BIRDS OF GUERNSEY

AND THE NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS
ALDERNEY, SARK, JETHOU, HERM;

BEING A SMALL CONTRIBUTION TO
The Ornithology of the Channel Islands

BY

CECIL SMITH, F.Z.S.,

MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGIST’S UNION.

LONDON:
R.H. PORTER, 6, TENTERDEN STREET,
HANOVER SQUARE.
1879.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

Though perhaps not possessing the interest to the
ornithologist which Lundy Island (the only breeding-place of the
Gannet in the South-West of England) or the Scilly Islands
possess, or being able to produce the long list of birds which
the indefatigable Mr. Gäetke has been able to do for his
little island, Heligoland, the avifauna of Guernsey and the
neighbouring islands is by no means devoid of interest; and as
little has hitherto been published about the Birds of Guernsey
and the neighbouring islands, except in a few occasional papers
published by Miss C.B. Carey, Mr. Harvie Browne, myself, and a
few others, in the pages of the ‘Zoologist,’ I make no excuse for
publishing this list of the birds, which, as an occasional
visitor to the Channel Islands for now some thirty years, have in
some way been brought to my notice as occurring in these Islands
either as residents, migrants, or occasional visitants.

Channel Island specimens of several of the rarer birds
mentioned, as well as of the commoner ones, are in my own
collection; and others I have seen either in the flesh or only
recently skinned in the bird-stuffers’ shops. For a few, of
course, I have been obliged to rely on the evidence of others;
some of these may appear, perhaps, rather questionable,—as,
for instance, the Osprey,—but I have always given what
evidence I have been able to collect in each case; and where
evidence of the occurrence was altogether wanting, I have thought
it better to omit all mention of the bird, though its occasional
occurrence may seem possible.

I have confined myself in this list to the Birds of Guernsey
and the neighbouring islands—Sark, Alderney, Jethou and
Herm; in fact to the islands included in the Bailiwick of
Guernsey. I have done this as I have had no opportunity of
personally studying the birds of Jersey, only having been in that
island once some years ago, and then only for a short time, and
not because I think a notice of the birds of Jersey would have
been devoid of interest, though whether it would have added many
to my list maybe doubtful. Professor Ansted’s list, included in
his large and very interesting work on the Channel Islands, is
hitherto the only attempt at a regular list of the Birds of the
Channel Islands; but as he, though great as a geologist, is no
ornithologist, he was obliged to rely in a great measure on
information received from others, and this apparently was not
always very reliable, and he does not appear to have taken much
trouble to sift the evidence given to him. Professor Ansted
himself states that his list is necessarily imperfect, as he
received little or no information from some of the Islands; in
fact, Guernsey and Sark appear to be the only two from which much
information had been received. This is to be regretted, as it has
made the notice of the distribution of the various birds through
the Islands, which he has denoted by the letters a, e, i, o,
u^[1] appended to the name of each
bird, necessarily faulty. The ornithological notes, however,
supplied by Mr. Gallienne are of considerable interest, and are
generally pretty reliable. It is rather remarkable, however, that
Professor Ansted has not always paid attention to these notes in
marking the distribution of the birds through the various
Islands.

No doubt many of the birds included in Professor Ansted’s list
were included merely on the authority of specimens in the museum
of the Mechanics’ Institute, which at one time was a pretty good
one; and had sufficient care been taken to label the various
specimens correctly as to place and date, especially
distinguishing local specimens from foreign ones, of which there
were a good many, would have been a very interesting and useful
local museum; as it is, the interest of this museum is
considerably deteriorated. Some of the birds in the museum are
confessedly foreign, having been brought from various parts of
the world by Guernsey men, who when abroad remembered the museum
in their own Island, and brought home specimens for it. Others,
as Mr. Gallienne, who during his life took much interest in the
museum, himself told me had been purchased from various
bird-stuffers, especially from one in Jersey; and no questions
were asked as to whether the specimens bought were local or
set-up from skins obtained from the Continent or England. Amongst
those so obtained may probably be classed the Blue-throated
Warblers, included in Professor Ansted’s list and marked as
Jersey (these Mr. Gallienne himself told me he believed to be
Continental and not genuine Channel Island specimens), the Great
Sedge Warbler, the Meadow Bunting, the Green Woodpecker, and
perhaps a few others.

This museum, partly from want of interest being taken in it
and partly from want of money, has never had a very good room,
and has been shuffled and moved about from one place to another,
and consequently several birds really valuable, as they could be
proved to be genuine Channel Island specimens, have been lost and
destroyed; in fact, had it not been for the care and energy of
Miss C.B. Carey, who took great pains to preserve what she found
remaining of the collection, and place it in some sort of order,
distinguishing by a different coloured label those specimens
which could be proved to be Channel Island (in doing this she
worked very hard, and received very little thanks or
encouragement, but on the contrary met with a considerable amount
of genuine obstructiveness), the whole of the specimens in the
museum would undoubtedly have been lost; as it is, a good many
valuable local specimens—valuable as being still capable of
being proved to be genuine Channel Island specimens—have
been preserved, and a good nucleus kept for the foundation of a
new museum, should interest in the subject revive and the local
authorities be disposed to assist in its formation. In my notices
of each bird I have mentioned whether there is a specimen in the
museum, and also whether it is included in Professor Ansted’s
list, and if so in which of the Islands he has marked it as
occurring.

No doubt the Ornithology of the Channel Islands, as is the
case in many counties of England, has been considerably changed
by drainage works, improved cultivation, and road-making; much
alteration of this sort I can see has taken place during the
thirty years which I have known the Islands as an occasional
visitor. But Mr. MacCulloch, who has been resident in the Islands
for a much longer period—in fact, he has told me nearly
double—has very kindly supplied me with the following very
interesting note on the various changes which have taken place in
Guernsey during the long period he has lived in that island; he
says, “I can well recollect the cutting of most of the main
roads, and the improvement, still going on, of the smaller ones.
It was about the beginning of this century that the works for
reclaiming the Braye du Valle were undertaken; before that time
the Clos du Valle^[2] was
separated from the mainland by an arm of the sea, left dry at low
water, extending from St. Samson’s to the Vale Church. This was
bordered by salt marshes only, covered occasionally at spring
tides by the sea, some of which extended pretty far inland. The
meadows adjoining were very imperfectly drained, as indeed some
still are, and covered with reeds and rushes, forming excellent
shelter for many species of aquatic birds. Now, as you know, by
far the greater part of the land is well cultivated and thickly
covered with habitations. The old roads were everywhere enclosed
between high hedges, on which were planted rows of elms; and the
same kind of hedge divided the fields and tenements. Every house,
too, in those days had its orchard, cider being then universally
drunk; and the hill-sides and cliffs were covered with furze
brakes, as in all country houses they baked their own bread and
required the furze for fuel. Now all that is changed. The meadows
are drained and planted with brocoli for the early London market,
to be replaced by a crop of potatoes at the end of the summer.
The trees are cut down to let in the sun. Since the people have
taken to gin-drinking, cider is out of favour and the orchards
destroyed. The hedges are levelled to gain a few perches of
ground, and replaced in many places by stone walls; the furze
brakes rooted up, and the whole aspect and nature of the country
changed. Is it to be wondered at that those kinds of birds that
love shelter and quiet have deserted us? You know, too, how every
bird—from the Wren to the Eagle—is popped at as soon
as it shows itself, in places where there are no game laws and
every man allowed to carry a gun.”

This interesting description of the changes—agricultural
and otherwise—which have taken place in the Islands,
especially Guernsey, during the last fifty or sixty years (for
which I have to offer Mr. MacCulloch my best thanks), gives a
very good general idea of many of the alterations that have taken
place in the face of the country during the period above
mentioned; but does not by any means exhaust them, as no mention
is made of the immense increase of orchard-houses in all parts of
Guernsey, which has been so great that I may fairly say that
within the last few years miles of glasshouses have been built in
Guernsey alone: these have been built mostly for the purpose of
growing grapes for the London market. These orchard-houses have,
to a certain extent, taken the place of ordinary orchards and
gardens, which have been rooted up and destroyed to make place
for this enormous extent of glass. But what appeared to me to
have made the greatest change, and has probably had more effect
on the Ornithology of the Island, especially of that part known
as the Vale, is the enormous number of granite quarries which are
being worked there (luckily the beautiful cliffs have hitherto
escaped the granite in those parts, probably not being so good);
but in the Vale from St. Samson’s to Fort Doyle, and from there
to the Vale Church, with the exception of L’Ancresse Common
itself, which has hitherto escaped, the whole face of the country
is changed by quarry works and covered with small windmills used
for pumping the water from the quarries. These quarry works and
the extra population brought by them into the Island, all of whom
carry guns and shoot everything that is fit to eat or is likely
to fetch a few “doubles” in the market, have done a good deal to
thin the birds in that part of the Islands, especially such as
are in any way fit for sale or food, and probably have done more
to make a change in the Ornithology of that part of the Island
than all the agricultural changes mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch.
Indeed, I am rather sceptical as to the agricultural changes
above described having produced so much change in the avifauna of
the Islands during the last fifty years as Mr. MacCulloch appears
to think; there is still a great deal of undrained or badly
drained land in the Island—especially about the Vale, the
Grand Mare and L’Eree—which might still afford a home for
Moorhens, Water Rails, and even Bitterns, and all that class of
wading birds which delight in swampy land and reed beds. Though
no doubt, as Mr. MacCulloch said, many orchards have been
destroyed to make room for more profitable crops or for
orchard-houses, still there are many orchards left in the Island.
I think, however, many, if not all the cherry orchards (amongst
which the Golden Orioles apparently at one time luxuriated) are
gone. There is also still a great deal of hedgerow timber, none
of it indeed very large, but in places very thick; in fact, I
could point out miles of hedges in Guernsey where the trees,
mostly elm, grow so thick together that it would be nearly
impossible to pick out a place where one could squeeze one’s
horse between the trees without rubbing one’s knees on one side
or the other, probably on both, against them, if one found it
necessary to ride across the country. True, on a great extent of
the higher part of the Island, all along on both sides of what is
known as the Forest Road, there is little or no hedgerow timber,
the fields here being divided by low banks with furze growing on
the top of them. Furze brakes also are still numerous, the whole
of the flat land on the top of the cliffs and the steep valleys
and slopes down to the sea on the south and east side of the
Island, from Fermain Bay to Pleimont, being almost uninterrupted
wild land covered with heather, furze, and bracken; besides this
wild furze land, there are several thick furze brakes inland in
different parts of the Island. All these places seem to me to
have remained almost without change for years. The furze,
however, never grows very high, as it is cut every few years for
fuel; in consequence of this, however, it is more beautiful in
blooming in the spring than if it had been allowed several years’
growth, covering the whole face of the ground above the cliffs
like a brilliant yellow carpet; but being kept so short, it is
not perhaps so convenient for nesting purposes as if it was
allowed a longer growth.

The Guernsey Bird Act, which applies to all the Islands in the
Bailiwick, and has been in force for some few years, seems to me
to have had little effect on the numbers of the sea-birds of the
district, though it includes the eggs as well as the birds,
except perhaps to increase the number of Herring Gulls and Shags
(which were always sufficiently numerous) in their old
breeding-stations, and perhaps to have added a few new
breeding-stations. These two birds scarcely needed the protection
afforded by the Act, as their nests are placed amongst very
inaccessible rocks where very few nests can be reached without
the aid of a rope, and consequently but little damage was done
beyond a few young birds being shot soon after they had left the
nest while they were flappers, and the numbers were fully kept
up; other birds, however, included in the Act, and not breeding
in quite such inaccessible places, seem to gain but little
advantage from it, as nests of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls,
Terns, Oystercatchers and Puffins are ruthlessly robbed in a way
that bids fair before long to exterminate all four species as
breeding birds; perhaps, also, the increase in the number of
Herring Gulls does something to diminish the numbers of other
breeding species, especially the Lesser Black-backs, as Herring
Gulls are great robbers both of eggs and young birds. The Act
itself, after reciting that “le nombre des oiseaux de mer sur les
côtes des Isles de cet Bailliage a considerablement
diminué depuis plusieurs années; que les dits
oiseaux sont utiles aux pêcheurs, en ce qu’ils indiquent
les parages ou les poissons se trouvent; que les dits oiseaux
sont utiles aux marins en ce qu’ils annoncent pendant la
durée des brouillards la proximite des rochers,” goes on
to enact as follows:—”Il est défendu de prendre,
enlever ou détruire les ceufs des oiseaux de mer dans
toute I’entendue de la jurisdiction de cette isle, sur la peine
d’une amende qui ne sera pas moindre de sept livres tournois et
n’excédera pas trente livres tournois.”^[3] Sec. 2 enacts, “Depuis ce
jour^[4] au 15 Octobre prochain, il est
défendu de tuer, blesser, prendre ou chasser les oiseaux
de mer dans toute l’entendue de la jurisdiction de cette isle.”
Sec. 3, “Ceux qui depuis ce jour au 15 Octobre prochain auront
été trouvés en possession d’un oiseau de mer
récemment tué, blessé ou pris, ou qui auront
été trouvés en possession de plumage frais
appartenant d’un oiseau de mer seront censés avoir
tué, blessé ou pris tel oiseau de mer sauf è
eux de prouver le contraire. Pareillement ceux qui depuis ce jour
au 15 Octobre prochain auront été trouvés en
possession d’un oeuf de l’annee d’un oiseau de mer seront
censés avoir pris et enleve le dit oeuf sauf à eux
de prouver le contraire.” The penalty in each case is the same as
in Section 1. Section 4 contains the list of the oiseaux de mer
which come under the protection of the Act, which is as
follows:—Les Mauves Mouettes, Pingouins, Guillemots,
Cormorans, Barbelotes, Hirondelles de mer, Pies-marants, Petrel,
Plongeons, Grebes, Puffins, Dotterells, Alouettes de mer,
Toumpierres, Gannets, Courlis et Martin pêcheur.

As far as the eggs of many of the species actually breeding in
the Islands are concerned, this Act seems to be a dead letter:
the only birds of any size whose eggs are not regularly robbed
are the Herring Gulls and Shags, and they take sufficient care of
themselves; were the Act strictly enforced it would probably be
found that there would be—as would be the case in
England—a good deal of opposition to this part of it, which
would greatly interfere with what appears to be a considerable
article of food with many of the population. Probably the only
compromise which would work, and could be rigidly enforced, would
be to fix a later date for the protection of the eggs—say
as late as the 15th June; this would allow those who wanted to
rob the eggs for food to take the earlier layings, and the birds
would be able to bring up their second or third broods in peace;
and probably the fishermen and others, who use the eggs as an
article of consumption, would be glad to assist in carrying out
such an Act as this, as they would soon find the birds increase
so much that they would be able to take as many eggs by the
middle of June as they do now in the whole year, especially the
Black-back Gulls and the Puffins, which are the birds mostly
robbed,—the latter of which are certainly decreasing
considerably in numbers in consequence.

This plan is successfully carried out by many private owners
of the large breeding-stations of the Gannets, Eider Duck, and
other sea-birds in the north of England and Scotland. Of course,
it must not be supposed that all the birds mentioned in the Act
whose eggs are protected breed in the Islands, or anywhere within
ten or fifteen degrees of latitude of the Islands; in fact, a
great many of them are not there at all during the
breeding-season, except perhaps an occasional wounded bird which
has been unable to join its companions on their migratory
journey, or a few non-breeding stragglers.

It has often struck me that a small but rigidly collected and
enforced gun-tax would be a more efficacious protection—not
only to the oiseaux de mer, but also to the inland birds, many of
which are quite as much in want of protection though not included
in the Act—than the Sea-bird Protection Act is. I am glad
to see that there is some chance of this being carried out, for,
while this work was going through the press, I see by the
newspaper (‘Gazette Officielle de Guernsey’ for the 26th March,
1879) that the Bailiff had then just issued a Billet
d’Etat which contained a “Projet de loi” on the subject, to
be submitted to the States at their next meeting; and in
concluding its comments on this Projet de loi the Gazette
says, “Il n’est que juste en fait que ceux qui veulent se lier au
plaisir de la chasse paient pour cette fantaisie et que par ce
moyen le trop grand nombre de nos chasseurs maladroits et
inexpérimentes se voit réduit au grand avantage de
nos fermiers et de nos promeneurs;” and probably also to the
advantage of the chasseurs themselves.

In regard to the nomenclature, I have done the best I can to
follow the rule laid down by the British Association; but not
living in London, and consequently not having access to a
sufficiently large ornithological library to enable me to search
out the various synonyms for myself and ascertain the exact
dates, I have therefore been obliged to rely on the best
authorities whose works I possess, and accept the name given by
them. In doing this, I have no doubt I have been quite as correct
as I should have been had I waded through the various authors who
have written on the subject, as I have invariably accepted the
name adopted by Professor Newton in his edition of Yarrell, and
by Mr. Dresser in his ‘Birds of Europe’, as far as these works
are yet complete: for the birds not yet included in either I have
for the most part taken the scientific names from Mr. Howard
Saunders’s ‘Catalogue des oiseaux du midi de L’Espagne,’
published in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Société
Zoologique de France; and for the names of the Gulls and Terns I
have entirely followed Mr. Howard Saunders’s papers on those
birds published in the ‘Proceedings’ of our own Zoological
Society, for permission to use which, and for other
assistance,—especially in egg-hunting,—I have to give
him my best thanks.

As French is so much spoken in Guernsey and the other Islands
included in my district, I have (wherever I have been able to
ascertain it) given the French name of each bird, as it may be
better known to my Guernsey readers than either the English or
the scientific name. I have also, where there is one and I have
been able to ascertain it, mentioned the local name in the course
of my notes on each bird.

It now only remains to give my best thanks to the various
friends who have assisted me, especially to Mr. MacCulloch, who,
though he says he is no naturalist, has supplied me with various
very interesting notes, which he has taken from time to time of
ornithological events which have occurred in Guernsey, and from
which I have drawn rather largely; and I have, also, again to
thank him for the interesting accounts he has given me of the
various changes—agricultural and otherwise—which have
taken place during his memory, and which may have had some effect
on the ornithology of the Islands, especially of Guernsey.

My thanks are also due to Col. L’Estrange for the assistance
he has given me in egg-hunting, and also to Captain Hubback for
his notes from Alderney during the times he was quartered
there.

BIRDS OF GUERNSEY.

1. WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. Haliaeetus albicilla, Linnsaeus.
French, “Aigle pygarque,” “Pygarque ordinaire.”—The
White-tailed Eagle is an occasional but by no means uncommon
visitant to all the Islands. I have seen specimens from Alderney,
Guernsey, and Herm, and have heard of its having been killed in
Sark more than once. It usually occurs in the autumn, and, as a
rule, has a very short lease of life after its arrival in the
Islands, which is not to be wondered at, as it is considered, and
no doubt is, mischievous both to sheep and poultry; and in so
thickly populated a country, where every one carries a gun, a
large bird like the White-tailed Eagle can hardly escape notice
and consequent destruction for any length of time. It might,
however, if unmolested, occasionally remain throughout the
winter, and probably sometimes wanders to the Islands at that
time, as Mr. Harvie Brown records (‘Zoologist’ for 1869, p. 1591)
one as having been killed, poisoned by strychnine, in Herm in the
month of January. This was, no doubt, a late winter visitant, as
it is hardly possible that the bird can have escaped for so long
a time, as it would have done had it visited the Islands at its
usual time, October or November. All the Channel Island specimens
of the White-tailed Eagle which I have seen have been young birds
of the first or second year, in the immature plumage in which the
bird is known as the Sea Eagle of Bewick, and in which it is
occasionally mistaken for the Golden Eagle, which bird has never,
I believe, occurred in the Islands. Of course in the adult
plumage, when this bird has its white tail and head, no such
mistake could occur, but in the immature plumage in which the
bird usually makes its appearance such a mistake does
occasionally happen, and afterwards it becomes difficult to
convince the owner that he has not a Golden Eagle; in fact he
usually feels rather insulted when told of his mistake, and
ignores all suggestions of anything like an infallible test, so
it may be as well to mention that the birds may be distinguished
in any state of plumage and at any age by the tarsus, which in
the White-tailed Eagle is bare of feathers and in the Golden
Eagle is feathered to the junction of the toes. I have one in my
possession shot at Bordeaux harbour on the 14th of November,
1871, and I saw one in the flesh at Mr. Couch’s, the
bird-stuffer, which had been shot at Alderney on the 2nd of
November in the same year; and Mr. MacCulloch writes to me that
one was wounded and taken alive in the parish of the Forest in
Guernsey in 1845. It was said to be one of a pair, and he
adds—”I have known several instances of its appearance
since both here (Guernsey) and in Herm,” but unluckily he gives
no dates and could not remember at what time of year any of the
occurrences he had noted had taken place. This is to be
regretted, as although the bird occurs almost every
autumn—indeed, so frequently as to render mention of
further instances of its occurrence at that time of year
unnecessary—its occurrence in the spring is rare, and some
of those noted by Mr. MacCulloch might have been at that time of
year. As it is, I only know of one spring occurrence, and that
was reported to me by Mr. Couch as having taken place at Herm on
the 23rd of March, 1877.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12. MARSH HARRIER. Circus œruginosus, Linnaeus.
French, “Busard des Marais.”—This seems to be the least
common of the Harriers in the Channel Islands, though it does
occur occasionally, and perhaps more frequently than is generally
supposed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[13. Omitted.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

25. FIELDFARE. Turdus pilaris, Linnaeus. French, “Grive
litorne,” “Merle litorne.”—Like the Redwing, the Fieldfare
is a regular and numerous winter visitant, and arrives and
departs about the same time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

51. PIED WAGTAIL. Motacilla lugubris, Temminck. French,
“Bergeronette Yarrellii.”^[11]—The Pied Wagtail has
probably been better known to some of my readers as Motacilla
Yarrellii, but, according to the rules of nomenclature before
alluded to, Motacilla lugubris of Temminck seems to have
superseded the probably better-known name of Motacilla
Yarrellii.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

115. BARTAILED GODWIT. Limosa lapponica, Linnaeus.
French, “Barge rousse.”—The Bar-tailed Godwit is a regular
and sometimes rather numerous spring and autumn visitant. In May,
1876, a considerable number of these birds seem to have rested on
the little Island of Herm, where the keeper shot three of them;
two of these are now in my possession, and are very interesting,
as though all shot at the same time—I believe on the same
day—they are in various stages of plumage, the most
advanced being in thorough breeding-plumage, and the other not
nearly so far advanced; and the third, which I saw but have not
got, was not so far advanced as either of the others. In the two
which I have the change of colour in the feathers, without moult,
may be seen in the most interesting manner, especially in the
least advanced, as many of the feathers are still parti-coloured,
the colouring matter not having spread over the whole feather; in
the most advanced, however, nearly all the feathers were fully
coloured with the red of the breeding-plumage. This red plumage
remains till the autumn, when it is replaced, after the moult, by
the more sombre and less handsome grey of the winter plumage.
Though the Bar-tailed Godwit goes far north to breed, not
breeding much nearer than Lapland and the north of Norway and
Sweden, both old and young soon show themselves again in the
Channel Islands on their return journey, as I shot a young bird
of the year in Herm the last week in August. Most of the autumn
arrivals, however, soon pass on to more southern winter quarters,
only a few remaining very late, perhaps quite through the winter,
as I have one shot in Guernsey as late as the 14th of December;
this one, I need hardly say, is in full winter plumage, and of
course presents a most striking difference to the one shot in
Herm in May.

The Bar-tailed Godwit is included in Professor Ansted’s list,
but only marked as occurring in Guernsey. It is, however, as I
have shown, perhaps more common in Herm, and it also occurs in
Alderney. There is a series of these in the Museum in change and
breeding-plumage.

The Blacktailed Godwit is also included in Professor Ansted’s
list, but I have never seen the bird in the Islands or been able
to glean any information concerning it, and there is no specimen
in the Museum.

116. GREENSHANK. Totanus canescens, Gmelin. French,
“Chevalier gris,” “Chevalier aboyeur.”—The Greenshank can
only be considered a rare occasional visitant. I have never shot
or seen it myself in the Islands, but Miss C.B. Carey records one
in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1872 as having been shot on the 2nd of
October of that year, and brought to Mr. Couch’s, at whose shop
she saw it.

The Greenshank is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but
there is no letter to note which of the Islands it has occurred
in. There is no specimen in the Museum.

117. RUFF. Machetes pugnax, Linnaeus. French,
“Combatant,” “Combatant variable.”—The Ruff is an
occasional but not very common autumn and winter visitant; it
occurs, probably, more frequently in the autumn than the winter.
Mr. MacCulloch writes me, “I have a note of a Ruff shot in
October, 1871.” This probably was, like all the Guernsey
specimens I have seen, a young bird of the year in that state of
plumage in which it leads to all sorts of mistakes, people wildly
supposing it to be either a Buff-breasted or a Bartram’s
Sandpiper. Miss C.B. Carey records one in the ‘Zoologist’ for
1871 as shot in September of that year; this was a young bird of
the year. Miss C.B. Carey also records two in the ‘Zoologist’ for
1872 as having been shot about the 13th of April in that year;
these she describes as being in change of plumage but having no
ruff yet; probably the change of colour in the feathers was
beginning before the long feathers of the ruff began to grow; and
this agrees with what I have seen of the Ruff in confinement; the
change of colour in the feathers of the body begins before the
ruff makes its appearance.

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

118. WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticola, Linnaeus. French,
“Becasse ordinaire.”—The Woodcock is a regular and
tolerably common autumnal visitant to all the Islands, arriving
and departing about the same time as in England,—none,
however, remaining to breed, as is so frequently the case with
us. There might be some good cock shooting in the Islands if the
Woodcocks were the least preserved, but as soon as one is heard
of every person in the Island who can beg, borrow, or steal a gun
and some powder and shot is out long before daylight, waiting for
the first shot at the unfortunate Woodcock as soon as there
should be sufficient daylight. In fact, such a scramble is there
for a chance at a Woodcock that a friend of mine told me he got
up long before daylight one morning and went to a favourite spot
to begin at; thinking to be first on the ground, he sat on a gate
close by waiting for daylight; but so far from his being the
first, he found, as it got light, three other people, all
waiting, like himself, to begin as soon as it was light enough,
each thinking he was going to be first and have it all his own
way with the cocks. Besides the gun, another mode of capturing
the Woodcocks used till very lately to be, and perhaps still is,
practised at Woodlands and some other places where practicable in
Guernsey. Nets are set across open paths between the trees,
generally Ilex, through which the Woodcocks take their flight
when going out “roading,” as it is called—that is, when on
their evening excursion for food; into these nets the Woodcocks
fly and become easy victims.

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

119. SOLITARY SNIPE. Scolopax major, Gmelin. French,
“Grande becassine.”—I have never been fortunate enough to
shoot a Solitary Snipe myself in the Channel Islands, neither
have I seen one at any of the bird-stuffers; but that is not very
likely, as the shooter of a Solitary Snipe only congratulates
himself on having killed a fine big Snipe, and carries it off for
dinner, but, from some of the descriptions I have had given me of
these fine big Snipes, I have no doubt it has occasionally been a
Solitary Snipe. Mr. MacCulloch also writes me word that the
Solitary Snipe occasionally occurs.

It is included in Professor Ansted’s list, and marked by him
as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen at
present in the Museum.

120. SNIPE. Gallinago gallinaria, Gmelin. French,
“Bécassine ordinaire.”—The Common Snipe is a regular
and rather numerous autumnal visitant to all the Islands,
remaining through the winter and departing again in the spring,
some few remaining rather late into the summer. I am very
sceptical myself about the Snipe breeding in the Channel Islands
in the present day, although I was told one or two were seen
about Mr. De Putron’s pond late this summer, and were supposed to
be breeding there; however, I could see nothing of them when
there in June and July, although, as I have said before, Mr. De
Putron kindly allowed me to search round his pond for either
birds or eggs. Mr. MacCulloch, however, thinks they still breed
in Guernsey, as he writes to me to say, “I believe that Snipes
continue to breed here occasionally; I have heard of them, and
put them up myself in summer.” If they do, I should think the
most likely places would be the wild gorse and heath-covered
valleys leading down to the Gouffre and Petit Bo Bay, as there is
plenty of water and soft feeding places in both; I have never
seen one there, however, though I have several times walked both
those valleys and the intervening land during the
breeding-season, and I should think all these places were much
too much overrun with picnic parties and excursionists to allow
of Snipes breeding there now. Should the Snipe, however, still
breed in the Island, it would be as well to give it a place in
the Guernsey Bird Act, as it is much more worthy of protection
during the breeding-season than many of the birds there
mentioned. Sometimes in the autumn I have seen and shot Snipe in
the most unlikely places when scrambling along between huge
granite boulders lying on a surface of hard granite rock, where
it would be perfectly impossible for a Snipe to pick up a living;
indeed with his sensitive bill I do not believe a Snipe, if he
found anything eatable, could pick it off the hard ground.
Probably the Snipes I have found in these unlikely places were
not there by choice, but because driven from their more favourite
places by the continual gunning going on in almost every field
inland.

The Snipe is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but only
marked as occurring in Guernsey: it is difficult to say why this
should be, when the Solitary Snipe and the Jack Snipe are marked
as occurring in Guernsey and Sark, and all three are, at least,
as common in Alderney as in the other two Islands. There is one
specimen in the Museum.

121. JACK SNIPE. Gallinago gallinula, Linnaeus. French,
“Bécassine Jourde.”—The Jack Snipe is a regular
autumnal visitant to all the Islands, but never so numerous as
the Common Snipe. A few may always be seen, however, hung up in
the market with the Common Snipes through the autumn and
winter.

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

122. KNOT. Tringa canutus, Brisson. French, “Becasseau
canut,” “Becasseau maubèche.”—Common as the Knot is
on the south and west coast of England during autumn and winter,
it is by no means so common in the Channel Islands. I have never
shot it there myself in any of my autumnal expeditions. Miss C.B.
Carey records one, however, in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1871, as
having been shot on September the 23rd of that year; and Mr.
Harvie Brown mentions seeing a solitary Knot far out on the shore
at Herm in January, 1869. These are the only occasions I am
certain about, although it probably occurs sparingly every year,
but I have never seen it even in the market, and were it at all
common a few certainly would have occasionally found their way
there.

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

123. CURLEW SANDPIPER. Tringa subarquata,
Güldenstaedt. French, “Becasseau cocorli.”—The Curlew
Sandpiper, or Pigmy Curlew as it is sometimes called, can only be
considered a rare occasional visitant to the Channel Islands. I
have never seen or shot one there myself, but Mr. Couch records
one in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1874 as having been shot near the
Richmond Barracks on the 5th of October of that year. Colonel
L’Estrange told me also that some were seen in a small bay near
Grand Rocque in the autumn of 1877. It may, however, have
occurred at other times and been passed over or looked upon as
only a Purre, from which bird, however, it may immediately be
distinguished by its longer legs and taller form when on the
ground, and by the white rump.

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

124. PURRE or DUNLIN. Tringa alpina, Linnaeus. French,
“Becasseau brunette,” “Becasseau variable.”—The Purre is
resident in all the Islands throughout the year in considerable
numbers, which however are immensely increased in the autumn by
migratory arrivals, most of which remain throughout the winter,
departing in the spring for their breeding stations. Though
resident throughout the year, and assuming full breeding plumage,
I am very doubtful as to the Purre breeding in the Islands; I
have never been able to find eggs, nor, as a rule, have I found
the bird anywhere but on its ordinary winter feeding-ground,
amongst the mud and seaweed between high and low water mark. The
most likely parts to find them breeding seem to be some of the
high land and heather in Guernsey and the sandy common on the
northern part of Herm, near which place I saw a few this summer
(1878) in perfect breeding plumage, and showing more signs of
being paired than they generally do, and in parts of
Alderney.

Professor Ansted has not mentioned it in his list. There are
two specimens in the Museum, both in breeding plumage.

125. LITTLE STINT. Tringa minuta, Leishler. French,
“Becasseau echasses,” “Becasseau minute.”—The Little Stint
is only an occasional and never numerous autumnal visitant. I
have seen one or two in the flesh at Mr. Couch’s, killed towards
the end of October, but I have never seen one alive or shot one
myself.

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

126. SANDERLING. Calidris arenaria, Linnaeus. French,
“Sanderling variable.”—The Sanderling is a regular and
rather early autumn visitant to all the Islands, as I have shot
one as early as the end of August in Cobo Bay in Guernsey; this
is about the time the Sanderling makes its first appearance on
the opposite side of the Channel at Torbay. I have not met with
it later on in October and November, but no doubt a few remain
throughout the winter as they do in Torbay, where I have shot
Sanderlings as late as the 27th of December; a few also probably
visit the Islands on their return migration in the spring. The
two in the Museum seem to bear out this, as one is nearly in
winter plumage, and the other is assuming the red plumage of the
breeding season, and could not have been killed before April or
May.

The Sanderling is included in Professor Ansted’s list, and
marked by him as occurring in Guernsey and Sark.

127. GREY PHALAROPE. Phalaropus fulicarius, Linnaeus.
French, “Phalarope gris,” “Phalarope roussâtre,” “Phalarope
phatyrhinque.”^[19]—The Grey Phalarope is
a tolerably regular and occasionally numerous autumnal visitant
to all the Islands, not, however, arriving before the end of
October or beginning of November. At this time of year the
greater numbers of birds are in the varied autumnal plumage so
common in British-killed specimens, showing partial remains of
the summer plumage; but one I have, killed in November, 1875, was
in most complete winter plumage, there not being a single dark or
margined feather on the bird. This perfect state of winter
plumage is by no means common either in British or Channel Island
specimens, so much so that I do not think I have seen one in such
perfect winter plumage before.

The Grey Phalarope is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but
no letters marking its distribution through the Islands are
added, perhaps because it was considered to be generally
distributed through all of them. There is no specimen at present
in the Museum.

128. HERON. Ardea cinerea, Linnaeus. French, “Heron
cendré”, “Heron huppé.”—A good many Herons
may be seen about the Islands at all times of the year; those
that remain through the summer, though scattered over all the
Islands, are probably all non-breeding birds. I have seen them
fishing along the shore in Guernsey, Herm, Alderney, and the
rocky islands north of Herm, but I have never seen or heard of an
egg being found in either of the Islands, nor have I ever seen
anything that bore the most remote resemblance to the nest of a
Heron. Mr. MacCulloch, however, writes to me as follows: “The
Heron is said to breed occasionally on the Amfrocques and others
of those small islets north of Herm.” Mr. Howard Saunders, Col.
L’Estrange, and myself, however, visited all these islets this
last breeding season (1878), and though we saw Herons about
fishing in the shallow pools left by the tide, we could see
nothing that would lead us to suppose that Herons ever bred
there, in fact, though Herons have been known to breed on cliffs
by the sea; the Amfroques and all the other little wild rocky
islets are apparently the most unlikely places for Herons to
breed on. In Guernsey itself, however, it is more likely that a
few Herons formerly bred, and that there was once a small Heronry
in the Vale. As Mr. MacCulloch writes to me, “There is a locality
in the parish of St. Samson, at the foot of Delancy Hill, in the
vicinity of the marshes near the Ivy Castle, formerly thickly
wooded with old elms, which bears the name of La
Heronière. It may have been a resort of Herons, but I am
bound to say the name may have been derived from a family called
‘Heron,’ now extinct.” It seems to me also possible that the
family derived their name from being the proprietors of the only
Heronry in Guernsey. In the place mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch
there are still a great many elm trees quite big enough for
Herons to build in, supposing they were allowed to do so, which
would not be likely at the present time. The number of Herons in
the Channel Islands seems to me to be considerably increased in
the autumn, probably by wanderers from the Heronries on the south
coast of Devon and Dorset; on the Dart and the Exe, and near
Poole.

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

129. PURPLE HERON. Ardea purpurea, Linnaeus. French,
“Heron pourpre.”—The Purple Heron is an occasional
accidental wanderer to all the Islands. Mr. MacCulloch writes me
word, “I have notes of that beautiful bird, the Purple Heron,
being killed here (Guernsey) in May, 1845, and in 1849; also in
Alderney on the 8th May, 1867.” Curiously enough Mr. Rodd records
the capture of one, a female, near the Lizard, in Cornwall, late
in April of the same year.^[20] When at Alderney this
summer (1878) I was told that a Heron of some sort, but certainly
not a Common Heron, had been shot in that Island about six weeks
before my visit on the 27th of June. Accordingly I went the next
morning to the bird-stuffer, Mr. Grieve, and there I found the
bird and the person who shot it, who told me that it rose from
some rather boggy ground at the back of the town—that he
shot at it and wounded it, but it flew on towards the sea; and as
it was getting rather late he did not find it till next morning,
when he found it dead near the place he had marked it down the
night before. It was in consequence of going to look up this bird
that I found the Greenland Falcon before mentioned, which had
been shot by the same person. These are all the instances I have
been able to collect of the occurrence of the Purple Heron in the
Channel Islands.

It is, however, included in Professor Ansted’s list, and
marked as occurring in Guernsey, probably on the authority of one
of the earlier specimens mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch. There is no
specimen at present in the Museum.

130. SQUACCO HERON. Ardeola cornuta, Pallas. French,
“Heron crabier.”—I have in my collection a Guernsey-killed
specimen of the Squacco Heron, which Mr. Couch informed me was
shot in that island in the summer of 1867, and from inquiries I
have made I have no doubt this information is correct. Mr.
MacCulloch also writes to me to say, “A Squacco Heron was shot in
the Vale Parish on the 14th of May, 1867, no doubt the one Couch
sent to you.” This was duly recorded by me in the ‘Zoologist’ for
1872, and is, I believe, the first recorded instance of its
occurrence in the Channel Islands.

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

131. BITTERN. Botaurus stellaris, Linnaeus. French,
“Heron grand butor,” “Le grand butor.”—Bitterns were
probably at one time more common in Guernsey than they are at
present, drainage and better cultivation having contributed to
thin their numbers, as it has done in England; and Mr. MacCulloch
tells me that in his youth they were by no means uncommon. Of
late years, however, they have become much more uncommon, though,
as he adds, specimens have been shot within the last three or
four years. They seem now, however, to be confined to occasional
autumnal and winter visitants. Mr. Couch says (‘Zoologist’ for
1871):—”On the 30th December, 1874, after a heavy fall of
snow, I had a female Bittern brought to me to be stuffed, shot in
the morning in the Marais; and on the 2nd of January following
another was shot on the beach near the Vale Church. I had also
part of some of the quill-feathers of a Bittern sent to me for
identification by Mrs. Jago, which had been killed in the Islands
the last week in January, 1879.” These are the most recent
specimens I have been able to get any account of. The
bird-stuffer in Alderney (Mr. Grieve) and his friend told me they
had shot Bitterns in that island, but did not remember the
date.

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

132. AMERICAN BITTERN. Botaurus lentiginosus, Montagu.
French, “Heron lentigineux.”^[21]—This occasional
straggler from the New World has once, in its wanderings, reached
the Channel Islands, and was shot in Guernsey on the 27th
October, 1870, and was duly recorded by me in the ‘Zoologist’ for
1871; it is now in my collection. This is the only occurrence of
this bird in the Channel Islands yet recorded; but as the bird
occasionally crosses to this side of the Atlantic—several
specimens having occurred in the British Islands—it may
possibly occur in Guernsey or some of the Channel Islands again.
It may, therefore, be as well to point out the principal
distinctions between this bird and the Common Bittern last
mentioned. Between the adult birds there can be no mistake: the
longer and looser feathers on the fore part of the neck, which
are slightly streaked and freckled with dark brown, may be
immediately distinguished from the much shorter and more
regularly marked feathers on the neck of the adult American
Bittern. This distinction, however, is not perfectly clear in
young birds; but, at any age or in any state of plumage, the
birds may be immediately distinguished by the primary
quill-feathers, which in the American Bittern are a uniform dark
chocolate-brown without any marks whatever, while in the Common
Bittern they are much marked and streaked with pale yellowish
brown; this may be always relied on at any age or in any
plumage.

The American Bittern is not mentioned in Professor Ansted’s
list, no specimen having been found in the Channel Islands till
after the publication of his list, and of course there is no
specimen in the Museum.

133. LITTLE BITTERN. Ardetta minuta, Linnaeus. French,
“Heron Blongios.”^[22]—I only know of one
occurrence of the Little Bittern in the Channel Islands, and that
was towards the end of November, 1876; and Mr. Couch writes to me
as follows on the 3rd of December: “A very good Little Bittern
was caught alive in the Vale Road; after being shot at and missed
by two men, a young man in the road threw his pocket-handkerchief
at it and brought it in to me alive.” Mr. Couch also informed me,
when he forwarded me the specimen, that it was a male by
dissection. It is now in my collection, and is a young bird of
the year. I am rather sorry that as Mr. Couch got it alive he did
not forward it to me in that state, as, unless it had been
wounded by the two shots, I have no doubt I should have been able
to keep it alive and observe its habits and changes of plumage as
it advanced towards maturity.

The Little Bittern is included in Professor Ansted’s list, and
marked as occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the
Museum.

134. SPOONBILL. Platalea leucorodia, Linnaeus. French,
“Spatule blanche.”—An occasional but by no means common
visitant to the Channel Islands. I have been able to hear of but
very few instances of its occurrence or capture of late years;
Mr. Couch, however, writes me, in a letter dated November, 1873,
that a Spoonbill was brought to him to stuff. In all probability
this is the same bird recorded by Mr. Broughton in the ‘Field’
for October 25th, 1873, and in the ‘Zoologist’ for January, 1874.
This is the only very recent specimen I have been able to trace;
but Mr. Broughton in his note mentions the occurrence of one
about twenty years before; and Mrs. Jago, who, when she was Miss
Cumber, did a good deal of bird-stuffing in Guernsey, told me she
had stuffed a Spoonbill for the Museum about twenty years ago.
This is probably the other one mentioned by Mr. Broughton, and he
may have seen it in the Museum; it is not there, however,
now—either having become moth-eaten, and consequently
thrown away, or lost when the Museum changed its quarters across
the market-place. Mr. MacCulloch does not seem to consider the
Spoonbill such a very rare visitant to the Channel Islands, as he
writes to me, “The Spoonbill is not near so rare a visitor as you
seem to think; specimens were killed here in 1844, and in
previous years, and again in 1849, and in October, 1873.^[23] They are seldom solitary,
but generally appear in small flocks. I forget whether it was in
1844 or 1849 that flocks were reported to have been seen in
various parts of England, even as far west as Penzance. I think
that in one of these years as many as a dozen were seen here in a
flock.” Mr. Rodd, in his ‘List of the Birds of Cornwall,’ does
not mention either of these years as great years for Spoonbills,
only saying, “Occasionally, and especially of late years,
observed in various parts of the county; a flock of several was
seen and captured at Gwithian; others have been obtained from the
neighbourhood of Penzance, and also from Scilly.”^[24]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FINIS.

ENDNOTES

INDEX.