the third year.
Shag, or Green Cormorant.
Phalacrocorax graculus.
Bill black; base of the under mandible yellow, the black skin about
the gape thickly studded with small yellow spots; iris emerald-green;
crown, neck, upper and under parts dark green with purple and bronze
reflections; wing and tail-feathers, legs and feet, black; a crest,
curling forwards, grows on the forehead in early spring, and is lost by
the end of May. Length, twenty-seven inches.
* * * * *
The shag may be easily mistaken for the cormorant, which it closely
resembles, but when near at hand is seen to differ in its smaller size
and its prevailing green colour, which appears black at a distance;
and, in the breeding season, by the absence of the white patch on the
flank. In its habits it is more strictly marine than the cormorant,
but resembles that bird in its manner of swimming and flight. It
prefers bays and inlets to the open sea, and deep water near rocks to
the shallow sea, where there is a low beach. In diving after fish it
springs upwards almost out of the water, and goes down head first.
Beneath the water it propels itself wholly by its feet; the auks, and
some other diving birds, use their wings as fins to assist progression.
After capturing a fish the shag brings it to the surface to swallow
it, then swims on for a space, and dives again, and so on, and finally
returns to the rock, where it proceeds to disgorge its prey, to devour
it at leisure. The shag breeds on sea-cliffs, sometimes building on the
ledges or in crevices, but caves, where they exist, are preferred.
The eggs are three in number, in shape and colour like those of the
cormorant, and the nests, which are placed close together, are also
like those of that bird.
The shag is found in certain localities all round the coasts of Great
Britain and Ireland, but is less numerous and more local than the
cormorant.
[Illustration: GANNETS. GUILLEMOTS. HERRING-GULLS.]
Gannet.
Sula bassana.
Adult: head and neck buff-colour; all the rest of the plumage white,
except the primaries, which are black. Young of the first year: upper
parts blackish brown necked with white; under parts mottled with dusky
ash and buff. The dark markings diminish until the sixth year, when the
adult colouring is assumed. Length, thirty-four inches.
* * * * *
One of the most notable seafowls inhabiting the British coasts is the
gannet, or solan goose, a species which forms a connecting-link between
the cormorants and the pelicans. The origin of its two common names is
not precisely known, although it seems probable that gannet is derived
from _gans_, the ancient British name for goose. The young birds
from the Bass Rock, which are largely used as food in the neighbouring
counties, are called, I do not know why, ‘Parliamentary geese.’ The
world will have it that the bird is a goose, although as little like
a goose, except in size, as a guillemot is like a sheldrake. The
scientific name, _bassana_ (of the Bass Rock), had its origin in
the belief that the rock at the entrance to the Firth of Forth was the
gannet’s only breeding-place. There are several other colonies: one,
now greatly diminished, on Lundy Island; another, also small, on the
coast of Pembrokeshire; on the West Coast of Scotland there are four
stations, and others exist on the Irish coast. None of these, however,
can compare in importance with the Bass Rock, where it has been
calculated that as many as ten thousand pairs congregate each year to
breed.
The gannet is an exclusively marine bird, and an inhabitant throughout
the year of the seas round the British Islands. Its flight is easy
and powerful, and its appearance on the wing more pelican- than
cormorant-like. It feeds entirely on fish, and follows the shoals of
such species as swim near the surface--mackerel, herrings, pilchards,
and sprats. When fishing it sails at a considerable height, and on
catching sight of its prey rises to a greater height, and then, with
wings nearly closed, drops straight down, with great force, into the
water. Its appearance when falling has been likened by one observer to
‘a brilliant piece of white marble.’
The gannets begin to assemble at the breeding-rock in March. Their
nesting habits are similar to those of the cormorant, but only one
egg is laid, which is, like the cormorant’s egg, pale blue in colour
and thickly coated with a white, chalky material. Mr. Charles Dixon,
in ‘Our Rarer Birds,’ thus describes a visit to the great gannet
settlement on the east coast: ‘By far the best locality for studying
the nesting economy of the gannet is the Bass, that wide-famed mass of
basaltic rocks standing like a sentinel in the Firth of Forth.... Upon
reaching the Bass a few gannets may be seen sailing dreamily about,
but you have no idea of the immense numbers until you have climbed
the rugged hill.... But when the summit of the cliff is reached the
scene that bursts upon our gaze is one that well-nigh baffles all
description. Thousands upon thousands of gannets fill the air, just
like heavy snowflakes, and on every side their loud, harsh cries of
“carra-carra-carra” echo and re-echo among the rocks. The gannets take
very little notice of our approach, many birds allowing themselves to
be actually pushed from their nests. Others utter harsh notes, and with
flapping wings offer some show of resistance, only taking wing when
absolutely compelled to do so, and disgorging one or two half-digested
fish as they fall lightly over the cliffs into the air. On all sides
facing the sea gannets may be seen. Some are standing on the short
grass on the edge of the cliffs, fast asleep, with their heads buried
under their dorsal plumage; others are preening their feathers; whilst
many are quarrelling and fighting over standing-room on the rocks.’
Describing another great breeding-place of the gannet on the island
of Borreay, about four miles from St. Kilda, he says: ‘The flat,
sloping top of one of these stupendous ocean rocks, called by the
natives “Stack-a-lie,” looks white as the driven snow, so thickly do
the gannets cluster there, and the sides are just as densely populated
wherever the cliff is rugged and broken. So vast is this colony of
birds that it may be seen distinctly forty miles away, looking like
some huge vessel under full sail heading to windward.’
Heron
Ardea cinerea.
Crest bluish black; upper parts slate-grey; forehead, cheeks, and
neck white, the latter streaked with bluish grey and terminating in
long white feathers; under parts greyish white; bill yellow. Length,
thirty-six inches.
* * * * *
The heron is sometimes spoken of as our largest wild bird. It is not
meant that he is really larger than the golden eagle, or wild swan, or
grey lag goose, but only that he is the biggest of the comparatively
common birds. The heron has two very different aspects--when in
repose, or standing, and when on the wing. On the ground, or, as we
more often see him, standing knee-deep in the water, watching the
surface, he presents a sorry appearance--a bird lean and ungraceful
in figure, white and ghostly grey in colour, awkward in his motions
when he moves. No sooner does he open his wings than this mean aspect
vanishes, and he is transfigured. At first the flight appears heavy
on account of the slow, measured beats of the broad, rounded vans;
but as he rises higher, and soars away to a distance, it strikes the
beholder as wonderfully free and powerful. The appearance of the bird
is then majestic, and its flight more beautiful than that of any other
large wading bird with which I am acquainted--ibis, wood-ibis, stork,
flamingo, or spoonbill. When pursued by a falcon the heron is capable
of rising vertically to a vast height, while the hawk rushes after in a
zigzag course, striving to rise above his quarry so as to strike. This
aërial contest of hawk and heron forms a very fascinating spectacle,
and formerly, when falcons were trained for this sport, the heron was
as much esteemed as the pheasant--which has been called the ‘sacred
bird’--is at the present day. With the decline of falconry the heron
ceased to be protected by law, and diminished greatly in numbers; but
he is an historical bird, and there is a feeling, or sentiment, that
has served to prevent his extermination. It is still considered a fine
thing to have a heronry on a large estate; and so long as this feeling
endures the bird will receive sufficient protection, although the
existing heronries, when we come to count them, are not many.
The heron breeds in communities, and when the heronry is well-placed
and safeguarded the birds return to it year after year. As a rule the
nests are built on the tops of large trees in a sheltered part of the
wood. The nest is a bulky, rudely built platform structure of sticks
and weeds, lined with rushes, wool, and other soft materials. Three or
four eggs are laid, very pale dull green in colour. The young are fed
in the nest five or six weeks before they fly. Two broods are reared in
the season.
The heronry is a most interesting place to visit when the young birds
are nearly old enough to fly, and are most hungry and vociferous, and
stand erect on the nests or neighbouring branches, looking very strange
and tall and conspicuous on the tree-tops. The nests are of various
sizes, and have a very disordered appearance, some of them looking like
huge bundles of sticks and weed-stalks flung anyhow into the trees. At
this period the parent birds are extremely active, and if the colony be
a large one, they are seen arriving singly, or in twos and threes, at
intervals of a few minutes throughout the day. Each time a great blue
bird with well-filled gullet is seen sweeping downwards the young birds
in all the nests are thrown into a great state of excitement, and greet
the food-bearer with a storm of extraordinary sounds. The cries are
powerful and harsh, but vary greatly, and resemble grunts and squeals
and prolonged screams, mingled with chatterings and strange quacking or
barking notes. When the parent bird has settled on its own nest, and
fed its young, the sounds die away; but when several birds arrive in
quick succession the vocal tempest rages continuously among the trees,
for every young bird appears to regard any old bird on arrival as its
own parent bringing food to satisfy its raging hunger.
The cry of the adult is powerful and harsh, and not unlike the harsh
alarm-cry of the peacock.
Common Bittern.
Botaurus stellaris.
Crown and nape black; general colour buff, irregularly barred above and
streaked below with black; feathers of the neck long, and forming a
ruff; bill greenish yellow; legs and feet green. Length, thirty inches.
* * * * *
The bittern, formerly a common bird, is hardly entitled to a place in
this book, since it has long been extirpated as a breeding species.
It is, however, a noteworthy fact that, whereas other species that have
been driven out, such as the great bustard, spoonbill, avocet, black
tern, and several more, appear now as only rare occasional visitors in
our country, the bittern comes back to us annually, as if ever seeking
to recover its lost footing in our island. And that he would recover
it, and breed again in suitable places as in former times, is not to be
doubted, if only the human inhabitants would allow it; but, unhappily,
this bird, like the ruff, hoopoe, and kingfisher, when stuffed and in
a glass case, is looked upon as an attractive ornament by persons of a
low order of intelligence and vulgar tastes.
[Illustration: _PLATE IX._ BITTERN. ⅕ nat. size.]
The bittern is a bird of singular appearance. On the wing he resembles
the heron, but it is a rare thing to see him abroad in the daytime.
He is strictly nocturnal in habits, and passes the daylight hours
concealed in thick reed-beds in extensive marshes. His buff and yellow
and chestnut colour, mottled and barred and pencilled with black and
brown, gives him a strange tigrine or cat-like appearance; it is a
colouring well suited to his surroundings, where yellow and brown dead
vegetation is mixed with the green, and the stems and loose leaves of
the reeds throw numberless spots and bars of shade beneath. Secure in
its imitative colouring, the bittern remains motionless in its place
until almost trodden upon. Its active life begins in the evening, when
it leaves its hiding-place to prey on fishes, eels, frogs, voles, small
birds, and insects, and every living thing it finds and is able to
conquer with a blow of its sharp, powerful bill.
When flying he utters a harsh, powerful scream, and he has, besides, a
strange vocal performance, called ‘booming’--a sound that resembles the
bellowing of a bull. Formerly, when the bittern was a common bird in
England, this extraordinary evening performance was the subject of some
superstitious notions, and it was commonly believed that, to produce so
great a volume of sound, the bird, when screaming, thrust its beak and
head into the water. Thus, in Thomson’s ‘Seasons’ we read:--
The bittern knows his time, with, bill submerged,
To shake the sounding marsh.
In March or April the nest is made on the ground, among the thick
reeds, and is formed of weeds, sticks, and rushes. The eggs are four in
number, of an olive-brown colour, sometimes with a greenish shade.
Besides the two species described there are no fewer than eight herons
in our list of British birds, most of these being very rare stragglers
to our shores:--
Purple heron (_Ardea purpurea_) is a straggler from the continent of
Europe; it breeds in Holland.
Great white heron (_Ardea alba_).--Eight examples of this species, a
straggler from South-eastern Europe, have been obtained in this country.
Little egret (_Ardea gazetta_).--A waif from Southern Europe; it also
inhabits Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Buff-backed heron (_Ardea bubulcus_).--Inhabits Southern Europe; three
examples have been obtained.
Squacco heron (_Ardea ralloïdes_).--From Southern Europe; occasionally
seen on migration in England.
Little bittern (_Ardetta minuta_).--This bittern almost deserves to
rank as a British species, as it is of somewhat frequent occurrence,
and has been known to breed in the Broads of Norfolk, and in other
localities in Great Britain. It is a summer visitor to most countries
in Europe.
Night heron (_Nycticorax griseus_).--This heron has a range almost
as extensive as that of the barn-owl, and breeds in many localities
throughout the continent of Europe. The question as to whether or
not it has ever bred in England has not been settled; but it is now
an almost annual spring and autumn visitor to our country, and it is
hardly to be doubted that it would breed with us if unmolested, or, in
other words, allowed to live.
American bittern (_Botaurus lentiginosus_).--A few examples of this
North American bittern have been obtained in this country.
* * * * *
Two other families in the present order (Herodiones) are represented
by occasional visitors in the list of British birds--two storks
(Ciconiidæ), and a spoonbill, and an ibis (Platalaidæ):--
White stork (_Ciconia alba_).--Common in Holland, and an occasional
visitor to the east coast of England.
Black stork (_Ciconia nigra_).--A rare straggler from continental
Europe.
Spoonbill (_Platalea leucorodia_).--Now an occasional straggler to
Great Britain; formerly a regular breeder in heronries in several
localities in England.
Glossy ibis (_Plegadis falcinellus_).--A very rare straggler from
Southern Europe.
Grey Lag Goose.
Anser cinereus.
[Illustration: FIG. 75.--GREY LAG GOOSE. ¹⁄₁₄ natural size.]
Head, neck, and upper parts greyish brown; lower breast and abdomen
dull white with a few black spots; bluish grey rump and wing-coverts;
bill flesh-coloured, with a white nail at the tip; legs and feet
flesh-coloured. Length, thirty-five inches.
* * * * *
Eight species of geese are counted among British birds; two of
these--the snow-goose (_Chen albatus_) and the red-breasted goose
(_Bernicla ruficollis_)--may be dismissed at once as rare stragglers
to the British Islands. The other six are all winter visitors to our
coasts, and are divisible into two natural groups--the grey geese
(counting four species), all large birds, brownish grey in colour, and
feeders on land; and the black, or dark-coloured geese (two species),
very dark in colour, very much smaller in size, and feeders on the
tidal flats.
The grey lag is the largest species in the first group, and the only
goose that breeds within the limits of the United Kingdom. It was
formerly a common summer resident, and bred in the eastern counties of
England; it is now confined as a breeding species to a few localities
in Scotland and the Hebrides, and in all these last refuges it is said
to be rapidly diminishing. That it will diminish still further, until
the vanishing-point is reached, hardly admits of a doubt. As a winter
migrant from northern Europe it will long continue to visit our coasts,
and as a domestic bird we shall have it always with us; for the grey
lag is supposed to be the species from which our familiar bird has
descended.
The grey lag goose pairs for life, and is gregarious, but is said not
to associate with geese of other species. It feeds on grass and young
shoots, and in the autumn on grain, and spends nearly the whole day
in feeding, and resorts at dark to some open level space to roost,
where it is almost impossible to approach within gunshot of the flock,
owing to its watchfulness. The grey lag makes a large nest of reeds
and grass, lined with moss, and lays six eggs, sometimes a larger
number. During incubation the gander keeps guard over his mate, and
afterwards assists her in rearing the young. These are led back to the
nest every evening by the goose, and sleep under her wing. The male
begins to moult a month earlier than the female, and when the time
comes he leaves her in sole charge of the young, and withdraws to some
hiding-place, or spends the daylight hours on the water, coming to the
land in the evening to feed. The goose begins her moult after the young
are able to take care of themselves.
The grey lag goose does not range so far north as the allied species;
it is only in Norway, where the summer is longest, owing to the
influence of the Gulf Stream, that it is found nesting north of the
arctic circle.
Bean-Goose.
Anser segetum.
The bean-goose differs from the preceding species in its more slender
shape and longer bill, which is orange-colour in the middle, black at
the base and on the nail; and in its darker colour and the absence of
black marks on the breast, and the bluish grey colour on the shoulder
of the wing; legs and feet orange-yellow. Length, thirty-four inches.
* * * * *
This species is more arctic in its range than the grey lag, and has
not been known to breed in this country, except in a domestic state.
It visits Scotland, Ireland, and the north and east coasts of England,
in winter. It is less in size than the grey lag, but its habits are
similar: by day it feeds on the wolds and stubbles, and its love of
grain has won for it the common name of bean-goose, as well as its
scientific name, _segetum_. Its flight is somewhat laboured, with
measured wing-beats, but powerful and rapid, and the birds travel in
skeins, or in a phalanx formation. It breeds in extensive marshes and
lakes, making its nest on the ground among the rushes on small islands.
The nest is a slight hollow lined with dead grass and moss, and down
from the parent bird: three or four eggs are laid, creamy white in
colour, with a rough granular surface. Before the young are able to fly
the moulting season begins, when the birds lose the power of flight, as
is the case with all the geese; and according to Seebohm’s interesting
account, even in the remote and desolate districts in Siberia, to which
this bird resorts to breed, the moulting season is one of great danger
to it. He says: ‘The Samoyades in the valley of the Petchora gave us
glowing accounts of the grand battues which they used to have at these
times, surrounding the geese, killing them with sticks, and collecting
sacks full of down and feathers.’
Pink-footed Goose.
Anser brachyrhynchus.
Colour of plumage as in the bean-goose, but with the bluish grey on the
shoulder of the wing as in the grey lag goose; upper mandible pink in
the centre; base, edges, and nail black; legs and feet pink. Length,
twenty-eight inches.
* * * * *
This goose very closely resembles the bean-goose in habits, colour,
and general appearance; the only difference of any importance between
the two species consists in the smaller beak of the pink-foot, from
which it takes its name of _brachyrhynchus_ (short-billed), and in
its legs being pink instead of yellow. It was first described as a
distinct species about fifty years ago, but is still regarded by some
authorities as only an ‘island form’ of the bean-goose. The pink
colour of the bill and feet is found not to be constant, and Seebohm
says, ‘It looks very much as if the pink-footed geese had been long
enough in the arctic climate of Spitzbergen to change the colour of
their feet, but not long enough to make the new colour permanent,
and that when bred in the warmer climate of this country they had a
tendency to hark back to their ancestors.’
White-fronted Goose.
Anser albifrons.
White on the forehead and at the base of the lower mandible; upper
parts brownish ash; breast and belly brownish white broadly barred with
black; bill orange-yellow, with a white nail at the tip; legs and feet
orange. Length, twenty-seven inches.
* * * * *
The white-fronted goose is the fourth and last on our list of grey
geese--four forms of one species, as some hold--and, like the others,
it comes to us from the north in winter, but is more common in Ireland
than in Great Britain. It is like the bean-goose in size, but differs
from it in its white front, and from the grey lag goose in having
the under parts more speckled with black feathers. Its voice is most
like that of the grey lag, but is more trumpet-like in sound, and the
rapidly repeated notes give its cry a laughter-like character; laughing
goose is one of its common names. It breeds farther north than the
bean-goose, and its nest is described as a hollow in the ground lined
with dead grass. It lays five to seven creamy white eggs.
Brent Goose.
Bernicla brenta.
Bill, head, throat, and neck black, except a small white patch on each
side of the latter; mantle brownish black with rufous-brown edges;
wing-feathers, rump, and tail black; coverts white; upper breast black;
lower breast and belly slate-grey; legs black. Length, twenty-three
inches.
* * * * *
[Illustration: FIG. 76.--BRENT GOOSE. ¹⁄₁₀ natural size.]