be very well known in
Guernsey, as neither the bird-catcher nor the people in whose gardens
the birds were had ever seen them before or knew what they were. This
year (1866), however, appears to have been rather an exceptional year
with regard to Crossbills, as I find some recorded in the 'Zoologist'
from Norfolk, the Isle of Wight, Sussex, and Henley-on-Thames, about the
same time; therefore there must have been a rather widely-spread flight.
From that time I did not hear any more of Crossbills in the Islands till
December, 1876, when Mr. Couch sent me a skin of one in reddish plumage,
writing at the same time to say--"The Crossbill I sent from its being
so late in the season when it was shot--the 11th of December; there were
four of them in a tree by Haviland Hall. I happened to go into the
person's house who shot it, and his children had it playing with."

I do not know that there is any evidence of the Crossbill ever having
bred in the Islands, though it seems to have made its appearance there
at almost all times of year. Mr. MacCulloch mentions its feeding on the
apple-pips, and doing damage in the orchards accordingly, and I know it
is generally supposed to do so, and has in some places got the name of
"Shell Apple" in consequence, but though I have several times kept
Crossbills tame, and frequently tried to indulge them with apples and
pips, I have never found them care much about them; and a note of
Professor Newton's, in his edition of 'Yarrell,' seems to agree with
this. He says:--"Of late it has not been often observed feeding on
apples, very possibly owing to the greatly-increased growth of firs, and
especially larches, throughout the country. In Germany it does not seem
ever to have been known as attacking fruit-trees."

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


73. COMMON STARLING. _Sturnus vulgaris_, Linnaeus. French, "Etourneau
vulgaire."--The Starling is sometimes very numerous in the autumn, but
those remaining throughout the year and breeding in the Island are
certainly very few in number, as I have never seen the Starling in any
of my summer visits; and Mr. MacCulloch tells me "the Starling may
possibly still breed here, but it certainly is not common in summer. A
century ago it used to nest in the garrets in the heart of the town." As
to its not being common in summer, that quite agrees with my own
experience, but a few certainly do breed in the Island still, or did so
within a very few years, as Miss C.B. Carey had eggs in her collection
taken in the Island in 1873 or 1874, and I have seen eggs in other
Guernsey collections, besides those in the Museum. When I was in
Guernsey in November, 1871, Starlings were certainly unusually
plentiful, even for the autumn, very large flocks making their
appearance in all parts of the Island, and in the evening very large
flocks might be seen flying and wheeling about in all directions before
going to roost. Many of these flocks I saw fly off in the direction of
Jersey and the French coast, and they certainly continued their flight
in that direction as long as I could follow them with my glass, but
whether they were only going to seek a roosting-place and to return in
the morning, or whether they continued their migration and their place
was supplied by other flocks during the night, I could not tell, but
certainly there never seemed to be any diminution in their numbers
during the whole time I was there from the 1st to the 16th of November.
I think it not at all improbable that many of these flocks only roosted
out of the Island and returned, as even here in Somerset they collect in
large flocks before going to roost, and fly long distances, sometimes
quite over the Quantock Hills, to some favourite roosting-place they
have selected, and return in the morning, and the distance would in many
places be nearly as great. These flocks of Starlings seem to have
continued in the Island quite into the winter, as Miss Carey notes, in
the 'Zoologist' for 1872, seeing a flock in the field before the house
at Candie close to the town as late as the 6th of December, 1871. At the
same time that there were so many in Guernsey, Starlings were reported
as unusually numerous in Alderney, but how long the migratory flocks
remained there I have not been able to ascertain.

The Starling is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as only
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum
and some eggs.


74. CHOUGH. _Pyrrhocorax graculus_, Linnaeus. French, "Crave."--The
Chough is a common resident in Guernsey, breeding amongst the high rocks
on the south and east part of the Island, and in the autumn and winter
spreading over the cultivated parts of the Island, sometimes in
considerable flocks, like Rooks.

As Jackdaws are by no means numerous in Guernsey, and as far as I have
been able to make out never breed there, the Choughs have it all their
own way, and quite keep up their numbers, even if they do not increase
them, which I think very doubtful, though I can see no reason why they
should not, as their eggs are always laid in holes in the cliffs, and
very difficult to get at, and at other times of year the birds are very
wary, and take good care of themselves, it being by no means easy to get
a shot at them, unless by stalking them up behind a hedge or rock; and
as they are not good eating, and will not sell in the market like
Fieldfares and Redwings, no Guernsey man thinks of expending powder and
shot on them; so though not included in the Guernsey Bird Act, the
Choughs on the whole have an easy time of it in Guernsey, and ought to
increase in numbers more than they apparently do. In Sark the Choughs
have by no means so easy a time, as the Jackdaws outnumber them about
the cliffs, and will probably eventually drive them out of the
Island--indeed, I am afraid they have done this in Alderney, as I did
not see any when there in the summer of 1876, nor in this last summer
(1878); and Captain Hubbach writes me word he has seen none in Alderney
himself this year (1878). I, however, saw some there in previous
visits, but now for some reason, probably the increase of Jackdaws, the
Choughs appear to me nearly, if not quite, to have deserted that Island.
In Herm and Jethou there are also a few Choughs, but Jackdaws are the
more numerous in both Islands. No Choughs appear to inhabit the small
rocky islets to the northward of Herm, though some of them appear to be
large enough to afford a breeding-place for either Choughs or Jackdaws,
but neither of these birds seem to have taken possession of them;
probably want of food is the occasion of this. Mr. Métivier, in his
'Rimes Guernseaise,' gives "Cahouette" as the local Guernsey-French name
of the Chough, though I suspect the name is equally applicable to the
Jackdaw.

The Chough is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as only
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum.


75. JACKDAW. _Corvus monedula_, Linnaeus. French, "Choucas," "Choucas
gris."--I am quite aware that many Guernsey people will tell you that
there are no Jackdaws in Guernsey, but that their place is entirely
taken by Choughs. Mr. MacCulloch seems to be nearly of this opinion, as
he writes me--"I suppose you are right in saying there are a few
Jackdaws in Guernsey, but I do not remember ever to have seen one here;"
and he adds--"I believe they are common in Alderney," which is
certainly the case; as I said above, they have almost, if not quite,
supplanted the Choughs there. There are, however, certainly a few
Jackdaws in Guernsey, as I have seen them there on several occasions,
but I cannot say that any breed there, and I think they are only
occasional wanderers from the other Islands, Sark, Jethou, and Herm,
where they do breed. Mr. Gallienne's note to Professor Ansted's list
seems to agree very much with this, as he says--"The Jackdaw, which is
a regular visitor to Alderney, is rarely seen in Guernsey." It is now,
however, resident in Alderney, as well as in Sark, Jethou, and Herm.

It is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring
in Guernsey and Sark, nothing being said about Alderney and the other
Islands in spite of Mr. Gallienne's note. There is no specimen at
present in the Museum.


76. RAVEN. _Corvus corax_, Linnaeus. French, "Corbeau," "Corbeau
noir."--The Raven can now only be looked upon as an occasional
straggler. I do not think it breeds at present in any of the Islands, as
I have not seen it anywhere about in the breeding-season since 1866,
when I saw a pair near the cliffs on the south-end of the Island in
June; but as the Raven is a very early breeder, these may have only been
wanderers. It is probably getting scarcer in Guernsey, as I have not
seen any there since; and the last note I have of Ravens being seen in
the Island is in a letter from Mr. Couch, who wrote me word that two
Ravens had been seen and shot at several times, but not obtained, in
November, 1873. I have not seen a Raven in any of the other Islands, and
do not know of one having occurred there.

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


77. CROW. _Corvus corone_, Linnaeus. French, "Corneille noire."--The
Crow is pretty common, and breeds in most of the Islands, and probably
at times commits considerable depredations amongst the eggs and young of
the Gulls and Shags--at all events it is by no means a welcome visitor
to the breeding stations of the Gulls, as in this summer (1878) I saw
four Crows about a small gullery near Petit Bo Bay, one of which flew
over the side of the cliff to have a look at the Gulls' eggs, probably
with ulterior intentions in regard to the eggs; but one of the Gulls saw
him, and immediately flew at him and knocked him over: what the end of
the fight was I could not tell, but probably the Crow got the worst of
it, as several other Gulls went off to join their companion as soon as
they heard the row; and the Crows trespassed no more on the domain of
the Gulls--at least whilst I was there, which was some time.

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


78. HOODED CROW. _Corvus cornix_, Linnaeus. French, "Corbeau mantele,"
"Corneille mantelée."--The Hooded Crow can only be considered an
occasional autumnal and winter visitant. I have never seen it myself in
the Islands, though many of my visits to Guernsey have been in the
autumn. Mr. Couch, however, reports a small flock of Hooded Crows being
in Guernsey in November, 1873, one of which was obtained. Mr. MacCulloch
writes me word that the Hooded Crow is a very rare visitant, and only,
as far as he knows, in very cold weather; and he adds--"It is strange
that we should see it so rarely, as it is very common about St. Maloes."
Colonel l'Estrange, however, informed me that one remained in Sark all
last summer--that of 1877--and paired with a common Crow,[13] but we
could see nothing of the couple this year. I believe it is not at all
uncommon for these birds to pair in Scotland and other places where both
species are numerous in the breeding-season, but this is the only
instance I have heard of in the Channel Islands--in fact, it is the only
time I have heard of the Hooded Crow remaining on till the summer.

The Hooded Crow is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark; and there are two specimens in the
Museum.


79. ROOK. _Corvus frugilegus_, Linnaeus. French, "Freux", "Corbeau
Freux."--I have never seen the Rook in the Islands myself, even as a
stranger, but Mr. Gallienne in his notes to Professor Ansted's list,
says, speaking of Guernsey, "The Rook has tried two or three times to
colonise, but in vain, having been destroyed or frightened away." Mr.
MacCulloch also writes me word much to the same effect, as he says "I
have known Rooks occasionally attempt to build here (Guernsey), but they
are invariably disturbed by boys and guns, and driven off. They
sometimes arrive here in large flocks in severe winters."

The Rook is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list as occurring in
Guernsey only, and there are two specimens in the Museum, both probably
Guernsey killed.


80. MAGPIE. _Pica rustica_, Scopoli. French, "Pie", "Pie
ordinaire."--The Magpie is resident and tolerably common in Guernsey,
breeding in several parts of the Island; it is also resident, but I
think not quite so common, in Sark. I do not remember having seen it in
Alderney, and the almost entire absence of trees would probably prevent
it being anything more than an occasional visitant to that Island.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as only occurring
in Guernsey; and there are two specimens in the Museum.


81. LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. _Picus minor_, Linnaeus. French, "Pie
épeichette."--As may be expected, the Woodpeckers are not strongly
represented in the Islands, and the present species, the Lesser Spotted
Woodpecker, is the only one as to the occurrence of which I can get any
satisfactory evidence.

Professor Ansted, however, includes the Greater Spotted Woodpecker in
his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey only; and there is one
specimen of the Green Woodpecker, _Gecinus viridis_, in the Museum, but
there is no note whatever as to its locality; so under these
circumstances I have not thought it right to include either species. But
as to the occurrence of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, though I have not
seen it myself, nor have I a Channel Island specimen, I have some more
evidence; for in reply to some questions of mine on the subject, Mr.
Couch wrote to me in April, 1877, "Respecting the Woodpecker, you may
fully rely on the Lesser Spotted as having been shot here, four examples
having passed through my hands; and writing from memory I will, as near
as possible, tell you when and where they were shot. I took a shop here
in 1866. In the month of August, 1867, there was one brought to me
alive, shot in the water lanes, just under Smith's Nursery by a young
gent at the College; he wounded it in the wing. I wanted too much to
stuff it (2s. 6d.); he took the poor bird out, fixed it somewhere; he
and his companions fired at it so often they blew it to atoms. The same
year, early in September, one was shot at St. Martin's; I stuffed that
for a lady: there were four in the same tree; the day following they
were not to be found. The second week in October, the same year I had
one, and stuffed it for the person who shot it out at St. Saviour's;
there were two besides in the same tree, but I had neither one myself.
In 1868, I stuffed one that was shot at St. Peter's, in December; it was
taken home the Christmas Eve. These were all I have had, but I have
heard of their being seen about since, twice or three times." In
addition to this letter, which I have no reason to doubt, Mr. MacCulloch
wrote me word--"We have in the Museum a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, shot
near Havilland Hall, in November, 1855; I saw it before it was stuffed."
This bird was not in the Museum this year, (1878), as I looked
everywhere for it, so I suppose it was moth-eaten and thrown away, like
many others of the best specimens in the Museum, after the years of
neglect they have been subject to. From these letters, there can be no
doubt whatever that the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has been occasionally
procured in Guernsey, and that it may be considered either an occasional
autumnal visitant, remaining on into winter, or, what is more probable,
a thinly-scattered resident.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as only occurring
in Guernsey. As above stated, the specimen formerly in the Museum no
longer exists.


82. WRYNECK. _Yunx torquilla_, Linnaeus. French, "Torcol
ordinaire."--The Wryneck, or, as it is called in Guernsey-French,
"Parlè"[14] is generally a numerous summer visitant to the Islands,
arriving in considerable numbers, about the same time as the mackerel,
wherefore it has also obtained the local name of "Mackerel Bird." It is
generally distributed through the Islands, remaining through the summer
to breed, and departing again in early autumn, August, or September. Its
numbers, however, vary considerably in different years, as in some
summers I have seen Wrynecks in almost every garden, hedgerow, or thick
bush in the Island; always when perched, sitting across the branches or
twigs, on which they were perched, and never longways or climbing, as
would be the case with a Woodpecker or Creeper; and the noise made by
the birds during the breeding-season, was, in some years, incessant;
this was particularly the case in the early part of the summer of 1866,
when the birds were very numerous, and the noise made was so great that
on one occasion I was told that the Mackerel Birds seriously interrupted
a scientific game of _Croquet_, which was going on at Fort George, by
the noise they made; I can quite believe it, as, though I was not
playing in the game, I heard the birds very noisy in other parts of the
Island. This last summer, however (1878), I saw very few Wrynecks--only
four or five during the whole of the two months I was in the Islands,
and hardly heard them at all.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring
in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum.


83. HOOPOE. _Upupa Epops_, Linnaeus. French, "La Huppé," "Huppé
ordinaire."--The Hoopoe, as may be supposed from its geographical range
and from its frequent occurrence in various parts of England, is an
occasional visitant to the Channel Islands during the seasons of
migration, occurring both in spring and autumn with sufficient frequency
to have gained the name of "Tuppe" in Guernsey-French. Though occurring
in spring and autumn, I am not aware that it ever remains to breed,
though perhaps it might do so if not shot on every possible occasion.
This shooting of every straggler to the Channel Islands is a great pity,
especially with the spring arrivals, as some of them might well be
expected to remain to breed occasionally if left undisturbed; and the
proof of the Hoopoe breeding in the Channel Islands would be much more
interesting than the mere possession of a specimen of so common and
well-known a bird: if a local specimen should be wanted, it could be
obtained equally well in autumn, when there would be no question as to
the breeding. The autumn arrivals seem also to be most numerous, at
least judging from the specimens recorded during the last four or five
years, as Mr. Couch records one, a female, shot near Ronseval, in
Guernsey, on the 26th of September; and another also in Guernsey, shot
on the 23rd of September; I have one, obtained in Alderney in August,
though I have not the exact date; and another picked up in a lane in St.
Martin's parish, in Guernsey, on the 24th of August. During the same
time I only know of one spring occurrence; that was on April the 10th of
this year (1878), when two were seen, and one shot in Herm, as recorded
in the 'Star' newspaper, for April the 13th; this one I saw soon
afterwards at Mr. Jago's, the bird-stuffer. These birds were probably
paired, and would therefore very likely have bred in Herm, had one of
them not been shot, and the other accordingly driven to look for a mate
elsewhere. It would pay, as well as be interesting, as I remarked in a
note to the 'Star' in reference to this occurrence of the pair of
Hoopoe's, to encourage these birds to breed in the Islands whenever they
shewed a disposition to do so, as, though rather a foul-feeder and of
unsavoury habits in its nest, and having no respect for sanitary
arrangements, the Hoopoe is nevertheless one of the most useful birds in
the garden.

The Hoopoe is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are now only two specimens in the
Museum, and these have no note of date or locality, but a few years ago
there were several more, and one or two I remember were marked as having
been killed in the spring; the rest were probably autumnal specimens.


84. CUCKOO. _Cuculus canorus_, Linnaeus. French, "Coucou gris."--The
Cuckoo is one of the commonest and most numerous summer visitants to the
Islands, and is generally spread over all of them; it arrives about the
same time that it does in England, that is to say, about the middle of
April. I know earlier instances--even as early as February--have been
recorded, but these must have been recorded in consequence of some
mistake, probably some particularly successful imitation of the note.
Mr. MacCulloch seems to think that the time of their arrival is very
regular, as he writes to me to say, "The Cuckoo generally arrives here
about the 15th of April; sometimes as early as the 13th, as was the case
this year (1878); the first are generally reported from the cliffs at
St. Martin's, near Moulin Huet, the first land they would make on their
arrival from Brittany." Very soon after their arrival, however, they
spread over the whole Island of Guernsey, as well as all the other
neighbouring islands, in all of which they are equally plentiful; they
seem to cross from one to the other without much considering four or
five miles of sea, or being the least particular as to taking the
shortest passage across from island to island. As usual, there were a
great number of Cuckoos in the Vale whilst I was there this summer
(1878); but I was unfortunate in not finding eggs, and in not seeing any
of the foster-parents feeding their over-grown _protégés_: this was
rather surprising, as there were so many Cuckoos about, and many must
have been hatched and out of the nest long before we left at the end of
July. I should think, however, Tree and Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and
Stonechats, from their numbers and the numbers of their nests, must be
the foster-parents most usually selected; other favourites, such as
Wagtails, Hedgesparrows, and Robins, being comparatively scarce in that
part of the Island, and Wheaters, which were numerous, had their nests
too far under large stones to give the Cuckoo an opportunity of
depositing her eggs there. I should have been very glad if I could have
made a good collection of Cuckoos' eggs in the Channel Islands, and,
knowing how common the bird was, I fully expected to do so, but I was
disappointed, and consequently unable to throw any light on the subject
of the variation in the colour of Cuckoos' eggs, as far as the Channel
Islands are concerned, or how far the foster-parents had been selected
with a view to their eggs being similar in colour to those of the
Cuckoo about to be palmed off upon them. The only Cuckoos' eggs I saw
were a few in the Museum, and in one or two other small collections: all
these were very much the same, and what appears to me the usual type of
Cuckoo's egg, a dull greyish ground much spotted with brown, and a few
small black marks much like many eggs of the Tree or Meadow Pipit. It is
hardly the place here to discuss the question how far Cuckoos select the
nest of the birds whose eggs are similar to their own, to deposit their
eggs in, or whether a Cuckoo hatched and reared by one foster-parent
would be likely to select the nest of the same species to deposit its
own eggs in; the whole matter has been very fully discussed in several
publications, both English and German; and Mr. Dresser has given a very
full _resumé_ of the various arguments in his 'Birds of Europe'; and
whilst fully admitting the great variation in the colour of the Cuckoos'
eggs, he does not seem to think that any particular care is taken by the
parent Cuckoo to select foster-parents whose eggs are similar in colour
to its own; and the instances cited seem to bear out this opinion, with
which, as far as my small experience goes, I quite agree.

Whilst on the subject of Cuckoos I may mention, for the information of
such of my Guernsey readers who are not ornithologists, and therefore
not well acquainted with the fact, the peculiar state of plumage in
which the female Cuckoo occasionally returns northward in her second
summer; I mean the dull reddish plumage barred with brown, extremely
like that of the female Kestrel: in this plumage she occasionally
returns in her second year and breeds; but when this is changed for the
more general plumage I am unable to state for certain, but probably
after the second autumnal moult. The changes of plumage in the Cuckoo,
however, appear to be rather irregular, as I have one killed in June
nearly in the normal plumage, but with many of the old feathers left,
which have a very Kestrel-like appearance, being redder than the
ordinary plumage of the young bird; some of the tail-feathers, however,
have more the appearance of the ordinary tail-feathers of the young
Cuckoo soon after the tail has reached its full growth: the moult in
this bird must have been very irregular, as it was not completed in
June, when, as a rule, it would have been in full plumage, unless, as
may possibly be the case, this bird was the produce of a second laying
during the southern migration, and consequently, instead of a year, be
only about six months old. This, however, is not a very common state of
plumage; but it is by no means uncommon to find a Cuckoo in May or June
with a good deal of rusty reddish barred with brown, forming a sort of
collar on the breast. I merely mention these rather abnormal changes of
plumage, as they may be interesting to any of my Guernsey readers into
whose hands a Cuckoo may fall in a state of change and prove a puzzle as
to its identity. The Cuckoo departs from the Channel Islands much about
the same time that it does from England on its southern migration in
August or September. Occasionally, however, this southern migration
during the winter seems to be doubted, as a clerical friend of mine once
told me that a brother clergyman, a well educated and even a learned
man, told him, when talking about Cuckoos and what became of them in
winter, that "it was a mistake to suppose they migrated, but that they
all turned into Sparrow-hawks in the winter." As my friend said, could
any one believe this of a well-educated man in the nineteenth century?

The Cuckoo is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are three specimens, one adult and
two young, in the Museum, as well as some very ordinary eggs.


85. KINGFISHER. _Alcedo ispida_, Linnaeus. French, "Martin
Pecheur."--The Kingfisher is by no means uncommon, is generally spread
over the Islands, and is resident and breeds at all events in Guernsey,
if not in the other Islands also. It is generally to be seen amongst the
wild rocks which surround L'Ancresse Common, where it feeds on the small
fish left in the clear pools formed amongst the rocks by the receding
tide; it is also by no means uncommon amongst the more sheltered bays in
the high rocky part of the Island; it is also to be found about the
small ponds in various gardens. About those in Candie Garden I have
frequently seen Kingfishers, and they breed about the large ponds in the
Vale in Mr. De Putron's grounds; they also occasionally visit the wild
rocky islets to the northward of Herm, even as far as the Amfrocques,
the farthest out of the lot. As well as about the Vale ponds, the
Kingfisher breeds in holes in the rocks all round the Island. I have not
myself seen it in Alderney, but Captain Hubbach writes me word he saw
one there about Christmas, 1862. I think its numbers are slightly
increased in the autumn by migrants, as I have certainly seen more
specimens in Mr. Couch's shop at that time of year than at any other;
this may perhaps, however, be accounted for, at all events partially, by
its being protected by the Sea Bird Act during the summer and in early
autumn, where the 'Martin pêcheur' appears as one of the "Oiseaux de
Mer."

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and only marked as occurring
in Guernsey and Sark. There are three specimens now in the Museum.


86. NIGHTJAR. _Caprimulgus enropaeus_, Linnaeus. French, "Engoulevent
ordinaire."--The Nightjar is a regular autumnal visitant, a few perhaps
arriving in the spring and remaining to breed, but by far the greater
number only making their appearance on their southward migration in the
autumn. The Nightjar occasionally remains very late in the Islands, as
Miss Carey records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1872 as occurring on the
16th of October; and I have one killed as late as the 12th of November:
this bird had its stomach crammed with black beetles, not our common
domestic nuisances, but small winged black beetles: these dates are
later than the Nightjar usually remains in England, though Yarrell
notices one in Devon as late as the 6th of November, and one in Cornwall
on the 27th of November. Colonel Irby, on the faith of Fabier, says the
Nightjars cross the Straits of Gibraltar on their southward journey from
September to November; so these late stayers in Cornwall and Guernsey
have not much time to complete their journey if they intend going as far
south as the coast of Africa; perhaps, however the Guernsey ones have no
such intention, as Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks published with
Professor Ansted's list, says "The Nightjar breeds here, and I have
obtained it summer and winter." Mr. MacCulloch tells me the Goatsucker
is looked upon by the Guernsey people as a bird of ill-omen and a
companion of witches in their aërial rambles. The bird-stuffer in
Alderney had some wings of Nightjars nailed up behind his door which
had been shot in that Island by himself.

Professor Ansted includes the Nightjar in his list, but only marks it as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens, a male and
female, in the Museum, but no date as to time of their occurrence.


87. SWIFT. _Cypselus apus_, Linnaeus. French, "Martinet de
Muraille."--The Swift is a tolerably numerous summer visitant to all the
Islands, but I think most numerous in Sark, where hundreds of these
birds may be seen flying about the Coupée, amongst the rocks of which
place and Little Sark they breed in considerable numbers. Mr. MacCulloch
and Mr. Gallienne appear to think the Swift rare in Guernsey, as Mr
Gallienne says in his remarks on Professor Ansted's list, "The swift
appears here (Guernsey) in very small numbers, but is abundant in Sark;"
and Mr. MacCulloch writes me word, "I consider the Swift very rare in
Guernsey." I certainly cannot quite agree with this, as I have found
them by no means uncommon, though certainly rather locally distributed
in Guernsey. One afternoon this summer (1878) Mr. Howard Saunders and I
counted forty within sight at one time about the Gull Cliff, near the
old deserted house now known as Victor Hugo's house, as he has
immortalised it by describing it in his 'Travailleurs de la Mer.' The
Swifts use this and two similar houses not very far off for breeding
purposes, a good many nesting in them, and others, as in Sark, amongst
the cliffs. Young Le Cheminant had a few Swifts' eggs in his small
collection, probably taken from this very house, as the Swift is
certainly, as Mr. MacCulloch says, rare in other parts of Guernsey. In
Alderney the Swift is tolerably common, and a good many pairs were
breeding about Scott's Hotel when I was there this year (1878). Probably
a good many Swifts visit the Islands, especially Alderney, for a short
time on migration, principally in the autumn, as once when I was
crossing from Weymouth to Guernsey, on the 18th of August, I saw a large
flock of Swifts just starting on their migratory flight; they were
plodding steadily on against a stormy southerly breeze, spread out like
a line of skirmishers, not very high, but at a good distance apart;
there was none of the wild dashing about and screeching which one
usually connects with the flight of the Swift, but a steady
business-like flight; they went a little to the eastward of our course
in the steamer, and this would have brought them to land in Alderney or
Cape la Hague.

Professor Ansted included the Swift in his list, but oddly enough,
considering the remark of Mr. Gallienne above quoted, marks it as only
occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.


88. SWALLOW, _Hirundo rustica_, Linnaeus. French, "Hirondelle de
Cheminée."--According to Métivier's 'Dictionary,' "Aronde" is the local
Guernsey-French name of the Swallow, which is a common summer visitant
to all the Islands, and very generally distributed over the whole of
them, and not having particular favourite habitations as the Martin has.
It arrives and departs much about the same time that it does in England,
except that I do not remember ever to have seen any laggers quite so
late as some of those in England. A few migratory flocks probably rest
for a short time in the Islands before continuing their journey north or
south, as the case may be; the earliest arrivals and the latest laggers
belong to such migratory flocks, the regular summer residents probably
not arriving quite so soon, and departing a little before those that pay
a passing visit; consequently the number of residents does not appear at
any time to be materially increased by such wandering flocks.

Professor Ansted includes the Swallow in his list, but only marks it as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen of any of the
Hirundines in the Museum.


89. MARTIN. _Chelidon urbica_, Linnaeus. French, "Hirondelle de
fenêtre."--The House Martin is much more local than the Swallow, but
still a numerous summer visitant, like the Swallow, arriving and
departing about the same time that it does in England. It is spread over
all the Islands, but confined to certain spots in each; in Guernsey the
outskirts of the town about Candie Road, and the rocks in Fermain and
Petit Bo Bay, seem very favourite nesting-places. In Alderney there were
a great many nests about Scott's Hotel and a few more in the town, but I
did not see any about the cliffs as at Fermain and Petit Bo in Guernsey.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring
in Guernsey and Sark.


90. SAND MARTIN. _Cotyle riparia_, Linnaeus. French, "Hirondelle de
rivage."--When I first made out my list of Guernsey birds I had omitted
the Sand Martin altogether, as I had never seen it in the Islands, but
Mr. MacCulloch wrote to me to say, "Amongst the swallows you have not
noticed the Sand Martin, which is our earliest visitant in this family
and by no means uncommon." In consequence of this note, as soon as I got
to the Island this year (1878), in June, I went everywhere I could think
likely to look for Sand Martins, but nowhere could I find that the Sand
Martins had taken possession of a breeding-station. Knowing from my own
experience here that Sand Martins are fond of digging their nest-holes
in the heads of quarries, (I had quite forty nest-holes in my quarry
this year, and forty pairs of Sand Martins inhabiting them), I kept a
bright look-out in all the stone-quarries in the Vale, and they are very
numerous, but I did not see a single Sand Martin's hole or a single pair
of birds anywhere; and it appeared to me that the sandy earth forming
the head was not deep enough before reaching the granite to admit of the
Sand Martins making their holes; and they do not appear to me to have
fixed upon any other sort of breeding place in the Island; neither could
Mr. MacCulloch point one out to me; so I suppose we must consider the
Sand Martin as only a spring visitant to this Island, not remaining to
breed. The same seems to me to be the case in Alderney, as Captain
Hubbach writes to tell me he "saw some Sand Martins about the quarry
here (in Alderney), for two or three days at the beginning of April, but
cannot say whether they remained here to breed or not." I suppose they
continued their journey, as I did not see any when there in June; I have
not seen any in Sark or either of the other small Islands.

Professor Ansted includes the Sand Martin in his list, and marks it as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark.


91. WOOD PIGEON. _Columba palumbus_, Linnaeus. French, "Colombe
ramier."--The Wood Pigeon is resident and breeds in several places in
Guernsey; but fortunately for the Guernsey Farmers, who may
congratulate themselves on the fact, the Wood Pigeons do not breed in
very great numbers. I may mention the trees in the New Ground, Candie
Garden, the Vallon and Woodlands, as places where Wood Pigeons
occasionally breed. No doubt the number of Wood Pigeons is occasionally
increased by migratory, or rather perhaps wandering, flocks, as Mr.
Couch, in a note to the 'Zoologist,' dated October the 21st, 1871, says,
"On Tuesday a great number of Wood Pigeons rested and several were
shot." Mr. MacCulloch also writes me, "The Wood Pigeon occasionally
arrives in large numbers. A few years ago I heard great complaints of
the damage they were doing to the peas;"[15] but luckily for the farmers
these wandering flocks do not stay long, or there would be but little
peas, beans, or grain left in the Islands; and the Wood Pigeons would be
more destructive to the crops in Guernsey than in England, as there are
not many acorns or Beech masts on which they could feed; consequently
they would live almost entirely on the farmer; and to show the damage
they would be capable of doing in this case, I may say that in the crops
of two that I examined some time ago--not killed in Guernsey however--I
found, in the first, thirty seven beech-masts in the crop, and eight
others in the gizzard, sufficiently whole to be counted; and in the
crop of the other the astonishing number of seventy-seven beech-masts
and one large acorn; the gizzard of this one I did not examine. I only
mention this to show the damage a few Wood Pigeons would do supposing
they were restricted almost entirely to agricultural produce for their
food, as they would be in Guernsey if they lived there in any great
numbers.

The Wood Pigeon is mentioned by Professor Ansted and marked as only
occurring in Guernsey, and probably as far as breeding is concerned this
is right (of course with the exception of Jersey); but wandering flocks
probably occasionally visit Alderney as well. There is no specimen in
the Museum.


92. ROCK DOVE. _Columba livia_, Linnaeus. French, "Colombe biset."--I
have never seen the Rock Dove in any of the Islands, though there are
many places in all of them that would suit its habits well; and Mr.
MacCulloch writes to me to say, "I have heard that in times past the
Rock Pigeon used to breed in large numbers in the caves around Sark";
but this certainly is not the case at present. Captain Hubbach also
writes to me from Alderney, "There were some Rock Doves here in the
winters of 1862 and 1863; I shot two or three of them then." Probably a
few yet remain in both Alderney and Sark, though they certainly are not
at all numerous in either island.

Professor Ansted includes the Rock Dove in his list, and marks it as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen in the Museum.
Professor Ansted also includes the Stock Dove, _Columba aenas_,
Linnaeus, in his list as occurring in Guernsey and Sark; but I think he
must have done so on insufficient evidence, as I have never seen it and
not been able to gain any information about it; neither does Mr.
Gallienne say anything about it in his notes appended to the list; so on
the whole I think it better to omit it in my list; but as it may occur
at any time, especially as it is certainly increasing considerably in
numbers in the West of England, I may mention that it may be immediately
distinguished from the Rock Dove by the absence of the white rump, that
part being nearly the same colour as the back in the Stock Dove, and
from the Wood Pigeon, _Columba palumbus_, by its smaller size and the
entire absence of white on the wing. It is perhaps more necessary to
point out this difference, as the Stock Dove frequently goes by the name
of the Wood Pigeon; indeed Dresser has adopted this name for it, the
Wood Pigeon being called the Ring Dove, as is very frequently the case.


93. TURTLE DOVE. _Turtur vulgaris_, Eyton. French, "Colombe
tourterelle."--The Turtle Dove is a regular, but probably never very
numerous summer visitant, arriving and departing about the same time as
in England. Neither Miss Carey nor Mr. Couch ever mention it in their
notes on Guernsey birds in the 'Zoologist': and Mr. MacCulloch, writing
to me about the bird, does not go farther than to say "The Turtle Dove
has, I believe, been known to breed here." In June, 1866, however, I
shot one in very wild weather, flying across the bay at Vazon Bay; so
wild was the weather with drifting fog and rain that I did not know what
I had till I picked it up; in fact, when I shot it I thought it was some
wader, flying through the fog towards me. This summer (1878) I saw two
at Mr. Jago's which had been shot at Herm in May, just before I came;
and in June I saw one or two more about in Guernsey. The pair shot in
Herm would probably have bred in that island if they had been left
unmolested.

Professor Ansted mentions it in his list, but only as occurring in
Guernsey, and there is one specimen in the Museum.


94. QUAIL. _Coturnix communis_, Bonnaterre. French, "Caille."--I have
never seen the Quail in the Islands myself, and it cannot be considered
more than an occasional straggler; there can be no doubt, however, that
it sometimes remains to breed, as there are some eggs in the Museum
which I have reason to believe are Guernsey taken, and Mr. MacCulloch
writes me word that "Quails certainly visit us occasionally, and I
remember having seen their eggs in my youth"; and Mrs. Jago (late Miss
Cumber), who was herself a bird-stuffer in Guernsey a good many years
ago, told me she had had two Quails through her hands during the time
she had been stuffing; but evidently she had not had very many, nor did
she think them very common, as she did not know what they were when they
were brought to her, and she was some time before she found anyone to
tell her. The Quail breeds occasionally, too, in Alderney, as the
bird-stuffer and carpenter had some Quail's and Landrail's eggs; these
he told me he had taken out of the same nest which he supposed belonged
originally to the Landrail, as there were rather more Landrail's than
Quail's eggs in it.

Professor Ansted includes the Quail in his list, but marks it as
occurring only in Guernsey. There is a specimen in the Museum, and, as I
said before, several eggs.


95. WATER RAIL. _Rallus aquations_, Linnaeus. French, "Râle d'eau."--The
Water Rail is not very common in Guernsey, but a few occur about the
Braye Pond, and in other places suited to them; and, I believe,
occasionally remain to breed, as Mr. Jago, the bird-stuffer, told me he
had seen a pair of Water Rails and four young, his dog having started
them from a hedge near the Rousailleries farm; the young could scarcely
fly. I saw one at the bird-stuffer's at Alderney, which had been shot in
that Island; and the bird-stuffer told me they were common, and he
believed they bred there, but he had no eggs. Their number, however, is,
I think, rather increased in the autumn by migrants; at all events, more
specimens are brought to the bird-stuffers at that time of year. I have
before mentioned the incident of the Water Rail being killed by the
Merlin, recorded by Mr. Couch in the 'Zoologist' for 1875.

The Water Rail is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum.


96. SPOTTED CRAKE. _Porzana maruetta_, Leach. French, "Poule d'eau
marouette."--I have some doubt as to the propriety of including the
Spotted Crake in my list, but, on the whole, such evidence as I have
been able to collect seems in favour of its being at all events
occasionally seen and shot, though its small size and shy skulking
habits keep it very much from general notice. Mr. MacCulloch, however,
writes to me to say the Spotted Rail has been found here; and one of Mr.
De Putron's labourers described a Rail to me which he had shot in the
Vale Pond in May, 1877, which, from his description, could have been
nothing but a Spotted Rail.

This is all the information I have been able to glean, but Professor
Ansted includes it in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey.
There are also two pretty good specimens in the Museum, which I have no
doubt were killed in Guernsey.


97. LANDRAIL. _Crex pratensis_, Bechstein. French, "Râle des prés,"
"Râle de terre" ou "de Genet," "Poule d'eau de genet."--The Landrail is
a common summer visitant, breeding certainly in Guernsey, Sark, and
Alderney,[16] and probably in Herm, though I cannot be quite so sure
about the latter Island. It seems to be rather more numerous in some
years than others, as occasionally I have heard them craking in almost
every field. But the last summer I was in the Islands (1878) I heard
very few. The Corn Crake arrives and departs much about the same time as
in England, and I have never been able to find that any stay on into the
winter, or even as late as November.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring
in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum.


98. MOORHEN. _Gallinula chloropus_, Linnaeus. French, "Poule d'eau
ordinaire."--I have not seen the Moorhen myself in Guernsey, but Mr.
Couch, writing to me in December, 1876, told me that Mr. De Putron
informed him that Coots, Waterhens, and Little Grebes bred that year in
the Braye Pond; and Mr. De Putron, to whom I wrote on the subject, said
the information I had received was perfectly correct. I see no reason to
doubt the fact of the Moorhen occasionally breeding in Mr. De Putron's
pond, and perhaps in other places in the Island, especially the Grand
Mare. But I do not believe they breed regularly in either place; they
certainly did not in this last summer (1878), or I must have seen or
heard them. As far as Mr. De Putron's pond is concerned, I could not
have helped hearing their loud call or alarm note had only one pair been
breeding there; I have, however, a young bird of the year, killed in
Guernsey in November, 1878.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, and marks it as only occurring
in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the Museum, probably both
Guernsey killed.


99. COMMON COOT. _Fulica atra_, Linnaeus. French, "Foulque," "Foulque
macroule."--In spite of Mr. De Putron's statement that the Coot bred in
the Braye Pond in the summer of 1876, I can scarcely look upon it in the
light of anything but an occasional and never numerous autumnal
visitant; and its breeding in the Braye Pond that year must have been
quite exceptional. In the autumn it occurs both in the Braye Pond and on
the coast in the more sheltered parts. I have the skin of one killed in
the Braye Pond in November, 1876, which might have been one of those
bred there that year.

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


100. LITTLE BUSTARD. _Otis tetrax_, Linnaeus. French, "Outarde
canepetière," "Poule de Carthage."--The Little Bustard can only be
considered a very rare occasional visitant to the Channel Islands, and
very few instances of its occurrence have come under my notice. The
first was mentioned to me by Mr. MacCulloch, who wrote me word that a
Little Bustard was killed in Guernsey in 1865, but unfortunately he
gives no information as to the time of the year. Another was shot by a
farmer in Guernsey early in March, 1866, and was recorded by myself in
the 'Zoologist' for that year. Mr. Couch also recorded one in the
'Zoologist' for 1875, "as having been shot at the back of St. Andrew's
(very near the place where one was shot fifteen years ago) on the 20th
of November, 1874." This bird is now in the possession of Mr. Le Mottee,
at whose house I saw it, and was informed that it had been shot at a
place called the Eperons, in the parish of St. Andrew's, on the date
above mentioned. These are all the instances of the occurrence of the
Little Bustard in the Channel Islands that I have been able to gain any
intelligence of, but they are sufficient to show that although by no
means a common visitant, it does occasionally occur on both spring and
autumn migration.

It is not included in Professor Ansted's list. There is, however, a
specimen in the Museum, which I was told, when I saw it in 1866, had
been killed the previous year, but there is no date of the month, and I
should think, from the state of plumage, it was an autumn-killed
specimen: it is still in the Museum, as I saw it there again this year,
1878. This is probably the bird mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch as killed in
1865, and also very likely the one spoken of by Mr. Couch, in 1875, as
having been killed in St. Andrew's fifteen years ago; but there seems to
have been some mistake as to Mr. Couch's date for this one, as, had it
been killed so long ago as 1860, it would in all probability have been
included in Professor Ansted's list, and mentioned by Mr. Gallienne in
his remarks on some of the birds included in the list.


101. THICK-KNEE. _Oedicnemus scolopax_, S.G. Gmelin. French, "Oedicneme
criard," "Poule d'Aurigny."[17]--The Thick-knee, Stone Curlew, or
Norfolk Plover, as it is called, though only an occasional visitant, is
much more common than the Little Bustard; indeed, Mr. MacCulloch says
that "it is by no means uncommon in winter. The French call it 'Poule
d'Aurigny,' from which one might suppose it was more common in this
neighbourhood than elsewhere." Miss C.B. Carey records one in the
'Zoologist' as killed in November, and Mr. Couch another as having been
shot on the 31st December. I have also seen one or two hanging up in the
market, and others at Mr. Couch's, late in November; and one is recorded
in the 'Guernsey Mail and Telegraph' as having been shot by Mr. De
Putron, of the Catel, on the 3rd January, 1879. From these dates, as
well as from Mr. MacCulloch's remark that it is not uncommon in the
winter, it would appear that--as in the Land's End district in
Cornwall--the Thick-knee reverses the usual time of its visits to the
British Islands, being a winter instead of a summer visitant; and
probably for the same reason, namely, that the latitude of the Channel
Islands, like that of Cornwall, is about the same as that of its most
northern winter range on the Continent.

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


102. PEEWIT. _Vanellus vulgaris_, Bechstein. French, "Vanneau
huppé."--The Peewit is a common and rather numerous autumn and winter
visitant to all the Islands, though I have never seen it in such large
flocks as in some parts of England, especially in Somerset. Those that
do come to the Islands appear to take very good care of themselves, for
I have always found them very difficult to get a shot at, and very few
make their appearance in the market. Though generally a winter visitant,
I have seen occasional stragglers in summer. On the 9th July this year
(1878), for instance, I saw one fly by me in L'Ancresse Bay; this was
either a young bird, or, if an adult, was not in breeding plumage, as I
could clearly see that the throat was white--- not black, as in the
adult in breeding plumage. A few days afterwards, July 19th,
another--or, perhaps, the same--was shot by some quarry-men on the
common; this was certainly a young bird of the year, and I had a good
opportunity of looking at it. In spite of occasional stragglers of this
sort making their appearance in the summer, I have never been able to
find that the Peewit breeds on any of the Islands; but, by the 9th of
July, stragglers, both old and young, might easily come from the
opposite coast of Dorsetshire, where a good many breed, or from the
north of France.

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


103. GREY PLOVER. _Squatarola helvetica_, Linnaeus. French, "Vanneau
pluvier."--The Grey Plover is a regular but by no means numerous
visitant to the coast of all the Islands during the winter months, but I
have never found it in flocks like the Golden Plover. A few fall victims
to the numerous gunners who frequent the shores during the autumn and
winter, and consequently it occasionally makes its appearance in the
market, where I believe it often passes for a Golden Plover, especially
in the case of young birds on their first arrival in November; but for
the sake of the unknowing in such matters, I may say that they need
never be deceived, as the Grey Plover has a hind toe, and also has the
axillary plume or the longish feathers under the wing black, while the
Golden Plover has no hind toe and the axillary plume white: a little
attention to these distinctions, which hold good at all ages and in all
plumages, may occasionally save a certain amount of disappointment at
dinner time, as the Grey Plover is apt to taste muddy and fishy, and is
by no means so good as the Golden Plover.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring
in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the Museum, both in winter
plumage. Indeed, I do not know that it even remains long enough in the
Channel Islands to assume, even partially, the black-breast of the
breeding plumage, as it so often does in England.


104. GOLDEN PLOVER. _Charadrius pluvialis_, Linnaeus. French, "Pluvier
dore."--A common winter visitant to all the Islands, arriving about the
end of October or beginning of November, and remaining till the spring,
sometimes till they have nearly assumed the black breast of the
breeding-season; but I do not know that the Golden Plover ever breeds in
the Islands, at all events in the present day.

Professor Ansted includes the Golden Plover in his list, and marks it as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is one specimen in the Museum,
probably killed rather late in the spring, as it is assuming the black
breast.


105. DOTTEREL. _Eudromias morinellus_, Linnaeus. French, "Pluvier
guignard."--The common Dotterel is a rare occasional visitant to the
Channel Islands, occurring, however, on both the spring and autumn
migration, as Mr. MacCulloch says he has a note of a Dotterel killed in
May, 1849; he does not say in which of the Islands, but probably in
Guernsey; and I have a skin of one, a fine full-plumaged bird, according
to Mr. Couch, who forwarded me the skin, a female by dissection, killed
in Herm on the 26th of April, 1877. Another skin I have is that of a
young bird of the year, killed in the autumn, I should think early in
the autumn--August or September; and the Rev. A. Morrës, who kindly gave
me this last one, has also a skin of one killed at the same time; both
of these were Guernsey killed.

The Dotterel is included in Professor Ansted's list, and by him marked
as having occurred in Guernsey and Sark. I should think Alderney a more
likely place for the bird to have occurred than Sark, but I have not
been able to gain any information about its occurrence there; neither
the carpenter bird-stuffer nor his sporting friend had a skin or any
part of the bird. There is no specimen now in the Museum.


106. RING DOTTEREL. _Ægialitis hiaticula_, Linnaeus. French, "Grand
pluvier à collier," "Pluvier à collier."--The Ring Dotterel is very
common in all the Islands in places suited to it. Some remain throughout
the summer, and a few of these, but certainly very few, may breed in the
Islands; the great majority, however, of those that frequent the coast
in the winter are migrants, arriving in the autumn and departing again
in the spring. Some, however, appear to arrive very early, and cannot
have bred very far off, perhaps on the neighbouring coast of France or
Dorset. I have the following note on the subject in the 'Zoologist' for
1866, which gives the time of their arrival pretty correctly. During the
first two or three weeks after my arrival--that was on the 21st of June,
1866--I found Ring Dotterels excessively scarce even on parts of the
coast, where, on other visits later in the year, I had found them very
numerous. Towards the middle of July, however, they began to frequent
their usual haunts in small parties of six or seven, most probably the
old birds with their young. These parties increased in number to twenty
or thirty, and before my departure, on the last day of July, they
mustered quite as thickly as I had ever seen them before. On another
summer visit to Guernsey, from the 3rd to the 19th of June, 1876, I did
not see any Ring Dotterel at all, though at the time Kentish Plover were
common in most of the bays in the low parts of the Island. The Ring
Dotterel must therefore have selected some breeding-place separate from
the Kentish Plover, probably not very far off; but I do not believe it
breeds at all commonly in the Islands. This agrees very much with what I
saw of the Ring Dotterel this year (1878); there were a few in
L'Ancresse and one or two other bays, but none in Grand Havre, close to
which I was living, and I very much doubt if any of those I saw were
breeding. Neither Colonel l'Estrange nor I found any eggs, though we
searched hard for them both in '76 and '78; neither did we find any eggs
either in Herm or Alderney.

Professor Ansted includes the Ring Dotterel in his list, but marks it
as only occurring in Guernsey. There is a specimen in the Museum.


107. KENTISH PLOVER. _Ægialitis cantianus_, Latham. French, "Pluvier à
collier interrompu." I have always looked upon the Kentish Plover as
only a summer visitant to the Islands, never having seen it in any of my
visits in October and November; but Mr. Harvie Brown mentions
('Zoologist' for 1869) seeing some of these birds in January, at Herm,
feeding with the Ring Dotterel, but he says they always separated when
they rose to fly. If he is not mistaken, which my own experience
inclines me to think he was, we must look upon the Kentish Plover as
partially resident in the Islands, the greater number, however,
departing in the autumn. Until this summer (1878) I have been
unsuccessful in finding the eggs of the Kentish Plover, though I have
had many hard searches for them; and they are very difficult to find,
unless the bird is actually seen to run from the nest, or rather from
the eggs, for, as a rule, nest there is none, the eggs being only placed
on the sand, with which they get half buried, when they may easily be
mistaken for a small bit of speckled granite and passed by. In the
summer of 1866, a friend and myself had a long search for the eggs of a
pair we saw and were certain had eggs, as they practised all the usual
devices to decoy us from them, till my friend, actually thinking one of
the birds to be badly wounded, set his dog at it; after this all chance
was over: this was in a small sandy bay, called Port Soif, near the
Grand Rocques Barracks. I mention this as I am certain these birds had
eggs or young somewhere close to us, and this was the farthest point
towards Vazon Bay from the Vale I found them breeding. The sandy shores
of Grand Havre and L'Ancresse Bay seemed to be their head
breeding-quarters in Guernsey. Though I only found one set of eggs in
Grand Havre, I am sure there were three or four pairs of birds breeding
there; the two eggs I found were lying with their thick ends just
touching each other and half buried in sand; there was no nest whatever,
not even the sand hollowed out; they were in quite a bare place, just,
and only just, above the high-water line of seaweed. I should not have
found these if it had not been for the tracks of the birds immediately
round them. In L'Ancresse Bay I was not equally fortunate, but there
were quite as many pairs of birds breeding there. In Herm the
shell-beach seems to be their head breeding-quarters, and there Mr.
Howard Saunders, Colonel l'Estrange and myself found several sets of
eggs, generally three in number, but in one or two instances four: these
were probably hard-sat; in one instance, with four eggs, the eggs were
nearly upright in the sand, the small end being buried, and the thick
end just showing above the sand. In no instance in which I saw the eggs
was there the slightest attempt at a nest; but Colonel l'Estrange told
me that in one instance, in which he had found some eggs a day or two
before I got to Guernsey, quite the end of May, he found there was a
slight attempt at a nest, a few bents of the rough herbage which grew in
the sand just above high-water mark having been collected and the nest
lined with them. I have not found any eggs in Alderney, but I have no
doubt they breed in some of the sandy bays to the north of the Island
occasionally, if not always, as I have seen them there in the
breeding-season, both in 1876 and in 1866. This summer (1878) I was so
short a time in that Island that I had not time to search the most
likely places, but Captain Hubbach wrote me--"I do not think the Kentish
Plover remained here to breed this year, although I saw some about in
April."

Professor Ansted includes the Kentish Plover in his list, but only marks
it as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen, a male, in the
Museum.


108. TURNSTONE. _Strepsilas interpres_, Linnaeus. French, "Tourne
pierre," "Tourne pierre a collier." The cosmopolitan Turnstone is
resident in the Channel Islands; throughout the year its numbers,
however, are much increased in the autumn by migrants, many of which
remain throughout the winter, leaving the Islands for their
breeding-stations in the spring. Some of those that remain throughout
the summer I have no doubt breed in the Islands, as I have seen the old
birds about with their young and shot one in July; and on the 8th of
June, 1876, I saw a pair in full breeding plumage in L'Ancresse Bay; I
saw them again about the same place on the 16th: these birds were
evidently paired, and I believe had eggs or young on a small rocky
island about two or three hundred yards from the land, but there was no
boat about, and so I could not get over to look for the eggs. Col.
l'Estrange obtained some eggs on one of the rocky islands to the north
of Herm, which certainly were not Tern's eggs as he supposed, and I
believe them to have been Turnstone's; unluckily he did not take the
eggs himself, but the boatman who was with him took them, so he did not
see the bird go off the nest. This last summer (1878) I was in hopes of
being more successful either in Guernsey itself or in Herm, or the rocks
near there, but I did not see a single Turnstone alive the whole time I
was in Guernsey. I think it very likely, however, I should have been
successful in Herm, as I visited it several times both by myself and
with Col. l'Estrange and Mr. Howard Saunders; our first visit was on
June the 21st, when we did not see a single Turnstone; but this was
afterwards accounted for, as on a visit to Jago, the bird-stuffer, a
short time afterwards, I found him skinning a splendid pair of
Turnstones which had been shot in Herm a few days before our visit on
the 17th or 18th of June; the female had eggs ready for extrusion; I
need not say I did not exactly bless the person who, in defiance of the
Guernsey Sea Birds Act, had shot this pair of Turnstones, as had they
been left I have no doubt we should have seen them, and probably found
the eggs, and quite settled the question of the Turnstone's breeding
there. I have long been very sceptical on this subject, but now I have
very little doubt, as I think, seeing the birds about, paired, in
Guernsey in June and the pair shot in Herm, the female with eggs in
June, pretty well removes any doubt as to the Turnstone breeding in the
Islands, and I do not see why it should not, as it breeds quite as far
south in the Azores, and almost certainly in the Canaries.[18] Mr. Rodd,
however, tells me he does not believe in its breeding in the Scilly
Islands, though it is seen about there throughout the year, as it is in
the Channel Islands. Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks on Professor Ansted's
list, merely says, "The Turnstone is found about the neighbourhood of
Herm throughout the year." It occurs also in Alderney in the autumn, but
I have not seen it there in the breeding-season.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring
in Guernsey. There are a male and female, in breeding plumage, in the
Museum, and also one in winter plumage.


109. OYSTERCATCHER, _Haematopus ostralegus_, Linnaeus. French, "Hiûtrier
pie."--The Guernsey Bird Act includes these birds under the name
'Piesmarans,' which is the name given to the Oystercatcher by all the
French-speaking fishermen and boatmen, and which I suppose must be
looked upon only as the local name, though I have no doubt it is the
common name also on the neighbouring coast of Normandy and Brittany. The
Oystercatcher is resident all the year, and breeds in all the Islands; I
think, however, its numbers are considerably increased in the autumn by
migratory arrivals; certainly the numbers actually breeding in the
Islands are not sufficient to account for the immense flocks one sees
about in October and November. There seem, however, to be considerable
numbers remaining in flocks throughout the summer, without apparently
the slightest intention of separating for breeding purposes, as I have
often counted as many as forty or fifty together in June and July. The
Oystercatcher breeds in Guernsey itself about the cliffs. Mr. Howard
Saunders, Colonel l'Estrange and myself found one very curiously placed
nest of the Oystercatcher on the ridge of a hog-backed rock at the
bottom of the cliff, near the south end of the Island; it was not much
above high-water mark, and quite within reach of heavy spray when there
was any sea on: we could distinctly see the eggs when looking down from
the cliffs on them, and the two old birds were walking about the ridge
of rock as if dancing on the tight-rope; how they kept their eggs in
place on that narrow ridge, exposed as it was to wind and sea, was a
marvel. The Oystercatcher breeds also in both the small Islands, Jethou
and Herm, on almost all the rocky islands to the north of Herm, in Sark
and Alderney, and on Burhou, near Alderney, where I found one clutch of
three of the most richly marked Oystercatcher's eggs I ever saw: these,
as well as another clutch, also of three eggs, were placed on rather
curious nests; they were on the smooth rock, but in both cases the birds
had collected a number of small stones and made a complete pavement of
them, on which they placed their eggs; there was no protection, however,
to prevent the eggs from rolling off. Both in Burhou as well as on the
Amfroques and other rocks to the north of Herm, the eggs of the
Oystercatchers, as well as of the other sea-birds breeding there, had
been ruthlessly robbed by fishermen and others, who occasionally visit
these wild rocks and carry off everything in the shape of an egg,
without paying any respect to the Bird Act, which professes to protect
the eggs as well as the birds.

Professor Ansted includes the Oystercatcher in his list, but only marks
it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is an Oystercatcher and also
a few of the eggs in the Museum.


110. CURLEW. _Numenins arquata_, Linnaeus. French, "Courlis," "Grand
courlis cendré."--A good many Curlews are to be found in the Islands
throughout the year, but I do not believe any of them breed there; I
have seen them in Guernsey, Jethou, Herm and Alderney, all through the
summer, but always in flocks on the mud and seaweed below high-water
mark, whenever they can be there, searching for food, and quite as wild
and wary as in the winter. I have never seen them paired, or in any
place the least likely for them to be breeding. I know Mr. Gallienne, in
his remarks to Professor Ansted's list, says, "Although I have never
heard of the eggs of either the Curlew or Whimbrel being found, I am
satisfied they breed here (I think at Herm), as they stay with us
throughout the year." I cannot from my observation agree with this
supposition of the Curlew breeding in the Islands; nor can I agree with
the statement made by a writer in 'Cassel's Magazine' for June or July,
1878, that he found a young Curlew in the down on one of the Islands
near Jethou, probably from the description 'La Fauconnière.' The writer
of this paper in 'Cassel's Magazine' was evidently no ornithologist,
and must, I think, have mistaken a young Oystercatcher, of which
several pairs were breeding there at the time, for a young Curlew; his
description of the cry of the old birds as they flew round was much more
like that of the Oystercatcher than the Curlew. All of the boatmen also,
with whom I have been about at various times, agree that the Curlews do
not breed in the Islands, though they are quite aware that they remain
throughout the year, and as many of them, in spite of the Guernsey Bird
Act, are great robbers of the eggs of the Gulls, Puffins, and
Oystercatchers, all of which they know well, they would hardly miss such
a fine mouthful as the egg of the Curlew if it was to be found. No doubt
the number of Curlews is largely increased in the autumn by migratory
visitors, which remain throughout the winter and depart again in the
spring: though numerous during autumn and winter, they are very wild and
wary, and, as everywhere else where I have had any experience of Curlews
at that time of year, very difficult to get a shot at; consequently very
few find their way into the market.

The Curlew is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum.


111. WHIMBREL. _Numenius phaeopus_, Linnaeus. French, "Courlis
corlieu."--A good many Whimbrel visit all the Islands during the spring
migration, and a few may stay some little time into the summer, as I
have seen them as late as June, but, as far as I have been able to make
out, none breed there; a few also may make their appearance on the
autumn migration, but very few in comparison with those which appear in
the spring, and I have never seen any there at that time. Purdy, one of
the Guernsey boatmen, who is pretty well up in the sea and shore birds,
told me the Whimbrel occurred commonly in May, but not on the autumn
migration. He added that it was known there as the "May-bird," and was
very good to eat, and much easier to shoot than a Curlew, in which he is
quite right.

Professor Ansted includes the Whimbrel in his list, and marks it only as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum.


112. REDSHANK. _Totanus calidris_, Linnaeus. French, "Chevalier
gambette."--An occasional but never numerous visitant to all the
Islands, on both spring and autumn migrations; none appear to remain
through the summer. I have, however, a Redshank in full breeding
plumage, killed in Guernsey as late as the 23rd of April.

Professor Ansted includes the Redshank in his list, but only marks it as
occurring in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the Museum.

113. GREEN SANDPIPER. _Totanus ochropus_, Linnaeus. French, "Chevalier
cul blanc."--The Green Sandpiper is an irregular, very scarce (not so
numerous indeed as the Redshank) visitant on the spring and autumn
migration. I have seen what was probably a family party about Vazon Bay,
in Guernsey, quite at the end of July, but I do not believe this bird
ever breeds in the Islands: those I saw were probably the parents and
young brood of an early-breeding pair, on their return from some not
very distant breeding-ground. Such parties seem only to pay the Islands
a very short visit on their return from their breeding-ground; at least
I have never seen a Green Sandpiper in the Islands as late as October or
November; it may, however, occasionally occur in the winter, as I have a
specimen from Torbay killed in December.

Professor Ansted does not include the Green Sandpiper in his list,
though he does the Wood Sandpiper, giving, however, no locality for it.
I have never seen this latter bird in the Islands, however; nor have I
been able to find that one has ever passed through the hands of any of
the local bird-stuffers, and I cannot help thinking a mistake has been
made; as both birds may, however, occur, and they are something alike, I
may, for the benefit of my Guernsey readers, mention that they may
immediately be distinguished; the axillary plume or long feathers under
the wing, in the Green Sandpiper, being black narrowly barred with
white; and in the Wood Sandpiper the reverse, white with a few dark bars
and markings; the tail also, in the Green Sandpiper, is much more
distinctly and boldy barred with black and white. Alive and on the wing
they may be immediately distinguished by the pure white rump and
tail-coverts of the Green Sandpiper, which are very conspicuous,
especially as the bird rises; the white on the same parts of the Wood
Sandpiper is much marked with brown, and consequently never appears so
conspicuously. There is one Green Sandpiper at present in the Museum,
which there seems no reason to doubt is Guernsey killed.


114. COMMON SANDPIPER. _Totanus hypoleucos_, Linnaeus. French,
"Chevalier guignette."--The Common Sandpiper, or Summer Snipe as it is
sometimes called, is a spring and autumn visitant, but never a numerous
one, sometimes, however, remaining till the summer. One of Mr. De
Putron's men told me he had seen one or two about their pond all this
summer (1878), and he believed they bred there; but as to this I am very
sceptical; I could see nothing of the bird when I visited the pond in
June and July, and I fancy the birds stayed about, as they do sometimes
about my own pond here in Somerset, till late perhaps in May, and then
departed to breed elsewhere. The latest occurrence I know of was one
recorded by Mr. Couch in the 'Zoologist' for 1874, as having been killed
on the 3rd of October. Mr. Couch adds that this was the first specimen
of the Common Sandpiper he had had since he had been in the Islands.

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


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, "Bécassine
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, "Bécassine
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 maubèche."--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_, Güldenstaedt. 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 roussâtre," "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 cendré", "Heron
huppé."--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
Heronière. 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]

The Spoonbill is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen at present in the Museum,
the one stuffed by Miss Cumber having, as above mentioned, disappeared.


135. WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. _Anser albifrons_, Scopoli. French, "Oie
rieuse, ou à front blanc."--None of the Grey Geese seem common in
Guernsey; neither the Greylag, the Bean, nor the Pink-footed Goose have,
as far as I am aware, been obtained about the Islands, nor have I ever
seen any either alive or in the market, where they would be almost sure
to be brought had they been shot by any of the fishermen or gunners
about the Islands. There is one specimen, however, of the White-fronted
Goose in the Museum, which I have reason to believe was killed in or
near Guernsey; and this is the only specimen of this Goose which, as far
as I am aware, has been taken in the Islands.

The White-fronted Goose is included in Professor Ansted's list, and
marked as occurring in Guernsey. The Greylag and the Bean Goose are also
included in the list, the Greylag marked as occurring in Guernsey and
Sark, and the Bean as only in Guernsey; but no information beyond the
letter marking the locality is given as to either; and the only specimen
in the Museum is the White-fronted Goose above mentioned, neither of the
others being represented there now, nor do I remember ever having seen a
specimen of either there.


136. BRENT GOOSE. _Bernicla brenta_, Brisson. French, "Oie cravant,"
"Bernache cravant."--The Brent Goose is a regular winter visitant to all
the Islands, varying, however, in numbers in different years: sometimes
it is very numerous, and affords good sport during the winter to the
fishermen, who generally take a gun in the boat with them as soon as the
close season is over, sometimes before. The flocks generally consist
mostly of young birds of the year; the fully adult birds, however,
though fewer in number, are in sufficient numbers to make a very fair
show.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring
in Guernsey and Sark; it is, however, quite as common about Herm and
Alderney. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.


137. MUTE SWAN. _Cygnus olor_, Linnaeus. French, "Cygne tuberculé."--I
do not believe this bird has ever visited the Channel Islands in a
thoroughly wild state, though it is pretty widely spread over Europe;
its range, however, being generally more to the east than the Channel
Islands. Mr. Couch, however, at page 4939 of the 'Zoologist' for 1874,
records the occurrence of two Mute Swans on the 7th of September at the
Braye Pond, where they were shot. He also says that "five others passed
over the Island the same day; they were flying low, and, judging from
their colour, were young birds." As no one in the Islands keeps Swans,
these were most probably a family party that had strayed away from the
Swannery at Abbotsbury, on the opposite coast of Dorset, where some
three hundred and fifty pairs still breed annually. I have myself seen
as many six hundred and thirty birds there, the hens sitting and the old
males each resting quietly by the nest, keeping guard over the female
and the eggs. The distance from the Abbotsbury Swannery, which is at the
extreme end of the Chesil Beach, in Dorsetshire, to Guernsey is nothing
great for Swans to wander; and they often, both old and young (after the
young are able to fly), wander away from their home as far as Exmouth on
one side and Weymouth Bay or the Needles on the other; and an expedition
to Guernsey would be little more than to one of these places, and by
September the young, which are generally hatched tolerably early in June
(I have seen a brood out with their parents on the water as early as the
27th of May), would be perfectly able to wander, either by themselves or
with their parents, as far as the Channel Islands, and, as at this time
they rove about outside the Chesil Beach a good deal, going sometimes a
long way out to sea, there is no reason they should not do so. It seems
a great pity that these fine birds should be shot when they wander
across channel to Guernsey, especially when it must be apparent to every
one that they are really private property. If the present long close
season is to be continued, the Mute Swan might well be added to the
somewhat unreasonable list of birds in the Guernsey Sea-birds Act; at
all events, Swans would be better worth preserving than Plongeons or
Cormorants.


138. HOOPER. _Cygnus musicus_, Bechstein. French, "Cygne sauvage."--The
Wild Swan or Hooper[25] is an occasional visitor to the Channel Islands
in hard winters, sometimes probably in considerable numbers, as Mrs.
Jago (late Miss Cumber) told me she had had several to stuff in a very
hard winter about thirty years ago; some of these were young birds, as
she told me some were not so white as others. Mr. MacCulloch also says
that the Hooper visits the Channel Islands in severe winters; and the
capture of one is recorded by a correspondent of the 'Guernsey Mail and
Telegraph' for 4th January, 1879, as having been shot in that Island a
few days before; it is said to have been a young bird, grey in colour.
The writer of the notice, while distinguishing this bird from the Mute
Swan, does not, however, make it so clear whether it was really the
present species or Bewick's Swan; from the measurement of the full
length (5 ft. 3 in.) given, however, it would appear that it was the
present species, as that would be full length for it, while Bewick's
Swan would be about one-third less; some description of the bill,
however, would have been more satisfactory. It would certainly have been
interesting to have had some more particulars about this Swan, as this
last severe winter (1878 and 1879) has been very productive of Swans in
the south-west of England, the greater number of those occurring in this
county of Somerset, however, curiously enough, having been Bewick's
Swan, which is generally considered the rarer species. Though Swans have
been so exceptionally numerous in various parts of England this winter,
the above-mentioned is the only occurrence I have heard of in the
Channel Islands.

The Hooper is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as only
occurring in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the Museum, one adult
and one young bird.


139. BEWICK'S SWAN. _Cygnus minor_, Keys and Blasius. French, "Cygne de
Bewick."[26]--I have very little authority for including Bewick's Swan
in my list of Guernsey birds; Mr. MacCulloch, however, writes me word,
"The Common Hooper has visited us in severe winters, and is certainly
not the _only_ species of _wild_ Swan that has been shot here." In all
probability the other must have been Bewick's Swan, which no doubt has
occasionally occurred, perhaps more frequently than is supposed, though
not so frequently as the Hooper. Probably the difference between the two
is not sufficiently known; it may, therefore, be as well to point out
the distinctions. Bewick's Swan is much smaller than the Hooper, but the
great outward distinction is, that in the Hooper the yellow at the base
of the bill extends to and includes the nostrils, whereas in Bewick's
Swan the yellow occupies a very small portion of the base of the bill,
not extending so far as the nostrils: this is always sufficient to
distinguish the two, and is almost the only exterior distinction, but on
dissection the anatomical structure, especially of the trachea, shows
material difference between the two.

Professor Ansted includes Bewick's Swan in his list, and marks it as
occurring in Guernsey. There is, however, no specimen at present in the
Museum.


140. WILD DUCK. _Anas boschas_, Linnaeus. French, "Canard
sauvage."---The Wild Duck is an occasional autumn and winter visitant. I
have never shot one myself in the Islands, but I have several times seen
Guernsey-killed ones in the market. Though a visitant to all the
Islands, I do not believe the Wild Duck breeds, at all events at
present, in any of them; Mr. MacCulloch, however, writes me word "The
Wild Duck formerly bred here;" and Mr. Gallienne, in his 'Notes' to
Professor Ansted's list, says--"The Wild Duck formerly bred in Guernsey
rather abundantly, but it seldom does so now. Last year a nest was found
on one of the rocks near Herm." This would be about 1861. The rocks to
the northward of Herm do not seem to me a likely place for the Wild Duck
to breed; however, there are one or two places where they might possibly
do so. A much more likely place would be in some of the reed beds in the
Grande Mare, or even amongst the heather and gorse above the high cliffs
on the south and east side of the Island,--a sort of place they are fond
of selecting in this county, Somerset, where they frequently nest
amongst the heather high up in the hills, and quite away from any water.

The Wild Duck is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen at present in the
Museum.


141. PINTAIL. _Dafila acuta_, Linnaeus. French, "Pilet," "Canard pilet."
The Pintail is an occasional autumn and Winter visitant, but never very
common. I have one specimen, a female, killed in Guernsey in November,
1871, and this Mr. Couch told me was the only one he had had through his
hands whilst in Guernsey; and Captain Hubbach writes me word that he
shot one in Alderney in January, 1863. I have never seen it in the
Guernsey market, like the Wild Duck and Teal.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring
in Guernsey. There is one specimen, a male in full plumage, in the
Museum.


142. TEAL. _Querquedula crecca_, Linnaeus. French, "Sarcelle
d'hiver."--Like the Wild Duck, the Teal is a regular but never numerous
visitant to all the Islands. A few make their appearance in the Guernsey
market in October and November, and occasionally through the winter; but
Teal do not, as a rule, add much to the Guernsey sportsman's bag. In
November, 1871, a friend of mine told me that, after a long day's
shooting from daylight till dark, he succeeded in bagging one Teal and
one Woodcock. I was rather glad I was not with him on this occasion, but
chose the wild shooting on the shore, where I got one or two Golden
Plovers, and Turnstone and Ring Dotterel enough for a pie--and,
by-the-bye, a very good pie they made.

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


143. EIDER DUCK. _Somateria mollissima,_ Linnaeus. French, "Canard
eider," "Morillon eider."--The Eider Duck occasionally straggles to the
Channel Islands in the autumn, but very seldom, and the majority of
those that do occur are in immature plumage. I have one immature bird,
killed in Guernsey in the winter of 1876; and that is the only Channel
Island specimen that has come under my notice, and I think almost the
only one Mr. Couch had had through his hands.

The Eider Duck is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as
occurring in Guernsey. The King Eider is also included in the list, but
no letter marking the distribution through the Islands is given, and no
information beyond the mere name, so I should think in all probability
this must have been a mistake, especially as I can find no other
evidence whatever of its occurrence. There is no specimen of either bird
in the Museum.


144. COMMON SCOTER. _Oidemia nigra_, Linnaeus. French, "Macreuse,"
"Canard macreuse."--The Scoter is a common autumn and winter visitant to
all the Islands, generally making its appearance in considerable flocks;
sometimes, however, the flocks get broken up, and single birds may then
be seen scattered about in the more sheltered bays. Some apparently
remain till tolerably late in the spring as Mr. MacCulloch wrote me word
that a pair of Scoters were killed in the last week in April, 1878, off
the Esplanade; he continues, "I had only a cursory glance of them as I
was passing through the market in a hurry, and I am not sure they were
not Velvet Scoters. The male had a great deal of bright yellow about the
nostrils." Mr. MacCulloch, however, told me afterwards, when I asked him
more about them, and especially whether he had seen any white about the
wing, that he had not seen any white whatever about them, so I have but
little doubt that they were Common Scoters, and he could hardly have
failed to be struck by the conspicuous white bar on the wing, by which
the Velvet Scoter, both male and female, may immediately be
distinguished from the Common Scoter. As on the South Coast of Devon or
Dorset, a few scattered Scoters--non-breeding birds, of course--remain
throughout the summer. I have one, a male, killed off Guernsey on July
19th: this bird is in that peculiar state of plumage which all the males
of the _Anatidae_ put on from about July to October, and in which many
of them look so like the females.

The Common Scoter is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked
only as occurring in Guernsey. The Velvet Scoter is also included in
Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in Guernsey; but there
seems to be no other evidence of its having occurred in the Islands;
and a mistake may easily have been made, however, as the Velvet Scoter
occurs tolerably frequently on the south coast of Devon, though never in
such numbers as the Common Scoter; it may, of course, occur in the
Channel Islands occasionally. There is no specimen of either bird in the
Museum.


145. GOOSANDER. _Mergus merganser_, Linnaeus. French, "Grand
Harle."--The Goosander is a regular and tolerably numerous visitant to
all the Islands, arriving in the autumn and remaining throughout the
winter. The heavy-breaking seas of the Channel Islands do not appear to
disturb the composure of these birds in the least, for once, on my
voyage home on the 16th November, 1871, I saw a small flock of
Goosanders off Herm, close to the steamer; they were swimming perfectly
unconcerned in a heavy-breaking sea, which made the steamer very lively,
dipping first one and then the other paddle-box into the water; as we
got close up to them they rose, but only flew a short distance and
pitched again in the white water. They seem to me to keep the sea better
than the Red-breasted Merganser--at least, I have not seen them seek
shelter so much in the different bays.

The Goosander is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum at present,
though I think there used to be one, but I suppose it has got
moth-eaten and been thrown away.


146. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. _Mergus serrator,_ Linnaeus. French, "Harle
Huppé."--Like the Goosander, the Red-breasted Merganser is a regular and
by no means uncommon autumn and winter visitant to the Channel Islands.
It seems to me, as I said before, that these birds seek the more
sheltered bays during wild squally weather more than the Goosanders do;
not but what they can keep the sea well even in bad weather, but I have
never seen or shot the Goosander close to the shore seeking smooth
water, as I have done the Red-breasted Merganser. The greater number of
Red-breasted Mergansers killed in the Channel Islands which I have seen
have been either females or males that had not assumed the full adult
plumage--in fact, in that state of plumage in which they are the "Dun
Diver" of Bewick; full-plumaged adult males do, however, occur as well
as females and young males, or males in a state of change.

Professor Ansted includes the Red-breasted Merganser in his list, but
only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the
Museum--a male in full plumage and a female or young male.


147. SMEW. _Mergus albellus_, Linnaeus. French, "Harle piette," "Harle
étoilé," "Petit harle huppé."--The Smew can only be considered an
occasional accidental autumnal visitant, and the few that do occur are
generally either females, young males, or males still in a state of
change. I do not know of any instance in which a full-plumaged male has
occurred in the Channel Islands.

It is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in
Guernsey only. There are two specimens in the Museum, both females or
immature males, or, at all events, males which have not begun to assume
their proper plumage after the summer change.


148. LITTLE GREBE. _Podiceps minor_, Gmelin. French, "Grèbe
castagneux."--The Little Grebe, or Dabchick, occurs occasionally in the
Islands, mostly as an autumnal or winter visitant. I have occasionally
seen freshly-killed ones hanging up in the market in November; I have,
however, never seen it alive or shot it in the Islands. Mr. Couch,
writing to me in December, 1876, told me that Mr. De Putron had told him
that Little Grebes had bred in his pond in the Vale the summer before,
and Mr. De Putron afterwards confirmed this; they can only breed there
occasionally, however, as there were certainly none breeding there in
1878, when I was there.

The Little Grebe is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked by
him as occurring in Guernsey only. There are two specimens in the Museum
and some eggs, which were said to be Guernsey, and probably were so,
perhaps from the Vale Pond.


149. EARED GREBE. _Podiceps nigricollis_, Sundeval. French, "Grèbe
oreillard."--The Eared Grebe is an occasional autumnal visitant to the
Islands, remaining on till the winter; it is never very numerous; in
some years, however, it appears to visit the Islands in greater numbers
than in others, as Mr. Couch mentions, at p. 4380 of the 'Zoologist' for
1875, that, amongst other grebes, four Eared Grebes were brought to him
between the 4th and 13th of January. I do not know, however, that it
ever occurs at any time of year except the winter and autumn; and I have
never seen a Channel Island specimen in breeding plumage, or even in a
state of change.

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


150. SCALAVONIAN GREBE. _Podiceps auritus,_ Linnaeus. French, "Grèbe
cornu ou Esclavon."--The Sclavonian Grebe is a regular and rather
numerous autumn and winter visitor to all the Islands. In rough weather
it may be seen fishing about the harbour at Guernsey when it can find
any protection from the rough seas that so often rage all round the
Island, and which drive it to seek shelter either about the harbour or
some of the more protected bays. I do not know that it has ever bred in
the Islands, but there was a very fine specimen in full breeding-plumage
at the late Mr. Mellish's, which I often saw there; and, on subsequent
inquiry from his son, Mr. William Mellish, he wrote in 1878 to me to
say, "The Sclavonian Grebe was killed by my brother Alfred at Arnold's
Pond, just the other side of the Vale Church to the one on which you
were." This Arnold's Pond is the one I have so often mentioned before as
Mr. De Putron's. I have not been able to ascertain the exact date at
which this bird was killed, but it must have been some time in the
spring, as it was in full breeding-plumage. There is also one in full
breeding-plumage in the Museum, so it must occasionally stay on some
time into the spring. The young birds and adults in winter plumage, when
it is the Dusky Grebe of Bewick, are very much like the Eared Grebe in
the same state of plumage; but they may always be distinguished, the
Sclavonian Grebe always being rather the larger and having the bill
straighter, and making a more regular cone than that of the Eared Grebe,
which is slightly turned up. In the full breeding-plumage there can be
no possibility of confounding the two species.

The Sclavonian Grebe is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only
marked as occurring in Guernsey. There are two specimens in the Museum,
one in full breeding-plumage and one in winter plumage.


151. RED-NECKED GREBE. _Podiceps griseigena,_ Boddaert. French, "Grèbe
jou-gris."--I have never seen a Channel Island specimen of the
Red-necked Grebe in full breeding-plumage as I have the Sclavonian, but
it is a tolerably regular autumn and winter visitant, and in some years
appears to be the more numerous of the two. Certainly in November, 1875,
this was the case, and the Red-necked Grebe was commoner than either the
Great-crested or the Sclavonian Grebe, especially about the Guernsey
coast between St. Peter's Port and St. Samson's, where I saw several;
and a good many were also brought into Mr. Couch's about the same time
more than usual. One which I obtained had slight traces of the red about
the throat remaining, otherwise this one was like the others which I saw
in complete winter plumage.

The Red-necked Grebe is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only
marked as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen in the Museum.


152. GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. _Podiceps cristatus_, Linnaeus. French.
"Grèbe huppé."--The Great-crested Grebe is a regular autumn and winter
visitant to the Channel Islands, but not, I think, in quite such numbers
as at Teignmouth and Exmouth and along the south coast of Devon. I have
not shot this bird in the Channel Islands myself, nor have I seen it
alive: but I have seen several Guernsey-killed specimens. These were all
young birds or adults in winter plumage; and I have one, a young bird of
the year, killed in the Guernsey harbour late in November, 1876.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring
in Guernsey. There is one specimen, a young bird of the year, in the
Museum.


153. GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. _Colymbus glacialis_, Linnaeus. French,
"Plongeon imbrim."--The Great Northern Diver is a common autumn and
winter visitant to all the Islands, arriving early in November, perhaps
even about the last week in October. The earliest date at which I have
seen it myself was on the 9th November. A considerable majority of these
autumnal visitants are young birds of the year, the rest being adults in
winter plumage; but, as is the case on the south coast of Devon, a few
occasionally remain so late on in the spring as to have fully attained
the breeding-plumage. There is one Guernsey-killed specimen in perfect,
or nearly perfect, breeding-plumage in the Museum, which I think was
killed some time in May by Mr. Peter Le Newry, a well-known fisherman
and gunner living in Guernsey, who procured a good many specimens for
that establishment, but, unluckily, no note as to date or locality has
been preserved; he told me he had killed this bird late in the spring,
but could not when I saw him remember the exact date. It must not be
supposed that because this bird occasionally remains in the Islands late
into the spring, and assumes its full breeding-plumage before leaving,
that it ever remains to breed or avails itself of the protection so
kindly afforded to it and its congeners, as well as their eggs, by the
Guernsey Bird Act.

The Great Northern Diver is included in Professor Ansted's list, but
only marked as occurring in Guernsey. There are four specimens in the
Museum in full breeding plumage and change.


154. BLACK-THROATED DIVER. _Colymbus arcticus_, Linnaeus. French,
"Plongeon à gorge noir."--The Black-throated Diver is a much less common
visitor to the Islands than either the Great Northern or Red-throated
Diver; it does, however, occasionally occur in the autumn and winter;
all the specimens that have been obtained are either immature or in
winter plumage, and I do not know of a single instance in which it has
been procured in full plumage as the Great Northern has. In the
'Zoologist' for 1875 Mr. Couch records the occurrence of a
Black-throated Diver on the 19th of January of that year, and of another
on the 30th of the same month; these are the most recent occurrences of
which I am aware. No doubt the young Black-throated Diver may be
occasionally mistaken for and passed over as the young Northern Diver;
but it may always be known by its much smaller size, being intermediate
between that bird and the Red-throated Diver, from which, however, it
may always be distinguished by wanting the white spots on the back and
wing-coverts which are always present in the winter plumage of the adult
Red-throated Diver, and the oval marks on the margins of the feathers of
the same parts in the young birds of the year.

The Black-throated Diver is included in Professor Ansted's list, and
marked as only occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen, an immature
bird, in the Museum.


155. RED-THROATED DIVER. _Colymbus septentrionalis_, Linnaeus. French,
"Plongeon à gorge rouge," "Plongeon cat-marin."--The Red-throated Diver
is a regular autumn and winter visitant to the Islands, and rather the
most common of the three Divers. As with the Northern Diver, it
occasionally remains until it has nearly assumed its full
breeding-plumage, but it does not occur so frequently in that plumage
as it does on the south coast of Devon and Dorset; indeed I have never
found either this bird or the Great Northern Diver so common in the
Channel Islands as they are about Exmouth and Teignmouth, even in the
ordinary winter plumage; probably the mouths of rivers were more
attractive to them as producing more food than the wild open seas of the
Channel Islands. Owing to its various changes of plumage, from age or
time of year, the Red-throated Diver has been made to do duty as more
than one species, and is the Speckled Diver of Pennant, Montagu and
Bewick.

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


156. GUILLEMOT. _Alca troile_, Linnaeus. French, "Guillemot à capuchon,"
"Guillemot troile."--The Guillemot is very common about the Channel
Islands in Autumn and winter, but is seldom seen during the summer
season except near its breeding stations, which, as far as my district
is concerned, are very few. It does not breed in Guernsey, Sark, or
Herm, or even on the rocky islands to the north of Herm. In Alderney, I
am told, it has one small station on the mainland on the side nearest
the French coast. I was told of this by the person who shot the
Greenland Falcon, and by one or two of the fishermen on my last visit
to that Island. I had not time then to visit the place, and on former
visits I must quite have overlooked it. Captain Hubbach, however, kindly
promised that he would visit the spot, and soon after I left, about the
middle of June, 1878, he did so, and his account to me was as
follows:--"I have been twice along the cliffs with my glass, but have
not seen either a Guillemot or Razorbill. An old boatman here tells me
that he took their eggs off the rocks at the French side of Alderney
last year (1877), and that they bred there every year. He describes the
eggs as 'the same blue and green and white ones with black spots that
are on the Ortack Rock.'" This very much confirms what Mr. Gallienne
says, in his notes to Professor Ansted's list--"The Razorbill and
Guillemot breed on the Ortack Rock and on the cliffs at Alderney." This
Ortack Rock is to the west of Alderney, between Burhou and the Caskets,
and a considerable number of Guillemots and Razorbills breed there, but
it is not to be compared as a breeding station for these birds with
those at Lundy Island and South Wales. During the summer a few
Guillemots, probably non-breeding birds, may be seen at sea round
Guernsey, and one or two stragglers may generally be seen when crossing
from Guernsey to Sark or Herm. I have never seen the variety called the
Ringed Guillemot, _Alca lacrymans_, in the Channel Islands, but, as it
may occasionally occur, it is as well to mention it, although it is now
rightly considered only a variety of the Common Guillemot, from which it
differs only in summer plumage, when it has a white ring round the eye,
and a white streak passing backwards from the eye down the side of the
neck: this distinction is not apparent in the winter plumage, nor is
there any distinction between the eggs.

The Guillemot is included in Professor Ansted's list, but is only marked
as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in summer
plumage in the Museum, and one in winter plumage.


157. LITTLE AUK. _Mergulus alle_, Linnaeus. French, "Guillemot
nain."--The Little Auk can only be considered a rare occasional wanderer
to the Channel Islands, generally driven before the heavy autumnal and
winter gales. I only know of the occurrence of two specimens: one of
these was recorded by Mr. Couch in the 'Zoologist' for 1875, as having
been killed on the 30th January in that year; and I had a letter from
Mr. Couch, dated the 20th December, 1872, in which he informed me that a
Little Auk had been taken alive in Guernsey on the 17th of that month:
this one had probably, as is often the case, been driven ashore during
a gale, and, being too exhausted to rise, had been taken by hand.

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


158. PUFFIN. _Fratercula arctica_, Linnaeus. French, "Macareux."--The
Puffin, or Barbelote[27] as it is called by the Guernsey sailors and in
the Guernsey Bird Act, is a regular and numerous summer visitant to the
Islands, breeding in considerable numbers in many places. None breed,
however, in Guernsey itself, or in any of the little rocky islands
immediately surrounding it. Some breed on Sark and the islands about it,
and a few also on Herm; but their great breeding quarters about these
parts are from the Amfrocques to the north end of Herm. On every one of
the little rocky islands between these places, and including the
Amfrocques, considerable numbers of Puffins breed, either in holes in
the soft soil which has accumulated on some of these islands, or amongst
the loose rocks and stones; these latter, however, are the safest places
for the Puffin, as, in spite of the Guernsey Bird Act, which protects
the eggs as well as the birds, the Guernsey fishermen are fond of
visiting these islands whenever they can for the purpose of what they
call "Barbeloting;" and they soon lift up the loose earth with their
hands and get at the eggs; but the Puffins, who have laid in holes in
the rocks and amongst loose stones, are much better off, as a good big
stone of two or three tons is not so easily moved. I visited all these
little islands in the summer of 1878 with Mr. Howard Saunders, and we
found all the Puffins who had had eggs in holes in the earth had been
robbed almost without an exception; the others, however, were pretty
safe. Besides these islands the Puffins breed in Alderney itself, and on
Burhou, where, however, their eggs are robbed nearly as much as in the
islands north of Herm, especially the eggs of those who choose holes in
the soft earth. The Puffins do not seem to be very regular in their time
of nesting; at least, when I was at Burhou on the 14th of June, 1876, I
found quite fresh eggs, eggs just ready to hatch, young birds in the
down, and young birds just beginning to get a few feathers and almost
able to take to the water; it was fun to see one of these when he had
been unearthed waddle off to the nearest hole as fast as his legs could
carry him--generally, however, coming down every second or third step.
The reason for the irregularity in hatching was probably owing to the
first brood having been lost, the eggs probably having been robbed.
During the breeding season the Puffins keep very close to their
breeding-stations, and do not apparently wander more than a few hundred
yards from them even in search of food; so that, unless you actually
visit the islands on which they breed, you can form no idea of the
number of Puffins actually breeding in the Channel Islands. The number
of Puffins, however, at Burhou seem to me to have considerably
diminished of late years, for in the summer of 1866, when going through
the Swinge, we passed a great flock of these birds; "in fact, for more
than a mile both air and water were swarming with them."[28] This
certainly was not the case in either 1876 or 1878, though there were
still a great many Puffins there; probably the continued egg-stealing
has had some effect in reducing their numbers. After the breeding-season
the Puffins seem to leave the Channel Islands for the winter, as they do
at Lundy Island and in the British Channel; they may return
occasionally, as they do in the Bristol Channel, for a short time in
foggy weather; but I have never seen a Puffin in any of my passages in
October and November, or in any boating expedition at that time of year,
and I have never heard any of the boatmen talk about Barbelotes being
seen about in the winter. An unsigned paper, however, in the 'Star' for
April 27th, 1878, mentions Puffins amongst other winter birds; but I
very much doubt their making their appearance in the winter except as
accidental visitants; there is one specimen, however, in the Museum,
which, judging by the bill, must have been killed in the winter, or, at
all events, to quote Dr. Bureau, "après la saison des amours." Dr.
Bureau, in a very interesting paper[29] on this curious change, or
rather moult, which takes place in the bill of the Puffin, and which has
been translated into the 'Zoologist' for 1878, where a plate showing the
changes is given, says that Puffins are cast ashore on the coast of
Brittany during the winter, for he says they leave the coast, as I
believe they do that of the Channel Islands, and the only indication of
their continuing there is that dead birds are rolled on the shore after
severe gales in the autumn and winter; and "these birds are clad in a
plumage different to that worn by those we get in the breeding-season.
In the orbital region, for instance, they have a spot, more or less
large, of a dusky brown; they have not the red eyelids, nor the horny
plates above and below the eye, nor have they the puckered yellow skin
at the base of the bill, and, what is still more remarkable, the bill is
differently formed; it is neither of the same size, shape, nor colour,
and the pieces of which it is composed are not even the same. It is
small sliced off (trongué) in front, especially at the lower mandible,
wanting the pleat (ourlet) at the base, and flattened laterally on a
level with the nostrils, where a solid horny skin of a bright
lead-colour is replaced by a short membrane." The whole paper by Dr.
Bureau on this subject is most interesting, but is much too long for me
to insert here; the nature, however, of the change which takes place
must be so interesting to many of my readers who are familiar with the
Puffin in its breeding plumage, and who, in spite of the Bird Act,
perhaps occasionally enjoy a day's "Barbeloting," that I could not help
quoting as much of the paper as would be sufficient to point out the
general nature of the change.

The Puffin is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as
occurring only in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the
Museum; one in the ordinary summer plumage, and one apparently in the
winter plumage above described; but it is difficult to be quite certain
on the subject, as it has been smeared over with bird-stuffer's paint,
probably with the view of making it as like the ordinary summer plumage
as possible.


159. RAZORBILL. _Alca torda_, Linnaeus. French, "Pingouin
macroptere."--The Razorbill is not by any means numerous in the Channel
Islands, but a few breed about Ortack, and, as has been said before, in
Alderney, but nowhere else; and they are by no means so numerous as the
Guillemot. It is resident throughout the year, though perhaps more
common in the autumn than at any other time. Mr. Harvey Brown,[30]
however, mentions seeing a small flock swim by with the tide, at the
north-end of Herm, in January. Mr. MacCulloch writes me word he has a
note of a Razorbill Auk shot in Guernsey on the 14th February, 1847;
this, of course, is only a young Razorbill of the previous year, which
had not at that time fully developed its bill.

The Razorbill is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey. There are two Razorbills in the Museum, one in
summer and one in winter plumage.


160. CORMORANT. _Phalacrocorax carbo_, Linnaeus. French, "Grand
cormoran."--The Cormorant is by no means common in the Islands; I have
never seen it about Guernsey, though I have seen one or two near Herm; I
do not know that it breeds anywhere in the Islands, except at Burhou,
and there only one or two pairs breed. I was shown the nesting-place
just at the opening of a small sort of cavern; there was, however, only
the remains of one egg that had been hatched, and probably the young
gone off with its parents. I, however, received an adult bird and a
young bird of the year, shot in the harbour at Alderney in August of
that year, and those are the only Channel Island specimens of the
Cormorant that I have seen.

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


161. SHAG. _Phalacrocorax graculus_, Linnaeus. French, "Cormoran
largup."--The Shag almost entirely takes the place, as well as usurps
the name, of its big brother, as in the Islands it is invariably called
the Cormorant. The local Guernsey-French name "Cormoran" is applicable
probably to either the Shag or the Cormorant. The Shag is the most
numerous of the sea birds which frequent the Islands, the Herring Gull
not even excepted, every nook and corner of the high cliffs in all the
Islands being occupied by scores of Shags during the breeding-season.
They take care, however, to place their nests in tolerably inaccessible
places that cannot well be reached without a rope. The principal
breeding-places are--in Guernsey, about the Gull Cliffs, and from there
to Petit Bo, and a few, but not so many, on the rocks between there and
Fermain, wherever they can find a place; none breed on the north or west
side of the Island; in Jethou and Herm, and on the rock called La
Fauconnière, a few also breed, but not so many as in Guernsey, and we
did not find any breeding on the Amfrocques or the other rocks to the
north of Herm. On Sark they breed in great numbers, mostly on the west
side nearest to Guernsey, and on the Isle de Marchant or Brechou,
especially on the grand cliffs on both sides the narrow passage which
divides that Island from the mainland of Sark, and from there to the
Coupée, and from there round Little Sark to the Creux Harbour on the
south-east. On the east side, that towards the French coast, there are
few or none breeding, the cliffs not being so well suited to them; a
great number breed also on Alderney, on the high cliffs on the south and
east, but none on Burhou. The Shags appear to breed rather earlier than
the Herring Gulls; when I was in the Islands in June, 1876, almost all
the Shags had hatched, and the young were standing by their parents on
the rocks close to their nests. When I visited some of the
breeding-places of the Shags on the 27th of May, 1878, neither Gulls nor
Shags had hatched, but when I went to the Gull Cliff on the 20th of June
I found nearly all the Shags had hatched, though none or very few of the
Herring Gulls had done so; some of the young Shags had left the nests
and were about on the water; others were nearly ready to leave, and
several were little things quite in the down. Though it is generally
easy to look down upon the Shags on their nests, and to get a good view
at a short distance of the eggs and the young, it is, as a rule, by no
means easy to get at them without a rope; in a few places, however,
their nests are more accessible, and a hard climb on the rocks, perhaps
with a burning sun making them almost too hot to hold, will bring you
within reach of a Shag's nest; but I would not advise any one who tries
it to put on his "go-to-meeting clothes," as the deposit of guano on the
rocks will spoil anything; and only let him smell his hands after his
exploit--they do smell so nice! One of the parents generally stands by
the young after they are hatched, I suppose to prevent them from
wandering about and falling off the rocks, as the positions of some of
them seem very critical, there being only just room for the family to
stand; the other parent is generally away fishing, only returning at
intervals to feed his family and dry his feathers before making a fresh
start; sometimes one parent takes a turn to stay by the young, and
sometimes the other. The usual number of young appeared to be three,
sometimes only one or two; but in these cases it is probable that a
young one or two may have waddled off the rock, or got into a crevice
from which the parents could not extricate it, accidents which I should
think frequently happen; or an egg or two may have been blown from the
nest, or egg or young fallen a victim to some marauding Herring Gull
during the absence of the parents. The Shag assumes its full
breeding-plumage and crest very early; I have one in perfect
breeding-plumage, killed in February; and Miss C.B. Carey mentions in
the 'Zoologist' having seen one in Mr. Couch's shop with its full crest
in January. I do not quite know at what time the young bird assumes
adult plumage, but I have one just changing from the brown plumage of
the young to adult plumage. Many of the green feathers of the adult are
making their appearance amongst the brown ones; this one I shot on the
26th June, 1866, near the harbour Goslin, at Sark, near a large
breeding-station of Shags and Herring Gulls: if it is, as I suppose, a
young bird of the year, it would show a very early change to adult
plumage, but of course it might have been a young bird of the previous
year; but, as a rule, young birds of the previous year are not allowed
about the breeding-stations, any more than they are by the Herring
Gulls.

The Shag is included in Professor Ansted's list, but curiously enough
only marked as occurring in Guernsey. There are two adult specimens and
one young bird and one young in down in the Museum.


162. GANNET. _Sula bassana_, Linnaeus. French, "Fou de bassan."--The
Gannet, or Solan Goose, as it is sometimes called, is a regular autumn
and winter visitant to all the Islands, but never so numerous, I think,
as on the south coast of Devon; birds, however, in all states of
plumage, young birds as well as adults, and in the various intermediate
or spotted states of plumage, make their appearance. It stays on through
the winter, but never remains to breed as it does regularly at Lundy
Island. I have seen both adults and young birds fishing round Guernsey,
and Mrs. Jago (late Miss Cumber) told me she had had several through her
hands when she was the bird-stuffer there; she also wrote to me on the
16th March, 1879, to say a fully adult Gannet had been shot in Fermain
Bay on the 15th; and Mr. Grieve, the carpenter and bird-stuffer at
Alderney, had the legs and wings of an adult bird, shot by him near that
Island, nailed up behind the door of his shop. I do not think, however,
that the strong tides, rough seas, and sunken rocks of the Channel
Islands suit the fishing operations of the Gannet as well as the
smoother seas of the south coast of Devon; not but what the Gannet can
stand any amount of rough sea; and I have seen it dash after fish into
seas that one would have thought must have rolled it over and drowned
it, especially as it rose to the surface gulping down its prey.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring
in Guernsey. There are three specimens, an adult and two young, in the
Museum.


163. COMMON TERN. _Sterna fluviatilis_, Naumann. French, "Hirondelle de
mer," "Pierre garin." The Common Tern is a regular but not numerous
spring and autumn visitant to the Islands, some remaining to breed. I do
not know that it breeds anywhere in Guernsey itself, but it may do so,
for in the Vale in the summer of 1878 I saw more than one pair about the
two bays, Grand Havre and L'Ancresse, all through the summer; some of
them certainly seemed paired, but I never could find where their nests
were; some of the others apparently were non-breeding birds, as they did
not appear to be paired. These bays and along the coast near St. Samson
were the only places in Guernsey itself that I saw the Terns; there were
some also about Herm, but we could not find any nests there; but Mr.
Howard Saunders and myself found a few pairs breeding on one of the
rocky islands to the north of Herm; when we visited them on the 27th
June, 1878, we only found four nests, two with two eggs each and two
with only one egg each. Probably these were a second laying, the nests
having been robbed, as had everything else on these Islands; there must
have been more than four nests there really, as there were several
pairs of birds about, but we could not find any other nests; these four
were on the hard rocks, with little or no attempt at a real nest. This
was the only one of the small rocky islands on which we found Terns
breeding, though we searched every one of them that had any land above
water at high tide; the others, of course, were useless. I had expected
for some time that Common Terns did breed on some of these rocks, as I
have an adult female in full breeding-plumage, which had been shot on
the 29th June, 1877, near St. Samson's, which is only about three miles
from these Islands, and which certainly showed signs of having been
sitting; and Mr. Jago, the bird-stuffer, had one in full
breeding-plumage, killed at Herm early in June, 1878; but several of the
sailors about, and some friends of mine who were in the habit of
visiting these islands occasionally, seemed very sceptical on the
subject; but Mr. Howard Saunders and I quite settled the question by
finding the eggs, and we also thoroughly identified the birds. The
Common Tern seemed to be the only species of Tern breeding on the rocks;
we certainly saw nothing else, and no Common Terns even, except on the
one island on which we found the eggs. The autumnal visitants are mostly
young birds of the year, some of them, of course, having been bred on
the Islands and others merely wanderers from more distant
breeding-stations. No young Terns appeared to have flown when I left
the Islands at the end of July; at least, I saw none about, though there
were several adults about both Grand Havre and L'Ancresse Bay. The same
remark applies to Herm, where my last visit to the shell-beach was on
the 22nd of July, when I saw several adult Common Terns about, but no
young ones with them; all these were probably birds which had been
robbed of one or more clutches of eggs.

Professor Ansted includes the Common Tern in his list, but only marks it
as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen in the Museum, a young
bird of the year.


164. ARCTIC TERN. _Sterna macrura_, Naumann. French, "Hirondelle de mer
arctique."[31]--The Arctic Tern is by no means so common in the Islands
as the Common Tern, and is, as far as I can make out, only an occasional
autumnal visitant, and then young birds of the year most frequently
occur, as I have never seen a Guernsey specimen of an adult bird. I do
not think it ever visits the Islands during the spring migration; I did
not see one about the Vale in the summer of 1878, nor did Mr. Howard
Saunders and myself recognise one when we visited the rocks to the north
of Herm. It may, however, have occurred more frequently than is
supposed, and been mistaken for the Common Tern, so it may be as well
to point out the chief distinctions: these are the short tarsus of the
Arctic Tern, which only measures 0.55 of an inch, whilst that of the
Common Tern measures 0.7 of an inch; and the dark grey next to the shaft
on the inner web of the primary quills of the Arctic Tern, which is much
narrower than in those of the Common Tern. These two distinctions hold
good at all ages and in all states of plumage; as to fully adult birds
in breeding plumage there are other distinctions, the tail of the Arctic
Tern being much longer in proportion to the wing than in the Common
Tern, and the bill being nearly all red instead of tipped with
horn-colour.

The Arctic Tern is not included in Professor Ansted's list, and there is
no specimen at present in the Museum.


165. BLACK TERN. _Hydrochelidon nigra_, Linnaeus. French, "Guifette
noire," "Hirondelle de mer épouvantail."[32]--The Black Tern is by no
means a common visitant to the Islands, and only makes its appearance in
the autumn, and then the generality of those that occur are young birds
of the year. I have one specimen of a young bird killed at the Vrangue
on the 1st October, 1876. It does not seem to occur at all on the spring
migration; at least I have never heard of or seen a Channel Island
specimen killed at that time of year. As this is a marsh-breeding Tern,
it is not at all to be wondered at that it does not, at all events at
present, remain to breed in the Islands, there being so few places
suited to it, though it is possible that before the Braye du Valle was
drained, and large salt marshes were in existence in that part of the
Island, the Black Tern may have bred there. I can, however, find no
direct evidence of its having done so, and therefore can look upon it as
nothing but an occasional autumnal straggler.

The Black Tern is not included in Professor Ansted's list, and there is
no specimen in the Museum. These are all the Terns I have been able to
prove as having occurred in the Channel Islands, though it seems to me
highly probable that others occur--as the Sandwich Tern, the Lesser
Tern, and the Roseate Tern (especially if, as I have heard stated, it
breeds in small numbers off the coast of Brittany). Professor Ansted
includes the Lesser Tern in his list, but that may have been a mistake,
as my skin of a young Black Tern was sent to me for a Lesser Tern.


166. KITTIWAKE. _Rissa tridactyla_, Linnaeus. French, "Mouette
tridactyle."--The Kittiwake is a regular and numerous autumn and winter
visitant to all the Islands, sometimes remaining till late in the
spring, which misled me when I made the statement in the 'Zoologist'
for 1866 that it did breed in the Channel Islands; subsequent
experience, however, has convinced me that the Kittiwake does not breed
in any of the Islands. Captain Hubback, however, informed me that a few
were breeding on the rocks to the south of Alderney in 1878, but when
Mr. Howard Saunders and I went with him to the spot on the 25th June, we
found no Kittiwakes there, all those Captain Hubback had previously seen
having probably departed to their breeding-stations before our visit,
and after they had been seen by him some time in May. Professor Ansted
includes the Kittiwake in his list, but only marks it as occurring in
Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum, an adult bird
and a young one in that state of plumage in which it is the Tarrock of
Bewick and some of the older authors.


167. HERRING GULL. _Larus argentatus_, Gmelin. French, "Goeland
argenté," "Goeland à manteau bleu."--The Herring Gull is very common,
indeed the commonest Gull, and is resident in all the Islands throughout
the year, breeding in nearly all of them in such places as are suited to
it. In Guernsey it breeds on the high cliffs, from the so-called Gull
Cliff, near Pleinmont, to the Corbiere, the Gouffre, the Moye Point to
Petit Bo in considerable numbers; from Petit Bo Bay to St. Martin's
Point much more sparingly. In Sark it breeds in considerable numbers; on
Little Sark on both sides of the Coupée, and on nearly all the west
side; that towards Guernsey, especially about Harbour Goslin, a place
called the Moye de Moutton near there, which is a most excellent place
for watching the breeding operations of this Gull as well as of the
Shags, as with a moderate climb on the rocks one can easily look into
several nests and see what both old and young are about. On the island
close to Sark, called Isle de Merchant, or Brechou, especially on the
steep rocky side nearest to Sark; a great many also breed on and about
the Autelets: in fact, almost all the grandest and wildest scenery in
Sark has been appropriated by the Herring Gulls for their
breeding-places, who, except for the Shags, hold almost undisputed
possession of the grandest part of the Island. On the east side, or that
towards France, few or no Herring Gulls breed; the cliffs being more
sloping, and covered with grass and gorse, and heather, are not at all
suited for breeding purposes for the Herring Gull. A few pairs have
lately set up a small breeding-station on the rock before mentioned near
Jethou, as La Fauconnière; a very few also breed on Herm on the south
part nearest to Jethou, but none that we could see on the rocks to the
north of Herm. A great many breed also in Alderney on the south and east
sides, but none on the little island of Burhou, which has been entirely
appropriated by the Lesser Black-backs; in all these places the Herring
Gulls and Shags take almost entire possession of the rocks, the Lesser
Black-backs apparently never mixing with them; indeed, except a chance
straggler or two passing by, a Lesser Black-back is scarcely to be seen
at any of these stations. The Herring Gull and the Lesser Black-back,
though very distinct in their adult plumage, and even before they fully
arrive at maturity, as soon as they begin to show the different colour
of the mantle, which they do in their second autumn, when a few of
either the dark or the pale grey feathers appear amongst the brownish
ones of the young bird, are before this change begins very much alike.
In the down I think they are almost, if not quite, indistinguishable
after that in their first feathers, and up to their first winter they
appear to me distinguishable. As far as the primary quills go I do not
see much difference; the shafts, perhaps, of the quills of the Lesser
Black-back are darker than those of the Herring, but the difference if
anything is very slight; but the head and neck and the centres of the
feathers of the back of the Lesser Black-back are darker,--more of a
dark smoky brown than those of the Herring Gull: this difference of
colour is even more apparent on the under surface, including the breast,
belly, and flanks. The shoulder of the wing and the under wing-coverts
of the Lesser Black-back are much darker, nearly dull sooty black, and
much less margined and marked with pale whitey brown than those of the
Herring Gull. The dark bands on the end of the tail-feathers of the
Lesser Black-back are broader and darker than in the Herring Gull: this
seems especially apparent on the two outer tail-feathers on each side;
besides this, there is a slight difference in the colour of the legs,
those of the Lesser Black-back showing a slight indication of the yellow
of maturity. I have noted these distinctions both from living specimens
of both species which I have kept, and noted their various changes from
time to time, and from skins of both: unfortunately the two skins of the
youngest birds I have are not quite of the same age, one being that of a
young Herring Gull, killed at the Needles in August,--the other a young
Lesser Black-back, killed in Guernsey in December; but I do not think
that this difference of time from August to December, the birds being of
the same year, makes much difference in the colour of the feathers; at
least this is my experience of live birds: it is not till the next moult
that more material distinctions begin to appear; after that there can be
no doubt as to the species. Two young Herring Gulls which I have, and
which I saw in the flesh at Couch's shop just after they had been shot,
seem to me worthy of some notice as showing the gradual change of
plumage in the Herring Gull; they were shot on the same day, and appear
to me to be one exactly a year older than the other; they were killed in
November, when both had clean moulted, and show examples of the second
and third moult. No. 1, the oldest, has the back nearly uniform grey,
and the rump and upper tail-coverts white, as in the adult. In No. 2,
the younger one, the grey feathers on the back were much mixed with the
brownish feathers of the young bird, and there are no absolutely white
feathers on the rump and tail-coverts, all of them being more or less
marked with brown. The tail in No. 2 has the brown on it collected in
large and nearly confluent blotches, whilst that of No. 1 is merely
freckled with brown. But perhaps the greatest difference is in the
primary quills; the first four primaries, however, are much alike, those
of No. 1, being a little darker and more distinctly coloured; in both
they are nearly of a uniform colour, only being slightly mottled on the
inner web towards the base; there is no white tip to either. In No. 1
the fifth primary has a distinct white tip; the sixth also has a decided
white tip, and is much whiter towards the base, the difference being
quite as perceptible on the outer as on the inner web. The seventh has a
small spot of brown towards the tip on the outer web, the rest of the
feather being almost uniform pale grey, with a slightly darker shade on
the outer web, and white at the tip; the eighth grey, with a broad
white tip. In No. 2 the fifth primary has no white tip; the sixth also
has no white tip, and not so much white towards the base; the seventh is
all brown, slightly mottled towards the base, and only a very slight
indication of a white tip; and the eighth is mottled throughout. I think
it worth while to mention these two birds, as I have their exact dates,
and the difference of a year between them agrees exactly with young
birds which I have taken in their first feathers and brought up tame. I
may also add, with regard to change of plumage owing to age, that very
old birds do not appear to get their heads so much streaked with brown
in the winter as younger though still adult birds, as a pair which I
caught in Sark when only flappers, and brought home in July, 1866, had
few or no brown streaks about their heads in the winter of 1877-8, and
in the winter of 1878-9 their heads are almost as white as in the
breeding-season. These birds had their first brood in 1873, and have
bred regularly every year since that time, and certainly have
considerably more white on their primary quills than when they first
assumed adult plumage and began to breed. Probably this increase of
white on the primaries as age increases, even after the
full-breeding-plumage is assumed, is always the case in the Herring
Gull, and also in both the Lesser and Greater Black-backs, thus
distinguishing very old birds from those which, though adult, have only
recently assumed the breeding-plumage. I know Mr. Howard Saunders is of
this opinion, certainly as far as Herring Gulls are concerned. Besides
the live ones, two skins I have, both of adult birds, as far as
breeding-plumage only is concerned, are evidently considerably older
than the other. No. 1, the youngest of these,--shot in Guernsey in
August, when just assuming winter plumage, the head being much streaked,
even then, with brown, showing that though adult it was not a very old
bird,--has the usual white tip on the first primary, below which the
whole feather is black on both webs, and below that a white spot on both
webs, for an inch; the white, however, much encroached upon on the outer
part of the outer web by a margin of black. In No. 2, probably the older
bird, the first primary has the white tip and the white spot running
into each other, thus making the tip of the feather for nearly two
inches white, with only a slight patch of black on the outer web. On the
second primary of No. 1 the white tip is present, but no white spot; but
on the same feather of No. 2 there is a white spot on the inner web,
about an inch from the white tip; this would, probably, in a still older
bird, become confluent with the white tip, as in the first primary. I
have not, however, a sufficiently old bird to follow out this for
certain. In No. 1, the older bird, the pale grey on the lower part of
the feathers also extends farther towards the tip, thus encroaching on
the black of the primaries from below as well as from above. I think
these examples are sufficient to show that the white does encroach on
the black of the primaries as the bird grows older, till at last, in
very old birds, there would not be much more than a bar of black between
the white tip and the rest of the feather; and this is very much the
case with the tame ones I caught in Sark in 1866, and which are
therefore, now in the winter of 1879, twelve and a half years old; but I
do not believe that at any age the black wholly disappears from the
primaries, leaving them white as in the Iceland and Glaucous Gulls. The
Herring Gull is an extremely voracious bird, eating nearly everything
that comes in its way, and rejecting the indigestible parts as Hawks do.
Mr. Couch, in the 'Zoologist' for 1874, mentions having taken a
Misseltoe Thrush from the throat of one; and I can quite believe it,
supposing it found the Thrush dead or floating half drowned on the
water. I have seen my tame ones catch and kill a nearly full-grown rat,
and bolt it whole; and young ducks, I am sorry to say, disappear down
their throats in no time, down and all. They are also great robbers of
eggs, no sort of egg coming amiss to them; Guillemots' eggs, especially,
they are very fond of; this may probably account for there being no
Guillemots breeding in Guernsey or Sark, and only a very few at
Alderney; in fact, Ortack being the only place in the Channel Islands in
which they do breed in anything like numbers.

Professor Ansted includes the Herring Gull in his list, but only marks
it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two, an old and a young
bird, in the Museum.


168. LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. _Larus fuscus_, Linnaeus. French,
"Goeland à pieds jaunes."--The Lesser Black-backed Gull is common in the
Islands, remaining throughout the year and breeding in certain places.
None of these birds breed in Guernsey itself, or on the mainland of
Sark, and very few, if any, on Alderney. A few may be seen, from time to
time, wandering about all the Islands during the breeding-season; but
these are either immature birds or wanderers from their own
breeding-stations. About Sark a few pairs breed on Le Tas[33] and one or
two other outlying islets; their principal breeding-stations, however,
appear to be on the small rocky islands to the north of Herm, on all of
which, as far out as the Amfrocques, we found considerable numbers
breeding, or rather attempting to do so; for this summer, 1878, having
been generally fine, all these rocks were tolerably easily landed on,
and the fishermen had robbed the Lesser Black-backs to an extent which
threatens some day to exterminate them, in spite of the Guernsey Bird
Act, which professes to protect the eggs as well as the birds; but a far
better protection for these poor Black-backs is a roughish summer, when
landing on these islands is by no means safe or pleasant, and frequently
impossible. On Burhou, near Alderney, there are also a considerable
number of Lesser Black-backs breeding, though they fare quite as badly
from the Alderney and French fishermen as those on the Amfrocques and
other islands north of them do from the Guernsey fishermen. On all these
islands the nests of the Lesser Black-backs were placed amongst the
bracken, sea stock, thrift, &c, which grew amongst the rocks, and on the
shallow soil which had collected in places. When I was at Burhou in 1876
I found Lesser Black-backs breeding all over the Island, some of the
nests being placed on the low rocks, some amongst the bracken and
thrift; so thickly scattered amongst the bracken were the nests, that
one had to be very careful in walking for fear of treading on the nests
and breaking the eggs. On this Island there is an old deserted cottage,
sometimes used as a shelter by the lessees of the Island, who go over
there to shoot a few wretched rabbits which pick up a precarious
subsistence by feeding on the scanty herbage; on the roof of this
cottage several of the Lesser Black-backs perched themselves in a row
whilst I was looking about at the eggs, and kept up a most dismal
screaming at the top of their voices. The eggs, as is generally the case
with gulls, varied considerably both in ground colour and marking; some
were freckled all over with small spots--dark brown, purple, or black;
others had larger markings, principally collected at the larger end; the
ground colour was generally blue, green, or dull olive-green. None of
the Gulls had hatched when I was there on the 14th of June, though some
of the eggs were very hard set; and on the 29th of July I received two
young birds which had been taken on Burhou; these still had down on them
when I got them, and were then difficult to tell from young Herring
Gulls. The distinctions I have mentioned in my note of that bird were,
however, apparent, and the slight difference in the colour of the legs
is perhaps more easily seen in the live birds than in skins which have
been kept and faded into "Museum colour." It is some time, however,
before either bird assumes the proper colour, either of the legs or
bill, the change being very gradual. After the autumnal moult of 1878,
however, the dark feathers of the mantle almost entirely took the place
of the brownish feathers of the young birds; the quills, however, have
still (February, 1879) no white tips, and the tail-feathers are still
much mottled with brown. One Lesser Black-back, which I shot near the
Vale Church on the 17th of July, 1866, is perhaps worthy of note as
being in transition, and perhaps a rather abnormal state of change
considering the time of year at which it was shot; it was in a full
state of moult; the new feathers on the head, neck, tail-coverts, and
under parts are white; the tail also is white, except four old feathers,
two on each side not yet moulted, which are much mottled with brown. The
primary quills had not been moulted, and are quite those of the immature
bird, with no white tip whatever. All the new feathers of the back and
wing-coverts are the dark slate-grey of the adult, but the old worn
feathers are the brownish feathers of the young bird; these feathers are
much worn and faded, being a paler brown than is usual in young birds.
The legs and bill are also quite as much in a state of change as the
rest of the bird. Before finishing this notice of the Lesser Black-back
I think it is worth while to notice that it selects quite a different
sort of breeding-place to the Herring Gull; the nests are never placed
on ledges on the steep precipitous face of the cliffs, but amongst the
bracken and the flat rocks, as at Burhou, the only rather steep rock I
have seen any nests on was at the Amfrocques, but there they were on the
flattish top of the rock, and not on ledges on the side.

Professor Ansted includes the Lesser Black-backed Gull in his list, but
only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen in the
Museum.


169. COMMON GULL. _Larus canus_, Linnaeus. French, "Goeland cendré,"
"Mouette a pieds bleus,"[34] "La Mouette d'Hiver".[35]--The Common Gull,
though by no means uncommon in the Channel Islands during the winter,
never remains to breed there, nor does it do so, I believe, any where in
the West of England, certainly not in Somerset or Devon, as stated by
Mr. Dresser in the 'Birds of Europe,' _fide_ the Rev. M.A. Mathew and
Mr. W.D. Crotch, who must have made some mistake as to its breeding in
those two counties; in Cornwall it is said to breed, by Mr. Dresser, on
the authority of Mr. Rodd. Mr. Dresser, however, does not seem to have
had his authority direct from either of these gentlemen, and only quotes
it from Mr. A.G. More. Mr. Rodd, however, in his 'Notes on the Birds of
Cornwall,' published in the 'Zoologist' for 1870, only says, "Generally
distributed in larger or smaller numbers along or near our coasts,"
which would be equally true of the Channel Islands, although it does not
breed there; however, as Mr. Rodd is going to publish his interesting
notes on the Birds of Cornwall in a separate form, it is much to be
hoped that he will clear that matter up as far as regards that county
and the Scilly Islands. Like the Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gull,
the Common Gull goes through several changes of plumage before it
arrives at maturity; like them it begins with the mottled brownish
stage, and gradually assumes the blue-grey mantle of maturity; in the
earlier stages the primaries have no white spots at the tips. The legs
and bill, which appear to go through more changes than in other Gulls,
are in an intermediate state bluish grey (which accounts for Temminck's
name mentioned above) before they assume the pale yellow of maturity:
although at this time they have the mantle quite as in the adult, there
is a material difference in the pattern of the primary quills, and they
do not appear to breed till their bills have become quite yellow and
their legs a pale greenish yellow. I cannot quite tell at what age the
Common Gull begins to breed, for, although I have a pair which have laid
regularly for the last two years (they have not, however, hatched any
young, which perhaps is the fault of the Herring Gulls, whom I have
several times caught sucking their eggs), I do not know what their age
was when I first had them as I did the Herring Gulls from Sark and the
Lesser Black-backs from Burhou; I can only say when I first had them
they had the bills and legs blue; in fact they were in the state in
which they are the "Mouette à pieds bleus" of Temminck.

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


170. GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. _Larus marinus_, Linnaeus. French,
"Goeland à manteau noir."--The Great Black-backed Gull is by no means so
numerous in the Channel Islands as the Herring Gull and the Lesser
Black-back, and is here as elsewhere a rather solitary and roaming bird.
A few, however, remain about the Channel Islands, and breed in places
which suit them, such as Ortack, which I have before mentioned, as the
breeding-place of the Razorbill and Guillemot; and we found one nest on
one of the rocks to the north of Herm, but it had been robbed, as had
all the other Gulls' nests about there; we saw, however, the old birds
about, and Mr. Howard Saunders found one nest on the little Island of Le
Tas, close to Sark; it was quite on the top of the Island, and there
were young in it. I have one splendid adult bird, shot near the harbour
in Guernsey, in March: I should think this is rather an old bird, as,
although there are slight indications of winter plumage on the head, the
white tips of the primaries are very large, that of the first extending
fully two inches and a half, which is considerably more than that of a
fully adult bird I have from Lundy Island. The Great Black-backed Gull
is sufficiently common and well known to have a local name in
Guernsey-French (Hublot or Ublat), for which see 'Métivier's
Dictionary.'

Professor Ansted includes the Great Black-backed Gull in his list, and
marks it as only occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are three
specimens in the Museum--an adult bird, a young one, and a young one in
down, with the feathers just beginning to show. In the young bird the
head and neck were mottled and much like those of a young Herring Gull
in the same state; the back, thighs, and under parts do not appear so
much spotted as in the young Herring Gull; the feathers on the scapulars
and wing-coverts were just beginning to show two shades of brown, as in
the more mature state; the same may be said of the primary quills, which
were also just beginning to make their appearance; the tail, which was
only just beginning to show, was nearly black, margined with white.


171. BROWN-HEADED GULL. _Larus ridibundus_, Linnaeus. French, "Mouette
rieuse."[36] This pretty little Gull is a common autumn and winter
visitant to all the Islands, remaining on to the spring, but never
breeding in any of them, though a few young and non-breeding birds may
be seen about at all times of the summer, especially about the harbour.
Being a marsh-breeding Gull, and selecting low marshy islands situated
for the most part in inland fresh-water lakes and large pieces of water,
it is not to be wondered at that it does not breed in the Channel
Islands, where there are no places either suited to its requirements or
where it could find a sufficient supply of its customary food during the
breeding-season. Very soon after they have left their breeding-stations,
however, both old and young birds may be seen about the harbours and
bays of Guernsey and the other islands seeking for food, in which matter
they are not very particular, picking up any floating rubbish or
nastiness they may find in the harbour. The generality of specimens
occurring in the Channel Islands are in either winter or immature
plumage, very few having assumed the dark-coloured head which marks the
breeding plumage. This dark colour of the head, which is sometimes
assumed as early as the end of February, comes on very rapidly, not
being the effect of moult, but of a change of colour in the feathers
themselves, the dark colouring-matter gradually spreading over each
feather and supplanting the white of the winter plumage; a few new
feathers are also grown at this time to replace any that have been
accidentally shed--these come in the dark colour. The young birds in
their first feathers are nearly brown, but the grey feathers make their
appearance amongst the brown ones at an earlier stage than in most other
gulls. The primary quills, which are white in the centre with a margin
of black, vary also a good deal with age, the black margins growing
narrower and the white in places extending through the black margin to
the edge, so that in adult birds the black margins are not so complete
as in younger examples.

Professor Ansted mentions the Laughing Gull in his list, by which I
presume he means the present species, and marks it as only occurring in
Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum. As it is just possible
that the Mediterranean Black-headed Gull, _Larus melanocephalus_, may
occur in the Islands,--as it does so in France as far as Bordeaux, and
has once certainly extended its wanderings as far as the British
Islands,--it may be worth while to point out the principal distinctions.
In the adult bird the head of _L. melanocephalus_ in the breeding-season
is black, not brown as in _L. ridibundus_, and the first three primaries
are white with the exception of a narrow streak of black on the outer
web of the first, and not white with a black margin as in _L.
ridibundus_. In younger birds, however, the primaries are a little more
alike, but the first primary of _L. melanocephalus_ is black or nearly
so; in this state Mr. Howard Saunders has given plates of the first
three primaries of _L. melanocephalus_ and _L. ridibundus_, both being
from birds of the year shot about March, in his paper on the _Larinae_,
published in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for the year
1878.


172. LITTLE GULL. _Larus minutus_, Pallas. French, "Mouette pygmée."--I
have never met with this bird myself in the Channel Islands, nor have I
seen a Channel Island specimen, but Mr. Harvie Brown, writing to the
'Zoologist' from St. Peter's Port, Guernsey, under date January 25th,
says, "In the bird-stuffer's shop here I saw a Little Gull in the flesh,
which had been shot a few days ago."[37] Mr. Harvie Brown does not give
us any more information on the subject, and does not even say whether
the bird was a young bird or an adult in winter plumage; but probably it
was a young bird of the year in that sort of young Kittiwake or Tarrock
plumage in which it occasionally occurs on the south coast of Devon.

Professor Ansted does not include the Little Gull in his list, and there
is no specimen in the Museum.


173. GREAT SHEARWATER. _Puffinus major_, Faber. French, "Puffin
majeur."[38]--I think I may fairly include the Great Shearwater in my
list as an occasional wanderer to the Islands, as, although I have not a
Channel Island specimen, nor have I seen it near the shore or in any of
the bays, I did see a small flock of four or five of these birds in
July, 1866, when crossing from Guernsey to Torquay. We were certainly
more than the Admiralty three miles from the land; but had scarcely lost
sight of Guernsey, and were well within sight of the Caskets, when we
fell in with the Shearwaters. They accompanied the steamer for some
little way, at times flying close up, and I had an excellent opportunity
of watching them both with and without my glass, and have therefore no
doubt of the species. There was a heavyish sea at the time, and the
Shearwaters were generally flying under the lee of the waves, just
rising sufficiently to avoid the crest of the wave when it broke. They
flew with the greatest possible ease, and seemed as if no sea or gale of
wind would hurt them; they never got touched by the breaking sea, but
just as it appeared curling over them they rose out of danger and
skimmed over the crest; they never whilst I was watching them actually
settled on the water, though now and then they dropped their legs just
touching the water with their feet.

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


174. MANX SHEARWATER. _Puffinus anglorum_, Temminck. French, "Petrel
Manks."--The Manx Shearwater can only be considered as an occasional
wanderer to the Channel Islands, and never by any means so common as it
is sometimes on the opposite side of the Channel about Torbay,
especially in the early autumn. I have one Guernsey specimen, however,
killed near St. Samson's on the 28th September, 1876.[39] As far as I
can make out the Manx Shearwater does not breed in any part of the
Channel Islands, but being rather of nocturnal habits at its
breeding-stations, and remaining in the holes and under the rocks where
its eggs are during the day, it may not have been seen during the
breeding-season; but did it breed anywhere in the Islands more birds,
both old and young, would be seen about in the early autumn when the
young first begin to leave their nests; and the Barbelotters would
occasionally come across eggs and young birds when digging for Puffins'
eggs.

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


175. FULMAR PETREL. _Fulmarus glacialis_, Linnaeus. French, "Petrel
fulmar."--The Fulmar Petrel, wandering bird as it is, especially during
the autumn, at which time of year it has occurred in all the western
counties of England, very seldom finds its way to the Channel Islands,
as the only occurrence of which I am aware is one which I picked up dead
on the shore in Cobo Bay on the 14th of November, 1875, after a very
heavy gale. In very bad weather, and after long-continued gales, this
bird seems to be occasionally driven ashore, either owing to starvation
or from getting caught in the crest of a wave when trying to hover close
over it, after the manner of a Shearwater, as this is the second I have
picked up under nearly the same circumstances, the first being in
November, 1866, when I found one not quite dead on the shore near
Dawlish, in South Devon. It must be very seldom, however, that the
Fulmar visits the Channel Islands, as neither Mr. Couch nor Mrs. Jago
had ever had one through their hands, and Mr. MacCulloch has never heard
of a Channel Island specimen occurring.

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


176. STORM PETREL. _Thalassidroma pelagica_ Linnaeus. French,
"Thalassidrome tempête."--Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks published with
Professor Ansted's list, says, "The Storm Petrel breeds in large
numbers in Burhou, a few on the other rocks near Alderney, and
occasionally on the rocks near Herm; these are the only places where
they breed, although seen and occasionally killed in all the Islands." I
can add to these places mentioned by Mr. Gallienne the little island,
frequently mentioned before, near Sark, Le Tas, where Mr. Howard
Saunders found several breeding on the 24th June, 1878. I could not
accompany him on this expedition, so he alone has the honour of adding
Le Tas to the breeding-places of the Storm Petrel in the Channel
Islands, and he very kindly gave me the two eggs which he took on that
occasion. When I visited Burhou in June, 1876, I was unsuccessful in
finding more than part of a broken egg and a wing of a dead bird. But
Colonel L'Estrange, who had been there about a fortnight before, found
two addled eggs, but saw no birds. I thought at the time that I had been
too late and the birds had departed, but this does not seem to have been
the case, as Captain Hubback wrote to me in July of this year (1878),
and said, "Do you not think that perhaps you were early on the 14th of
June? Of the six eggs I took on the 2nd of July this year, two were
quite fresh, three hard-sat, and one deserted." I have no doubt he was
right, as the wing of the dead bird I found was, no doubt, that of one
that had come to grief the year before, and the egg was one which had
been sat on and hatched, and might therefore have been one of the
previous year; and the same, possibly, might have been the case with
Col. L'Estrange's two addled eggs. It appears, however, to be rather
irregular in its breeding habits, nesting from the end of May to July or
August. In Burhou the Storm Petrel bred mostly in holes in the soft
black mould, which was also partly occupied by Puffins and Babbits, but
occasionally under large stones and rocks. We did not find any breeding
on the islands to the north of Herm, but they may do so occasionally, in
which case their eggs would probably be mostly placed under large rocks
and stones, where the Puffins find safety from the attacks of the
various egg-stealers. At other times of year than the breeding-season,
the Storm Petrel can only be considered an occasional storm-driven
visitant to the Islands.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in
Alderney, Sark, Jethou, and Herm.

With this bird ends my list of the Birds of Guernsey and the
neighbouring Islands. It contains notices of only 176 birds, 21 less
than Professor Ansted's list, which contains 197; but it seems to me
very doubtful whether many of these 21 species have occurred in the
Islands. I can find no other evidence of their having done so than the
mere mention of the names in that list, as, except the few mentioned in
Mr. Gallienne's notes, no evidence whatever is given of the when and
where of their occurrence; and we are not even told who was responsible
for the identification of any of the birds mentioned. I have no doubt,
however, that any one resident in the Islands for some years, and taking
an interest in the ornithology of the district, would be able to add
considerably to my list, as Miss C.B. Carey, had she lived, would no
doubt have enabled me to do. I think it very probable, mine having been
only flying visits, though extending over several years and at various
times of year, I may have omitted some birds, especially amongst the
smaller Warblers and the Pipits, and perhaps amongst the occasional
Waders. There is one small family--the Skuas--entirely unrepresented in
my list; I am rather surprised at this as some of them, especially the
Pomatorhine--or, as it is perhaps better known, the Pomerine--Skua,
_Stercorarius pomatorhinus_, and Richardson's Skua, _Stercorarius
crepidatus_, are by no means uncommon on the other side of the Channel,
about Torbay, during the autumnal migration; but I have never seen
either species in the Island, nor have I seen a Channel Island skin, nor
can I find that either the bird-stuffers or the fishermen and the
various shooters know anything about them. I have therefore, though I
think it by no means; unlikely that both birds occasionally occur,
thought it better to omit their names from my list.

Professor Ansted has only mentioned one of the family--the Great Skua,
_Stercorarius catarrhactes_,--in his list, which also may occasionally
occur, as may Buffon's Skua, _Stercorarius parasiticus_; but neither of
these seem to me so likely to occur as the two first-mentioned, not
being by any means so common on the English side of the Channel.


In bringing my labours to a conclusion I must again thank Mr. MacCulloch
and others, who have assisted me in my work either by notes or by
helping in out-door work.


FINIS.



ENDNOTES.

[1] _a_ Alderney.
    _e_ Guernsey.
    _i_ Jersey.
    _o_ Sark.
    _u_ Jethou and Herm.]

[2] This was nearly the whole of the Vale, including L'Ancresse Common.

[3] Fourteen "livres tournois" are about equal to £1.

[4] This Act is passed annually at the Chief Pleas after Easter.

[5] _Falco aesalon_, Tunstall, H.S. 1771. _Falco aesalon_, Gmelin, Y.,
1788.

[6] See Temminok.

[7] See 'Birds of Spain,' by Howard Saunders, Esq., published in the
works of the Société Zoologique de France, where he says:--"_C.
ceruginosus_ et _C. cyaneus_ ont les lisières extérieures des remiges
émarginées, jusqu'à et y comprise la cinquième, et cette forme se trouve
en presque toutes les _Circus_ exotiques. En _C. swainsonii_ (the Pallid
Harrier) et _C. cineraceus_ cette émargination successive se borne a la
quatrieme." We have little to do with this distinction, except as
between _C. cyaneus_ and _C. cineraceus, C. aeruginosus_ being otherwise
sufficiently distinct, and _C. swainsonii_ not coming within our limits.

[8] "Tereus," I soon found, as I expected, was Mr. MacCulloch.

[9] These reeds are the common reed Spires, Spire-reed, or Pool-reed.
_Arundo phragmites_. See 'Popular Names of British Plants,' by Dr.
Prior, p. 219.

[10] This name of Temminck is no doubt applied to the Continental form,
_Acredula caudata_, of Linnaeus, not to the British form now elevated
into a species under the name _Acredula rosea_, of Blyth. Owing to want
of specimens I have not been able to say to which form the Channel
Island Long-tailed Tit belongs, probably supposing them to be really
distinct from _A. rosea_. _A. caudata_ may, however, also occur, as both
forms do occasionally, in the British Islands.

[11] See Temminck's 'Man. d'Ornith.'

[12] Dresser's 'Birds of Europe,' _fide_ Degland's Grebe.

[13] Where both forms are common this constantly happens--indeed, so
constantly that Professor Newton, in his new edition of 'Yarrell,' has
made but one species of the Black Crow and the Grey or Hooded Crow,
_Corvus corone_ and _Corvus cornix_, on the several grounds that there
is no structural difference between the two; that their habits, food,
cries, and mode of nidification are the same (in considering this, of
course both forms must be traced throughout the whole of their
geographical range, and not merely through the British Islands); that
their geographical distribution is sufficiently similar not to present
any difficulty; that they breed freely together; and that their
offsprings are fertile, a very important consideration in judging
whether two forms should be separated or joined as one species. This
last seems to me to present the greatest difficulty, and the evidence at
present appears scarcely conclusive. Of course in the limits of a note
to a work like the present it is impossible to discuss so large a
question. I can only refer my readers to Professor Newton's work, where
they will find nearly all that can be said on the subject, and the
reasons which have induced him to come to the conclusion he has.

[14] Rim. Gu., p. 35.

[15] Query, was this done by a migratory flock, as peas would be ripe
about June or July, when migratory flocks of Wood Pigeons would not be
likely to occur; or was the damage to newly sown peas in the spring?

[16] For one instance see notice of the Quail; and the bird-stuffer had
several other eggs besides those in the same nest as the Quails.

[17] _Fide_ Mr. MacCulloch.

[18] See 'Dresser's Birds of Europe.'

[19] For the last, see Temminck's 'Man, d'Ornithologie.'

[20] _See_ 'Zoologist' for 1867, p. 829.

[21] Temminck, 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[22] _See_ Temminck, 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[23] The one above mentioned.

[24] See 'Zoologist' for 1870, p. 2244.

[25] "Hucard" in Guernsey French (see 'Metevier's Dictionary,') who also
says "Notre Hucard est le Whistling Swan ou Hooper des Anglais."

[26] See Temminck's 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[27] See also Métivier's Dictionary.

[28] See note in 'Zoologist' for 1866.

[29] 'De la Mue du Bec et des Ornements Palpébraux du Macareux Arctique
après la Saison des Amours.' Par le Docteur Louis Bureau; 'Bulletin de
la Société Zoologique de France.'

[30] 'Zoologist' for 1869.

[31] _See_ Temininck, 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[32] Temminck, 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[33] Le Tas is often written L'Etat, but, as Professor Ansted says,
"There can be no doubt it alludes to the form of the rock, viz., 'Tas,'
a heap such as is made with hay or corn."

[34] See Temminck's 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[35] Buffon.

[36] See Temminck's 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[37] _See_ 'Zoologist' for 1869, p. 1560.

[38] _See_ Temminck, 'Man. d'Ornithologie.'

[39] This is since my note to Mr. Dresser, published in his 'Birds of
Europe,' when I said I had never seen it in the Channel Islands,
although it probably occasionally occurred there.



INDEX.

    Auk, Little, 178

    Bittern, 152
    Bittern, American, 153
    Bittern, Little, 154
    Blackbird, 34
    Blackcap, 52
    Brambling, 72
    Bullfinch, 79
    Bunting, 70
    Bunting, Snow, 70
    Bunting, Yellow, 71
    Bustard, Little, 117
    Buzzard, Common, 14
    Buzzard, Rough-legged, 14

    Chaffinch, 72
    Chiffchaff, 53
    Chough, 84
    Coot, Common, 116
    Cormorant, 184
    Crake, Spotted, 114
    Creeper, 59
    Crossbill, Common, 80
    Crow, 88
    Crow, Hooded, 89
    Cuckoo, 97
    Curlew, 132

    Dipper, 30
    Diver, Black-throated, 174
    Diver, Great Northern, 173
    Diver, Red-throated, 175
    Dotterel, 122
    Dotterel, Ring, 123
    Dove, Rock, 110
    Dove, Turtle, 111
    Duck, Eider, 165
    Duck, Wild, 162
    Dunlin, 145

    Eagle, White-tailed, 1

    Falcon, Greenland, 5
    Falcon, Iceland, 6
    Falcon, Peregrine, 8
    Fieldfare, 34
    Flycatcher, Spotted, 24

    Gannet, 188
    Godwit, Bar-tailed, 137
    Goldfinch, 76
    Goosander, 167
    Goose, Brent, 157
    Goose, White-fronted, 157
    Grebe, Eared, 170
    Grebe, Great Crested, 173
    Grebe, Little, 169
    Grebe, Red-necked, 172
    Grebe, Sclavonian, 170
    Greenfinch, 76
    Greenshank, 139
    Guillemot, 176
    Gull, Brown-headed, 210
    Gull, Common, 207
    Gull, Great Black-backed, 209
    Gull, Herring, 195
    Gull, Lesser Black-backed, 203
    Gull, Little, 213

    Harrier, Hen, 17
    Harrier, Marsh, 16
    Harrier, Montagu's, 18
    Hawfinch, 75
    Hawk, Sparrow, 13
    Hedgesparrow, 87
    Heron, 148
    Heron, Purple, 150
    Heron, Squacco, 151
    Hobby, 10
    Hooper, 160
    Hoopoe, 95

    Jackdaw, 86

    Kestrel, 12
    Kingfisher, 101
    Kittiwake, 194
    Knot, 144

    Landrail, 115
    Lark, Sky, 68
    Linnet, 78

    Magpie, 91
    Martin, 106
    Martin, Sand, 107
    Merganser, Red-breasted, 168
    Merlin, 10
    Moorhen, 115

    Nightjar, 102

    Oriole, Golden, 25
    Osprey, 3
    Ouzel, Ring, 36
    Ouzel, Water, 30
    Owl, Barn, 22
    Owl, Long-eared, 20
    Owl, Short-eared, 21
    Oystercatcher, 130

    Peewit, 120
    Petrel, Fulmar, 216
    Petrel, Storm, 216
    Phalarope, Grey, 147
    Pigeon, Wood, 108
    Pintail, 163
    Pipit, Meadow, 67
    Pipit, Rock, 67
    Pipit, Tree, 66
    Plover, Golden, 122
    Plover, Grey, 121

    Plover, Kentish, 125
    Puffin, 179
    Purre, 145

    Quail, 112

    Rail, Water, 113
    Raven, 87
    Razorbill, 183
    Redshank, 134
    Redstart, 38
    Redstart, Black, 39

    Redwing, 33
    Robin, 38
    Rook, 90
    Ruff, 139

    Sanderling, 147
    Sandpiper, Common, 136
    Sandpiper, Curlew, 145
    Sandpiper, Green, 135
    Scoter, Common, 165
    Shag, 185
    Shearwater, Great, 213
    Shearwater, Manx, 215
    Shrike, Red-backed, 23
    Siskin, 77
    Smew, 169
    Snipe, 142
    Snipe, Jack, 144
    Snipe, Solitary, 141
    Sparrowhawk, 13
    Sparrow, House, 74
    Sparrow, Tree, 73
    Spoonbill, 155
    Starling, Common, 82
    Stint, Little, 146
    Stonechat, 41
    Swallow, 106
    Swan, Bewick's, 161
    Swan, Mute, 158
    Swan, Wild, 160
    Swift, 104

    Teal, 164
    Tern, Arctic, 192
    Tern, Black, 193
    Tern, Common, 190
    Tit, Blue, 60
    Tit, Great, 59
    Tit, Long-tailed, 61
    Thick-knee, 18
    Thrush, Song, 33
    Thrush, Mistletoe, 31
    Turnstone, 127

    Warbler, Dartford, 49
    Warbler, Reed, 44
    Warbler, Sedge, 48
    Wagtail, Grey, 64
    Wagtail, Pied, 62
    Wagtail, White, 63
    Wagtail, Yellow, 65
    Waxwing, 62

    Wheatear, 43
    Whimbrel, 133
    Whinchat, 43
    Whitethroat, 50
    Whitethroat, Lesser, 52
    Woodcock, 140

    Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted, 91
    Wren, 58
    Wren, Fire-crested, 55
    Wren, Golden-crested, 54
    Wren, Willow, 53
    Wryneck, 94

    Yellowhammer, 71





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