brown; rest of the plumage dusky. Length, twenty inches.
* * * * *
This species breeds in the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the
Shetlands; it is also said to be a regular breeder in Sutherlandshire.
It is a much more numerous species than the great skua, being a regular
visitor to the coasts of Scotland in the autumn and spring migrations.
In its preying habit it resembles the bonxie, but, unlike that
species, is gregarious. It breeds on moors, often at a considerable
distance from the sea, and its nests are widely scattered on the
breeding-ground. A slight hollow in the ground, with a little dry grass
for lining, serves as a receptacle for the eggs. Two eggs are laid,
and in some cases only one. These vary greatly in shape, some being
nearly round, others long and pointed. In ground-colour they vary from
russet-brown to pale olive, and are evenly and sparingly spotted with
dark brown.
A curious fact about this species is that there are two forms, one
light in colour, the other dark, and that these habitually interbreed;
but the young, instead of being intermediate, are, according to
Seebohm, light or dark, like one of the parents.
* * * * *
The pomatorhine skua (_S. pomatorhinus_) is an autumn and spring
visitor on migration to the seas in the vicinity of the British coasts.
In some seasons it occurs in large numbers, but is not very regular in
its appearance. Buffon’s skua (_S. parasiticus_) is a rare and
irregular visitor on migration to the British coasts. It breeds in the
arctic regions, and is circumpolar.
Stormy Petrel.
Procellaria pelagica.
Upper parts black, except the tail-coverts, which are white at their
bases; edges of the wing-coverts slightly edged with white; under parts
sooty black; bill and feet black. Length, six inches.
* * * * *
The names of stormy petrel and Mother Carey’s chicken are as familiar
to everyone as that of rook, or partridge, or hedge-sparrow; but the
little bird they belong to is known by sight to comparatively few
persons. It is pre-eminently an oceanic species, that comes to land
only to breed; its breeding-places are on remote and lonely islands not
easy of access; and, when breeding, the bird is nocturnal in habits,
and it would be possible for anyone to spend many days in the very
midst of a colony of petrels and not see them, or suspect that they
were there.
[Illustration: FIG. 112.--STORMY PETREL. ⅓ natural size.]
The name of stormy petrel has been altered in several modern
ornithological works to that of storm petrel; and on this subject
Seebohm makes a delightfully characteristic observation. ‘The words
stormy petrel,’ he writes, ‘are doubtless a very ungrammatical
combination, as many other familiar English words are; but that is no
reason why they should be altered, although they may have offended
the ears of Yarrell and his academical friends.’ The rebuke is the
more deserved when we remember that these same ‘academical friends’
have been quick to ridicule the attempts of certain ornithologists to
substitute the name of hedge-accentor for that of hedge-sparrow--the
absurdest name of all, but ‘consecrated,’ as they say, by long use, and
Shakespeare. The name of ‘petrel’ comes about in a very curious way. It
is the diminutive of Peter, given to the bird on account of a habit it
has, when gliding along just above the surface, of dropping its feet
and paddling, producing the idea that it is walking on the water. I am
not quite sure that this is a correct derivation; Peter (the apostle),
it will be remembered, was not wholly successful in his attempt to
walk on the waves. Sailors call the petrels ‘Mother Carey’s chickens’;
but not, as might be imagined from such a name, on account of any
tender regard or feeling of affection for the birds. Mother Carey is
supposed to be a kind of ocean witch, a supernatural Mother Shipton,
who rides the blast, and who has for attendants and harbingers the
little dark-winged petrels, just as the more amiable Mother Venus had
her doves.
The stormy petrel is known to be the smallest bird with webbed
feet, consequently his smallness is to the ornithologist his chief
distinction. He is no bigger than a sparrow, and when seen flying in
the wake of a ship, gliding to and fro close to the surface, his small
size, sharp-pointed, swallow-like wings, dark plumage, and snow-white
rump, give him the appearance of the house-martin. Like other pelagic
birds, the petrel when on the wing is perpetually seeking its food,
and is seen to drop often on to the surface to pick up some floating
particle from the water; and yet to this day ornithologists do not
accurately know what it feeds on. The bird is generally excessively
fat, and when taken in the hand it ejects a small quantity of
amber-coloured oil from its mouth. When dissected, its stomach is
found to contain an oily fluid, and the young are fed with the same
substance, injected by the parent bird into their mouths. Where this
oil springs from, and how it comes to be floating on the water, is one
of the secrets of the sea which this bird shares with other members of
the petrel family; but they have no tongue to tell it.
The petrels do not arrive at their breeding-grounds until about the
middle of June. They have colonies on the Scilly Islands, and at
various other points on the west coast to St. Kilda, and the Orkneys
and Shetlands. A few small colonies are also found on some of the
islands on the Irish coast. The birds breed in holes in stone walls and
piles of loose stones, and, in some localities, in old rabbit-burrows
and holes in banks. A single egg is laid, on a slight bed of grass; it
is very large for the bird’s size, rough in texture, pure white, and in
most cases thinly sprinkled with minute reddish brown specks.
The young birds are fed at night, and may then be heard faintly
clamouring for food after dark.
* * * * *
The fork-tailed, or Leach’s petrel (_Procellaria leucorrhoa_), is
a larger bird than the last, being about the same size as the swift.
It is a much rarer species than the stormy petrel, and has only two
known breeding-places in the United Kingdom, one at St. Kilda, the
other on the island of North Rona, off the west coast of Scotland. On
all other parts of the British coast it is known only as a storm-driven
straggler. The birds breed in June, in holes which they make in the
soft peaty soil to a depth of two or three feet, or deeper. A slight
nest of dry grass is made, and a single egg deposited, pure white in
colour, with a zone of small reddish spots at the large end. During the
daytime the birds remain silent in their holes; in the evening they
become active and garrulous.
* * * * *
Wilson’s petrel (_Oceanites oceanicus_), a bird about the size of
a swift, with a black plumage and white rump, appears occasionally as a
straggler in the British Islands. Its only known breeding-grounds are
in the southern hemisphere.
Manx Shearwater.
Puffinus anglorum.
[Illustration: FIG. 113.--MANX SHEARWATER. ⅛ natural size.]
Bill blackish; legs and feet yellowish flesh-colour; crown, nape, and
upper parts sooty black; under parts white; sides of neck mottled with
greyish brown. Length, fifteen inches.
* * * * *
The Manx shearwater is the most abundant and best known of the
four petrels that frequent the British seas. It has several
breeding-stations in the Channel and along the west coast of Great
Britain, and a few on islands off the coast of Ireland; but its
principal colonies are on St. Kilda, the sea-bird’s paradise. Like the
stormy petrel, the shearwater is nocturnal in its habits during the
summer, feeding by night, and remaining concealed in its burrows during
the day. In winter it seeks its food at all hours. It has the same
habits as the stormy petrel of dropping its feet and paddling in the
water, while sustained by its motionless, outspread wings. Its name of
shearwater is derived from its custom of gliding along very close to
the surface. Seebohm likens it to ‘a gigantic swift’ in appearance as
it careers to and fro over the waves when the gale is at its height.
Except when breeding its whole time is spent on the open sea: it is
as truly at home on the stormy Atlantic, a thousand miles from the
nearest land, as is the blackbird in its favourite shrubbery or the
sedentary owl in its hollow beech-tree. But it remains longer at its
breeding-grounds than the other species. At St. Kilda it begins to
arrive as early as February, and remains until the end of the summer.
It forms a burrow, often of great depth, in the peaty soil, and lays a
single egg, pure white, and smooth in texture. According to Dixon, the
birds are very garrulous at night, uttering their peculiar notes both
when flying and in their nesting-holes; the syllables ‘Kitty-coo-roo’
are given by this author in imitation of the notes.
* * * * *
The sooty shearwater (_Puffinus griseus_) and the greater
shearwater (_P. major_) are occasionally met with in autumn and
winter on the British coasts. A third species, the dusky shearwater
(_P. obscurus_), has a place in the list of British birds, two
specimens having been obtained in the United Kingdom.
Fulmar.
Fulmarus glacialis.
Bill yellow; legs and feet grey; mantle and tail grey; quills dusky;
head, neck, and under parts white. Length, nineteen inches.
* * * * *
The fulmar is the largest of the petrels; it exceeds the black-headed
gull and common gull in size, and is a giant by comparison with its
diminutive relation, the stormy petrel. It is a circumpolar species,
and in winter inhabits the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the northern
hemisphere. On the British coasts it is a rare straggler in winter,
and its only breeding-station in the United Kingdom is at St. Kilda.
It is said that formerly there were several colonies on the west coast
of Scotland, but these no longer exist. In its manner of flight and
general appearance the fulmar is gull-like, and may easily be mistaken
for a gull. Like other petrels, it lives, when not engaged in breeding,
on the open sea, and it often follows the deep-sea fishing-boats and
whalers, to feed on the offal thrown out and portions of blubber
floating on the water. Seebohm says that ‘if a piece of meat be thrown
to them, they often seize it before it sinks, but instead of diving
after it, as a duck or guillemot would do, they alight on the surface
feet first, and in the most comical way let themselves sink down in the
water with uplifted wings.’
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--FULMAR. ⅑ natural size.]
The fulmar lays a single white egg in a shallow hole dug in the peaty
soil. Dixon has the following graphic account of the breeding-haunts
and habits of the fulmar: ‘In many places, although the cliff is very
precipitous, it is covered with grass, sorrel, and other plants, and
a loose, rich soil. It is in such spots that the fulmar breeds in
the greatest numbers. I shall never forget the imposing effect of
this noble bird-nursery.... When I reached the summit the scene was
grand: tens of thousands of fulmars were flying silently about in
all directions, but never by any chance soaring over the land; they
passed backwards and forwards along the face of the cliff, and for some
considerable distance out to sea, whilst the waves, a thousand feet
below, were dotted thickly with floating birds. The silence of such an
animated scene impressed me: not a single fulmar uttered a cry.... No
bird flies more gracefully than the fulmar: it seems to float in the
air without any exertion, often passing to and fro for minutes together
with no perceptible movement of its wings.... It is a remarkably
tame bird, fluttering along within a few feet of you, its black eye
glistening sharply against its snow-white dress.... In some parts of
the cliffs, where the soil is loose and turf-grown, the ground is
almost white with sitting fulmars. Every available spot is a fulmar’s
nest; and as you explore the cliffs, large numbers of birds fly out
from all directions where they had not previously been noticed.... It
very rarely burrows deep enough in the ground to conceal itself whilst
incubating, and in the majority of cases only makes a hole large enough
to half-conceal itself, whilst in a great many instances it is content
to lay its eggs under some projecting tuft, or even on the bare and
exposed ledge of a cliff, in a similar place to that so often selected
by the guillemot.... The nests are very slight, and in a great number
of instances are dispensed with altogether.’
Of the number of fulmars, the same observer says: ‘The myriads of birds
were past all belief: the air was darkened with their numbers; still
the cliffs were white with birds, and I calculated that not more than
one in ten had risen. The fulmars filled the air like large snowflakes,
and the hordes of puffins looked like a huge swarm of bees, darkening
the air as far as we could see. Myriads of birds swept round the vessel
or filled the air above; the face of the cliffs seemed crumbling away
as the living masses swept seaward; yet, singularly enough, little
noise was made beyond the humming of countless wings. The mighty peaks
of these solitary ocean rocks were indistinctly seen through the
surging cloud of birds, that seemed almost as if it would descend and
overwhelm us.’[2]
* * * * *
Two petrels remain to be noticed: the capped petrel (_Œstrelata
hæsitata_) and Bulwer’s petrel (_Bulweria columbina_), one
straggler having been obtained of the first species, and two of the
second, on the east coast of England.
Great Northern Diver.
Colymbus glacialis.
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. ⅑ natural size.]
Bill black; irides red; head and neck black, glossed with purple on the
upper throat, and with green on the lower neck; two throat-bands black
barred with white; mantle black spotted with white; under parts white.
Length, thirty-three inches.
* * * * *
The great northern diver, or loon, is called great because he exceeds
the other divers in size; in this sense he is also great in relation to
birds generally, since he is as big as a goose, and therefore the equal
of the few species that are greatest. In form he differs widely from
the geese. An oceanic bird that escapes from its enemies by diving,
and is never seen on the wing except when migrating, and never on land
except when breeding, his form has been modified so as to make swimming
and diving as easy to him as careering through the air is to the
swift, and climbing on trees to the woodpecker. The beak is straight,
conical, and sharp-pointed; the head, neck, and body, grebe-like in
form; and the legs set so far back that the bird is almost incapable of
progression on land. It is very wonderful that a creature that spends
so great a part of its time on and in the water, without leaving it,
should yet retain wing-power sufficient to perform long bi-annual
migrations. Probably it does not take very extended flights; when
found on inland waters during migration, it often appears incapable of
flight, and if in a small stream is easily taken. In its flying powers
it appears, with the grebes and auks, to occupy a position midway
between the ever-soaring, aërial gannet and the penguins, that are
incapable of flight. In their dark rich, variegated upper, and white
under, plumage, the divers again resemble the grebes. The glossy black
back, thickly strewn with symmetrical white spots, gives the present
species a beautiful and somewhat singular appearance. Out at sea it is
a silent bird--silent and shy and solitary--with the cormorant-like
habit of making itself invisible by sinking its body beneath the water.
In the breeding season it utters cries of a very strange character,
powerful and uncanny in their effect on the mind, and compared by
different listeners to screams uttered by tortured children, and to
shrieks of insane laughter. It is a winter visitor to the British
Islands, chiefly to the west coasts of Scotland and England: but as it
has occasionally been met with in summer in full nuptial plumage, it is
thought by some ornithologists that a few pairs may remain to breed in
some of the secluded lakes in the west of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides,
the Orkneys, and Shetlands. It has not yet been found breeding anywhere
in continental Europe; its known breeding-grounds are in Iceland, and
in America, from Greenland to Alaska. It breeds in secluded lakes and
tarns, at no great distance from the sea, and prefers an island to nest
on; but where no island exists the nest is placed on the shore close to
the water. Two eggs are laid, varying in ground-colour from olive-brown
to russet-brown, spotted somewhat thinly with black.
* * * * *
The family of divers (Colymbidæ) consists of four species, all
contained in one genus; and of the four, three are British. In habits,
as well as in structure, they are so closely related that a very
brief description of the other two is all that will be necessary.
The black-throated diver (_Colymbus arcticus_) is much smaller
than the great northern diver, its length being twenty-six inches.
Bill black; irides red; crown and hind head ash-grey; upper parts
blackish, spotted and barred with white; throat purplish black, with
a half-collar of short white streaks; sides of neck striped with black
and white; under parts white.
This diver breeds in small numbers on the west coast of Scotland and in
the Outer Hebrides. To other parts of the country it is an accidental
visitor. It is less oceanic in its habits than the last species
described, and goes to a greater distance from the sea to breed. Two
eggs are laid, similar in colour to those of the great northern diver.
The red-throated diver (_Colymbus septentrionalis_) is the
smallest of the three species, its length being twenty-three inches. It
has the head, throat, and sides of the neck mouse-colour; crown spotted
with black; neck marked with black and white lines; on the front of the
neck a large orange-coloured patch; back dusky brown; under parts white.
This species breeds in the west and north of Scotland, and in the
Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands.
Great Crested Grebe.
Podiceps cristatus.
[Illustration: FIG. 116.--GREAT CRESTED GREBE. ¹⁄₁₀ natural size.]
Crown and crest and ruff dark brown and chestnut; cheeks white; upper
parts dark brown; secondaries white; under parts silky white. Length,
twenty-two inches.
* * * * *
The great crested grebe still survives as a British species, although
it is a large and handsome bird, and, like all those to which such
a description applies, it has been much persecuted. Among our large
water-birds there are few more strikingly handsome and stately in
appearance than this grebe in its full breeding-plumage, when viewed
as it floats, unalarmed, on the secluded reed-fringed water it loves.
The swan, in its immaculate white dress, with proudly arched neck and
plume-like scapulars, when seen ‘floating double,’ is to many minds
the most perfect type of a beautiful waterfowl; certainly it is the
most familiar. The great grebe has a very different appearance, with
its straight neck, long, boat-shaped body, dark upper and silvery
under plumage, and its broad ruff and double, ear-like crest; but in
some aspects he is not less attractive than the white, larger bird,
especially when sailing peacefully in close proximity to tall, slender
reeds, their beauty, and that of the bird, enhanced by the ‘magic of
reflection,’ when both seem part of the glassy pool, and made for one
another.
Although in sadly diminished numbers, the great crested grebe still
breeds regularly in many localities in England, especially in the
eastern counties, and in a few situations in Wales and Ireland. In the
northern counties of England it is very rare, and does not breed in
Scotland: it is there a winter migrant from the north of Europe.
The habits of the grebe when on the water are similar to those of the
diver. It is adapted to a swimming and diving existence; feeds on fish,
frogs, water-beetles, and other small aquatic creatures; when alarmed
it sinks its body deeper and deeper into the water, and when pursued,
or in danger, seeks to escape by diving. It makes little use of its
wings, except when migrating. At most times it is a silent bird, but in
the breeding season utters a harsh, grating cry.
The grebe makes a large platform nest of aquatic plants, placed on
the water among the reeds. Four eggs are laid, the shell pale blue in
colour, but covered with a soft, white, chalky substance. Invariably,
when leaving the nest the bird covers the eggs with moss and weeds, and
the usual inference is that this is done to hide them from rapacious
egg-eating birds; but Seebohm is of the opinion that the eggs are
covered to be kept warm, and he says that they are covered only after
the full complement is laid and incubation begun.
Little Grebe, or Dabchick.
Tachybaptes fluviatilis.
[Illustration: FIG. 117.--LITTLE GREBE. ⅙ natural size.]
Head, neck, and upper parts dark brown; a little white on the
secondaries; chin black; cheeks, throat, and sides of the neck
reddish chestnut; under parts greyish white; flanks dusky brown; bill
horn-colour; legs and feet dull green. Length, nine inches and a half.
* * * * *
The little grebe, or dabchick, is less than the teal in size, and
differs from the great crested grebe in about the same degree as the
partridge does from the pheasant. It is the one common and well-known
species of grebe in this country, being resident in suitable localities
in all parts of the United Kingdom. In summer it is generally diffused,
and is to be met with even on small pools and streams; in winter it
shifts its ground, resorting to the rivers and larger bodies of water,
and in very severe weather to the sea-coast.
It begins to breed at the end of April or early in May, and forms
a floating nest of aquatic weeds and grasses close to the bank or
among the reeds, but in most cases little care is taken to conceal
the nest. The eggs are three or four to six in number, and are white,
and rough in texture. Before quitting the nest the incubating bird
invariably covers the eggs with wet leaves and grass, drawn in from
the edge of the nest. It is hard to believe, with Seebohm, that the
object of this action is to keep the eggs warm. The nest is, in very
many cases, conspicuous to the eye, but on the slightest alarm the
sitting-bird quickly and deftly draws the dead, wet materials like a
blanket over the eggs, and, slipping off, dives silently, to come up at
a considerable distance, usually where it cannot be seen. The nest then
presents the appearance of a mere bunch of dead and water-soaked weeds
or grass floating on the surface. I have examined a good many nests,
and am convinced that the eggs are covered to hide them from the sight
of egg-robbing animals, and that only the egg-robber that is neither
furred nor feathered, and is well acquainted with the habits of the
bird, is capable of seeing through this pretty deception.
The dabchick has the curious habit of holding its young under its
wings and diving from the nest, to take them out of danger. Like its
neighbour, the moorhen, the little grebe sometimes begins to breed
a second time, before the young of the first brood are able to take
proper care of themselves; and it has been observed in such cases that
while one of the parents incubated the eggs in the new nest, the other
has remained in charge of the partly grown young. The nest is used by
the young birds after they are able to swim and dive, and while resting
on it their parents bring them food.
* * * * *
The three remaining species of the grebe family (Podicipidæ) included
in the avifauna of the United Kingdom are the red-necked grebe
(_Podiceps griseigena_), a rare winter visitor to the British
coasts; the Sclavonian grebe (_P. auritus_), a not uncommon winter
visitor to Scotland, Ireland, and the north and east coasts of England;
and the eared grebe (_P. nigrocollis_), an irregular visitor,
usually in spring, to the southern and eastern districts of England.
Razorbill.
Alca torda.
Upper parts greenish black; deep brown on the throat; under parts
white. Length, seventeen inches.
* * * * *