grassy meadows, especially where the soil is calcareous, and avoids
woody countries. During the early part of summer it frequents
corn-fields, saintfoin, and lucern. In September it is found in
stubble and clover fields, and among the weeds growing in dry ponds,
or it finds shelter in any crops which may yet remain standing. In
warm countries it resorts to vineyards, attracted, it is said, not so
much by the grapes as by the numerous small snails with which the
vines are then infested; for the crops of the late birds are generally
found filled with these molluscs. In locomotion it makes more use of
its feet than its wings, and when put up is never induced to perch on
a tree. Its flight resembles in character that of the Partridge, but
it rarely flies far, and when it alights makes awkward attempts to
conceal itself, but often fails, and may sometimes be captured with
the hand. In June or July, the female lays from eight to fourteen eggs
in a hole in the ground, and brings up her young without the
assistance of the male. Towards the end of August the old birds
migrate southwards, and are followed by the young. Before the end of
October all have disappeared, though instances have occurred of their
being shot during winter, especially in seasons when the harvest has
been a late one.
The flesh of the Quail is considered a great delicacy, and many
thousands are caught, imported to the London markets, for the table.
They are placed in low flat cages, scarcely exceeding in height the
stature of the bird, for the reason that in confinement, the birds, in
their effort to escape, would beat themselves against the upper bars,
and destroy themselves. These are said to be all old males.
Quails inhabit the eastern continent, from China--where they are said
to be carried about in winter by the natives, to keep their hands
warm--to the British Isles. With us they are nowhere plentiful, but
are occasionally shot by sportsmen in most parts of the country. In
corn-fields, on the shores of Belfast Lough, in the north of Ireland,
they are of frequent occurrence.
In Palestine the Quails still come up in the night, as of old, and
"cover the land."
[44] Colonel C. H. Smith.
ORDER FULICARIÆ
FAMILY RALLIDÆ
LAND RAIL, OR CORN CRAKE
CREX PRATENSIS
Upper feathers dusky brown bordered with reddish ash; over the
eye and down the side of the head, a streak of ash;
wing-coverts rust-red; quills reddish brown; throat, belly, and
abdomen, whitish; breast pale yellowish brown; flanks barred
with white and rust-red; upper mandible brown, lower whitish;
irides brown; feet reddish brown. Length ten inches. Eggs
yellowish brown spotted and speckled with grey and reddish
brown.
Few persons can have spent the summer months in the country, and
enjoyed their evenings in the open air, without having grown familiar
with the note of the Corn Crake; yet, strange to say, among those who
have heard it on numberless occasions, not one in a hundred (leaving
sportsmen out of the account) have ever seen one alive. Its whole
life, while with us, seems to be spent among the long grass and stalks
of hay or corn, between which its long legs and slender body give it
peculiar facility of moving, and it is only when hard pressed that it
rises from the ground. Its flight is low, with its legs hanging down;
and it usually drops into the nearest hedge or cover which presents
itself, and from which it is not easily flushed a second time.
The Corn Crake used to be found, during summer, in all the counties of
England, but is less frequent in Cornwall and Devonshire than in the
counties farther east, and increases in abundance as we advance
northwards. In the north of Ireland it is to be heard in every meadow
and cornfield, and here its incessant cry in the evenings is
monotonous, if not wearisome; in many parts of Scotland it is also
very common, and here it is much more frequently seen. In waste lands,
where it can find no continuous corn, it takes refuge in patches of
flags, rushes, or tall weeds, and if watched for, may be seen leaving
its place of concealment, and quietly walking along the grass,
lifting its feet high, and stooping from time to time to pick up its
food, consisting of worms, insects, snails, and seeds.
The Land Rail is considered a delicate article of food, and has long
been prized as such. In France it used to be termed, in old sporting
phraseology, 'King of the Quails', the Quail being a bird which it
much resembles it colouring.
The Corn Crake places its nest, which is composed of a few straws, in
a hollow in the ground, among corn or hay, and lays from eight to
ten, or rarely, twelve eggs. The young birds are able to accompany
their parents in their mazy travels as soon as they have left the
shell. The note of the old bird is heard much later in the season than
the song of most other birds, and is probably employed as a call-note
to the young, which, but for some such guidance, would be very likely
to go astray. In the still evenings of August, I have, while standing
on the shore of the island of Islay, distinctly heard its monotonous
_crek-crek_ proceeding from a cornfield on the opposite shore of Jura,
the Sound of Islay which intervened being here upwards of half a mile
wide. On ordinary occasions it is not easy to decide on the position
and distance of the bird while uttering its note; for the Corn Crake
is a ventriloquist of no mean proficiency.
THE SPOTTED CRAKE
PORZANA MARUETTA
Forehead, throat, and a streak over the eye, lead-grey; upper
plumage olive-brown, spotted with black and white; breast and
under plumage olive and ash, spotted with white, the flanks
barred with white and brown; bill greenish yellow, orange at
the base; irides brown; feet greenish yellow. Length nine
inches. Eggs yellowish red, spotted and speckled with brown and
ash.
The Spotted Crake is smaller in size than the Corn Crake, and far less
common. It is shot from time to time in various parts of Great
Britain, especially in the fen countries, to which its habits are best
suited. It frequents watery places which abound with reeds, flags, and
sedges, and among these it conceals itself, rarely using its wings,
but often wading over mud and weeds, and taking freely to the water,
in which it swims with facility. The nest, which is a large structure,
composed of rushes and reeds, is placed among thick vegetation, near
the water's edge, and contains from seven to ten eggs.
The drainage and improving of waste lands has driven this Crake away,
but its eggs have been found in Roscommon, and a nestling in Kerry.
THE LITTLE CRAKE
PORZANA PARVA
Head brown; upper plumage olive-ash, the feathers black in the
centre; middle of the back black, sprinkled with white; throat,
face, and breast, bluish grey, without spots; abdomen and
flanks indistinctly barred with white and brown; wings without
spots, reaching to the extremity of the tail; bill green,
reddish at the base; irides red; feet green. Length seven and a
half inches. Eggs yellowish, spotted with olive-brown.
This species appears to be generally diffused throughout the eastern
and southern countries of Europe, but is very rare in England, coming
now and again from spring to autumn. It is a shy bird, like the last
species, confining itself exclusively to reedy marshes, and building
its nest close to the water's edge. It lays seven or eight eggs.
THE WATER RAIL
RALLUS AQUÁTICUS
Upper feathers reddish brown, with black centres; under plumage
in front lead-colour, behind and on the flanks barred with
black and white; bill red, tinged with red above and at the
tip; irides red; feet flesh-colour. Length ten inches. Eggs
yellowish, spotted with ash-grey and red-brown.
The Water Rail is a generally diffused bird, but nowhere very common,
haunting bushy and reedy places near the banks of rivers and lakes,
and especially the Norfolk Broads, where it feeds on aquatic insects,
worms, and snails. Like the Crakes, it makes more use of its legs than
of its wings, and places its safety in concealment. Rarely does it
take flight, and then only when closely hunted; still more rarely does
it expose itself outside its aquatic jungle. I recollect on one
occasion, during an intense frost, when every marsh was as
impenetrable to a bird's bill as a sheet of marble, passing in a
carriage near a stream which, having just issued from its source, was
unfrozen; I then saw more than one Water Rail hunting for food among
the short rushes and grass on the water's edge. Its mode of walking I
thought was very like that of the Moor-hen, but it had not the jerking
movement of body characteristic of that bird, which alone would have
sufficed to distinguish it, even if I had not been near enough to
detect the difference of colour. Either the severity of the weather
had sharpened its appetite, and made it less shy than usual, or it had
not learnt to fear a horse and carriage, for it took no notice of the
intrusion on its privacy, but went on with its search without
condescending to look up. The Water Rail, then, unlike the Corn Crake,
remains with us all the winter. When forced to rise, this bird flies
heavily straight forwards, at no great elevation above the rushes,
with its legs hanging loose, and drops into the nearest thicket of
weeds. A nest and eggs of this bird are thus described in the _Annals
of Natural History_: 'The bird had selected for her nest a thick tuft
of long grass, hollow at the bottom, on the side of the reed pond; the
nest, about an inch and a half thick, was composed of withered leaves
and rushes; it was so covered by the top of the grass, that neither
bird, nest, nor eggs could be seen; the entrance to the nest was
through an aperture of the grass, directly into the reeds, opposite to
where any one would stand to see the nest.' The number of eggs is
about ten or eleven. Its note during breeding is a loud, groaning
_cro-o-o-an_.
[Illustration:
Spotted Crake
Little Crake
Corn Crake or Land-Rail [M]
Water Rail [M]
[_face p. 230._]]
[Illustration:
Spoonbill [M]
Moor Hen.
Coot [F]
Bittern [M]]
THE MOOR-HEN
GALLÍNULA CHLÓROPUS
Upper plumage deep olive-brown; under tail-coverts and edge of
the wing white, the former with a few black feathers; under
plumage slate colour, the flanks streaked with white; base of
the bill and a space on the forehead bright orange, point of
the bill yellow; irides red; feet olive-brown; a red ring round
the tibia. In _females_ the colours are brighter than in the
_males_. _Young birds_ have the front of the neck whitish, the
belly grey, the base of the beak and legs olive-brown. Length
thirteen inches. Eggs buff, spotted and speckled with
orange-brown.
Of the two common names of this bird, 'Moor-hen' and 'Water-hen', the
former is that which is more generally in use, though the latter is
the more appropriate. The bird frequents moors, it must be admitted,
but only such as are watery; while there is scarcely a river, lake,
canal, brook, or even pond, of moderate dimensions, which Moor-hens do
not either inhabit all the year round or occasionally visit. The name
is objectionable on other accounts; the male bird is called a Moor-hen
as well as the female, while the terms Moor-fowl and Moor-cock have
long been applied to the Ptarmigan. For these reasons, I suppose, many
recent ornithologists Anglicize the systematic name, and call it the
Gallinule, which means 'little fowl', and is suggestive of the
half-domestic habits of the bird, under certain circumstances.
The Gallinule being a common bird of some size, conspicuous colours,
and active habits, is an interesting appendage of our rivers and
pieces of artificial water. Its note, something between a bark and a
croak, is as well known in watered districts as the note of the
Cuckoo, and is often uttered when the bird has no intention of being
seen. Any one who may happen to be walking on the bank of a reedy pond
may perhaps hear its strange cry and see the bird itself at some
little distance, swimming about with a restless jerky motion, often
dipping its head, and with every dip turning slightly to the right or
the left. If he wishes for a nearer view, let him advance quietly,
concealing himself as much as he can; for if he proceeds carelessly,
and takes off his eyes for any considerable time from the spot where
he observed it, when he looks again it will have disappeared, taken
wing, he may imagine, for some distant part of the water. Not so; the
cunning bird, as soon as a stranger was perceived within a dangerous
proximity, steered quietly for the nearest tuft of reeds, among which
it lies ensconced till he has passed on his way. Or it rose out of the
water, and, with its feet trailing on the surface, made for a similar
place of concealment; or dived to the bottom, where it still remains
clinging to the weeds. Perhaps it lies close to his feet, having sunk
beneath the water, and, aided by feet and wings, rowed a subaqueous
course to an often-tried thicket of rushes, where, holding on with its
feet to the stems of submerged weeds, it remains perfectly still,
leaving nothing above the surface of the water but the point of its
beak. If the observer suspects the whereabouts of its concealment, he
may beat the rushes with his stick and produce no effect; the bird
knows itself to be safe where it is and will make no foolish attempt
to better itself. A water spaniel or Newfoundland dog will be more
effective. Very often an animal of this kind is an overmatch for its
sagacity, and seizes it in his mouth before the poor bird was aware
that the water itself was to be invaded; but more frequently it
discovers an onset of this nature in time to clear itself from its
moorings, and dashing out with a splashing movement of feet and wings
skims across the pond to another lurking-place, and defies further
pursuit.
The Gallinule, though an excellent swimmer and diver, belongs to the
Waders; it has, consequently, free use of its legs on land, and here
it is no less nimble than in the water. When induced to change the
scene it steps ashore, and, with a peculiar jerking motion of its
tail, showing the white feathers beneath, and very conspicuous by its
bright red bill, which harmonizes pleasantly with the green grass, it
struts about and picks up worms, insects, snails, or seeds, with
unflagging perseverance, making no stay anywhere, and often running
rapidly. If surprised on these occasions, it either makes for the
water, or flies off in a line for some thick hedge or patch of
brushwood, from which it is very difficult to dislodge it.
Its mode of life is pretty much the same all the year round; it is not
a traveller from choice. Only in severe weather, when its haunts are
bound up with ice, it is perforce compelled to shift its quarters. It
then travels by night and searches for unfrozen streams. At such times
it appears occasionally in pretty large numbers in places where
usually a few only resort. When the south of Europe is visited by
severe frosts it is supposed even to cross the Mediterranean, it
having been observed in Algeria, feeding in marshes in half-social
parties, where a day or two before none had been seen. To the
faculties of swimming and running it adds that of perching on trees;
this it does habitually, as it roosts in low bushy trees; and it has
besides the power of walking cleverly along the branches.
In the neighbourhood of houses where it has long been undisturbed, it
loses much of its shy nature, and will not only allow itself to be
approached within a short distance, but, becoming half-domesticated,
will consort with the poultry in the farmyard, and come with them to
be fed. It is fond also of visiting the kitchen-garden, where it is
apt to make itself unwelcome, by helping itself to the tenderest and
best of the vegetables. Bishop Stanley, in his entertaining _Book on
Birds_, gives some highly amusing anecdotes of the Gallinule.
It builds its nest on the stump of a tree, or in a bush among wet
places, or in the roots of alders, but often it is placed on the
low-lying branch of a tree overhanging the water. The nest is a large
structure, made of rushes and dry flags, and is easy of detection. It
is very liable, too, to be swept away by any sudden rise in a river.
Added to which, the young frequently fall a prey to pike. But as the
bird has two, and sometimes three, broods in a year, each consisting
of from six to eight, it remains undiminished in numbers. The nest is
sometimes placed in a tree at a distance from the water. When this is
the case, as the habits of the young birds are aquatic, immediately on
their breaking the egg, the old birds convey them in their claws to
the water. An instance is recorded in the _Zoologist_ of a female
Gallinule being seen thus employed carrying a young one in each foot;
it has been observed, too, that in such cases the male bird builds a
second nest, near the water's edge, to which the young retire for
shelter during the night, until they are sufficiently fledged to
accompany their parents to their ordinary roosting-places in trees.
THE COMMON COOT
FÚLICA ÁTRA
Upper plumage black, tinged on the back with grey; under parts
bluish grey; frontal disk large, pure white; bill white, tinged
with rose-red; irides crimson; feet grey, tinged with green;
part of the tibia orange-yellow. Length sixteen inches. Eggs
brownish, speckled with reddish brown.
The Coot, seen from a distance, either on land or water, might be
mistaken for a Gallinule, flirting up its tail when it swims, jerking
its head to and fro, and when on land strutting about with a precisely
similar movement of all its members. On a nearer examination, it is
clearly distinguished by its larger size and the white bare spot above
the bill, in front, from which it is often called the Bald-headed
Coot. It is only during the summer season that the two birds can be
compared; for while the Gallinule remains in the same waters all the
year round, the Coot visits the Azores, Madeira and the Canaries,
North Africa and Egypt in winter, and gets as far south as the Blue
Nile. Their note, in summer, is a loud harsh cry, represented by the
syllable _krew_, as it would be uttered by a crazy trumpet. In winter
they are nearly mute. During the latter season, Coots are confined to
the southern parts of the island; but in the breeding season they are
more generally diffused.
When seen on the sea-coast, they are readily distinguished from Ducks
by the different position in which they sit on the water, with their
heads low, poking forwards, and their tails sticking high above the
body. When flying in large coveys, they crowd together into a mass,
but when swimming scatter over a wide space.
They have the same power of concealing themselves by diving among
weeds that has been already said to be possessed by the Gallinule. I
have seen a female Coot and her brood, when disturbed by a party of
sportsmen, paddle for a small patch of rushes, and defy a
long-continued and minute search conducted by keepers and clever
water-dogs. The latter appeared to traverse, again and again, every
square foot of the rush bed; but not a single bird was dislodged.
Owing to drainage the Coot is less plentiful than it was, although the
late Lord Lilford said it had increased much on the river Nene of
recent years.
[Illustration:
Stork [M]
Common Crane.
Night Heron.
Heron [F]
[_face p. 234_]]
[Illustration:
Kentish Plover [F] [M]
Grey Plover [M] (Summer and Winter)
Golden Plover [M]
Ringed Plover, young and [F]]
ORDER ALECTORIDES
FAMILY GRUIDÆ
THE CRANE
GRUS COMMÚNIS
General plumage ash-grey; throat, part of the neck, and back of
the head, dark blackish grey; forehead and cere covered with
black bristly hairs; crown naked, orange red; some of the
secondaries elongated, arched, and having the barbs of the
feathers free; bill greenish black, reddish at the base,
horn-coloured at the tip; irides reddish brown; feet black.
_Young birds_ have the crown feathered, and want the dark grey
of the neck and head. Length five feet. Eggs pale greenish ash,
blotched and spotted with brown and dark green.
From the fact of nine Cranes being recorded among the presents
received at the wedding of the daughter of Mr. More, of Loseley, in
1567, it would appear that these birds were tolerably common in
England at that date.
Willughby, whose _Ornithology_ was published about a hundred years
later, says that Cranes were regular visitors in England, and that
large flocks of them were to be found, in summer, in the fens of
Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. Whether they bred in England, as
Aldrovandus states, on the authority of an Englishman who had seen
their young, he could not say on his own personal knowledge.
Sir Thomas Browne, a contemporary of Willughby, writes, in his account
of birds found in Norfolk: 'Cranes are often seen here in hard
winters, especially about the champaign and fieldy part. It seems they
have been more plentiful; for, in a bill of fare, when the mayor
entertained the Duke of Norfolk, I met with Cranes in a dish.'
Pennant, writing towards the close of the eighteenth century, says:
'On the strictest inquiry, we learn that, at present, the inhabitants
of those counties are scarcely acquainted with them; we therefore
conclude that these birds have left our land.' Three or four instances
only of the occurrence of the Crane took place within the memory of
Pennant's last editor; and about as many more are recorded by Yarrell
as having come within the notice of his correspondents during the
present century. It would seem, therefore, that the Crane has ceased
to be a regular visitor to Britain. It is, however, still of common
occurrence in many parts of the Eastern Continent, passing its summer
in temperate climates, and retiring southwards at the approach of
winter. Its periodical migrations are remarkable for their
punctuality, it having been observed that, during a long series of
years, it has invariably traversed France southward in the latter half
of the month of October, returning during the latter half of the month
of March. On these occasions, Cranes fly in large flocks, composed of
two lines meeting at an angle, moving with no great rapidity, and
alighting mostly during the day to rest and feed. At other seasons, it
ceases to be gregarious, and repairs to swamps and boggy morasses,
where in spring it builds a rude nest of reeds and rushes on a bank or
stump of a tree, and lays two eggs. As a feeder it may be called
omnivorous, so extensive is its dietary. Its note is loud and
sonorous, but harsh, and is uttered when the birds are performing
their flights as well as at other times.
The Crane of the Holy Scriptures is most probably not this species,
which is rare in Palestine, but another, _Grus Virgo_, the Crane
figured on the Egyptian monuments, which periodically visits the Lake
of Tiberias, and whose note is a chatter, and not the trumpet sound of
the Cinereous Crane. In the north of Ireland, in Wales and perhaps
elsewhere, the Heron is commonly called a Crane.
A certain number of Cranes have been noticed in the Shetland Isles,
and some in the Orkneys. The latest seen in Ireland was in 1884,
County Mayo.
FAMILY OTIDIDÆ
No hind toe.
THE GREAT BUSTARD
OTIS TARDA
Head, neck, breast, and edge of the wing ash grey; on the crown
a longitudinal black streak; bill with a tuft of elongated
loose feathers on each side of the lower mandible; upper
plumage reddish yellow, streaked transversely with black; lower
whitish; tail reddish brown and white, barred with black.
_Female_--smaller, without a moustache, the streak on the crown
fainter. Length nearly four feet. Eggs olive-brown, irregularly
blotched with dull red and deep brown.
The Great Bustard was formerly not unfrequent in Britain, but of late
years it has become so rare that it is now impossible to describe its
habits on the testimony of a living eye-witness. In several parts of
the Continent it is indeed still to be met with; but I find so many
discrepancies in the various accounts which I have consulted, that it
is hard to believe all the writers who describe it to have had the
same bird in view. Some of these the reader may examine for himself.