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.