Chapter XIII: Part 13

The lapwing, pewit, or green plover, as he is variously named from his manner of flight, note, and colour, is a familiar bird to most persons, and undoubtedly the best and most generally known member of the order which includes plover, snipe, and their allies. He is widely distributed in the British Islands, and fairly abundant, and, furthermore, is a bird it is impossible to overlook, on account of his conspicuous colouring, his singular manner of flight and appearance on the wing, and his unique voice. A first meeting with the lapwing invariably excites surprise in the beholder. Seen on the ground he is a handsome bird; in plumage and long, curling crest unlike any other British species, elegant in form, and graceful and somewhat stately in his movements. The moment he takes flight, displaying his curiously shaped, rounded wings, that have a heavy, flopping, heron-like motion, he appears like a different creature: he looks awkward and strange, like an owl or a goatsucker driven out of its hiding-place in the daylight. But no sooner does he begin to practise his favourite evolutions in the air than a fresh surprise is experienced. Rising to a height of forty or fifty yards, he suddenly dashes in a zigzag, downward flight, with a violence and rapidity unsurpassed by even the most aërial species in their maddest moments, and, turning like lightning when almost touching the surface, he rises, to repeat the action again and again. The heavy appearance and slow, flopping movement, and the marvellous wing-feats, are in strange contrast.

He is a vociferous bird, and when his breeding-ground is invaded he circles high above the intruder, dashing down at intervals, as if to intimidate him, and uttering all the while a wailing cry, somewhat cat-like in character. His call, heard both by day and night, most frequently in the breeding season, is a hollow, bubbling sound, followed by a prolonged and modulated clear note of a peculiar quality, not readily describable, except by the epithet ‘eerie,’ which is somewhat vague. It is a quality heard chiefly in the voices of nocturnal species--owls and others.

The lapwings begin to nest at the end of March on heaths and waste lands, and in meadows, pastures, and fallows. As a rule, more than one pair, and often several pairs, have their nests near each other; and so gregarious are the birds at all times, that even during incubation, and when the young are out, they are to be seen associating together when feeding, and when indulging in their sportive exercises in the air. A slight depression in the soil, with a few dried grass-stems for lining, serves for nest, and the eggs are four in number, olive-green, thickly mottled with black and blackish brown spots. False nests are often found near the nest containing eggs, and these are said to be formed by the male in turning round and round when showing off to his mate.

The lapwing is common throughout the year, but in autumn, when they congregate, often in flocks of many hundreds, and even thousands, there is a very general movement; and no doubt at this season a large proportion of the birds that breed with us leave the country, their places being taken by others from more northern regions. Throughout the British Islands it is a fairly common species, but it is believed that for many years past the lapwing has been decreasing in numbers, chiefly on account of the demand for plovers’ eggs, and of unrestricted egging.

Turnstone.

Strepsilus interpres.

Head, neck, breast, and shoulders variegated with black and white; upper surface black and chestnut-red; rump white; tail-feathers and a patch on the coverts dark brown; under parts white; legs and feet orange. _Female_: not so bright. Length, nine inches.

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The turnstone is very nearly of a size with the song-thrush, although its conspicuous black-and-white and curiously marked plumage causes it to appear much bigger to the eye. The plumage is very handsome, the upper parts being mottled with black and red--a tortoiseshell colouring which is rare in birds. It is a visitor to our coasts after the breeding season, the young birds arriving towards the end of July, the adults following in August, after the moult. From the east coast of England most of the birds depart in autumn; on the south and west coasts many remain all winter. The return migration to the breeding-grounds in the arctic regions takes place about the middle of May; but it is believed that a few pairs breed annually within the limits of the British Islands, as birds have been observed in summer in full nuptial dress. There are few birds with so wide a distribution as the turnstone, its range extending along the coasts of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australia, and the Atlantic and Pacific islands.

The turnstone is a bird of the seashore exclusively, with a partiality for rocky coasts, and feeds on marine insects and small crustaceans, which it picks from the stranded seaweed, and on this account it is called ‘tangle-picker’ on the Norfolk coast. It also turns over the small stones and shells on the sand, to search for insects concealed beneath them; and when the stone is too large to be moved by the bill, the breast is used in pushing. Two or three birds have been observed to unite in pushing over an object too large to be moved by one.

Oyster-catcher.

Hæmatopus ostralegus.

Plumage intense black and pure white; bill orange-yellow: irides crimson; legs and feet purplish pink. Length, sixteen inches.

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The oyster-catcher, or sea-magpie, is regarded by many persons as the most beautiful of our shore-birds. When seen running on the sands with a rapid, trotting gait, or standing motionless--a pied bird with thick, orange-red bill and pink legs, the large head drawn in--his appearance strikes one as singular rather than beautiful. No sooner does he take to flight, exhibiting the sharp-pointed, wonderfully conspicuous, black and white wings, than the beauty is revealed. The flight is rapid, and as he wheels round the intruder in a wide circle he utters a succession of cries, somewhat like those of the golden plover and curlew in character, but shriller and more vehement. The oyster-catcher is a resident species, to be met with throughout the year in all suitable localities on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. He is most partial to rocky coasts with patches of sand and shingle, his food consisting chiefly of small shellfish left exposed on and among the rocks at low water. With his strong, wedge-shaped bill he strikes the limpets from the rocks and scoops out their contents; and he opens the mussel-shells by driving his beak between the closed valves and prising them apart. He also devours sea-worms, shrimps, and other crustaceans.

The nest is placed on the rocks or on rough shingle, a little above high-water mark. It is very simple, being nothing more than a slight depression in the shingle, with small pebbles and fragments of shells for lining. Several false nests are sometimes made by the birds near the one containing the eggs.

Three, or very rarely four, eggs are laid, of a pale stone-colour with a yellowish tinge, spotted and streaked with black, blackish brown, and dark grey. During incubation the male keeps watch, and gives warning of danger to his mate, who quietly leaves the nest; when the spot is approached both birds fly round the intruder, frequently alighting on the ground within a few yards of him, uttering their shrill, distressed cries the whole time. At all other times the oyster-catcher is an excessively shy and wary bird, owing to much persecution.

In autumn and winter oyster-catchers gather in small flocks, and the birds that breed on the northern coasts go south to winter, their place being taken by migrants from the Continent.

Red-necked Phalarope.

Phalaropus hyperboreus.

_Female_: head, hind neck, and shoulders ash-grey; upper parts dark grey mixed with rufous; a white bar on the wing; neck chestnut; upper breast ash-grey; under parts white; bill black; legs and feet greenish. Length, seven inches and three-quarters. _Male_: smaller, and less brightly coloured.

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The phalaropes are small, handsome birds that, like the plovers they are related to, perform long annual migrations, breed in very high latitudes north of the arctic circle, and have a distinctly different summer and winter plumage. But in the form of their curiously lobed feet they are like coots, while in their habits they are, perhaps, nearest to the moorhen. There are two British species, both irregular visitors on migration to this country; but of the red-necked phalarope a few pairs remain to breed annually in the Hebrides and Shetlands, consequently this species may be regarded as indigenous. Unfortunately, the British race of this bird is now nearly extinct, victims to the ‘cupidity of the cabinet,’ specimens of the bird and its eggs being in great request among collectors.

The red-necked phalarope is equally at home on land or water, and picks up its food on the sandy or muddy margins of the marshy pools it frequents in summer, and from the surface of the water, as it swims rapidly about, sitting high, and with head set back like a gull.

The nest is placed on the ground, among heather or herbage and grass, at some distance from the water. The four eggs are pale brown in ground-colour, spotted with blackish brown and grey.

The grey phalarope (_Phalaropus fulicarius_), irregular in its visits like the last species, appears in larger numbers when it does come. Its visits to the south and south-east coasts of England occur in autumn and winter. Its range in summer is circumpolar, and it has been found breeding as far north as latitude 82° 30′. The breeding plumage is reddish chestnut, the female being brightest in colour. In winter, when it arrives in this country, its under parts are pure white, and the whole upper parts a delicate pale grey.

Woodcock.

Scolopax rusticula.

Upper plumage reddish brown barred and vermiculated with black; under parts wood-brown with darker brown bars. Length, fourteen inches. Sexes alike.

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The woodcock is a large species compared with other snipes, and a very handsome bird in its russet-red plumage, prettily pencilled and barred with various shades of black and brown and grey; furthermore, it is in great esteem for the table, and it is therefore not strange that, like the red grouse, it should be a favourite alike with the ornithologist, the sportsman, and the lover of delicate fare.

Nocturnal in its habits, the woodcock spends the daylight hours in close concealment in woods and brakes, often under the shelter of a thick evergreen bush, and, it is said, sometimes partially covering itself with dead leaves. Its red and mottled plumage, which so closely assimilates in colour to the fallen leaves among which it sits, is its best protection--a similar case to that of the nightjar crouching on the dry, open common. Visible it may be, but not distinguishable as a bird amid such surroundings unless the large, lustrous black eyes are caught sight of. When flushed during daylight its flight is owl-like, and its appearance somewhat singular. In the dusk of evening, when seeking its feeding-ground, it flies in a curious manner, darting rapidly this way and that through the glades and open spaces. It obtains its food by probing deep in the soft, damp soil, or in bogs, with its long bill, but how it finds the earthworms and grubs on which it feeds would be hard to say. There is no doubt that the end of the beak is an exquisitely delicate organ of touch, but it is hard to believe that it is thrust deep into the soil merely on the chance of finding something edible.

The woodcock breeds in suitable localities throughout Great Britain and Ireland, but in limited numbers, and not very regularly; but whether the birds that breed with us remain all the year, or migrate to more southern latitudes in autumn, is not known. Most, if not all, of the birds that winter in our islands are visitors from northern Europe. They begin to arrive, chiefly on the east and south-east coasts, about the middle of October, travelling by night, usually in calm, hazy, or foggy weather, and sometimes arriving in immense numbers. As a rule the females arrive first, the later flights being composed of males. It is only when migrating that woodcock are seen in any number together, and at such times their gatherings are probably accidental. On their arrival they quickly scatter over the country, and for the rest of the time are solitary in their habits. The migrants from the north take their departure in March. In this country nesting begins at the end of that month, and in the pairing season the male woos his mate with a curious and pretty performance, not at all like the wild celestial love-antics of his relation, the common snipe. For a time he abandons his shy, skulking habits--a hermit in love, he comes out morning and evening, and for the space of half an hour continues flying to and fro, with a singularly slow flight, and with plumage puffed out, so that he looks twice his ordinary size. Flying, he emits two peculiar notes, one deep and hollow, the other sharp and whistling. This performance of the woodcock is called ‘roding’ in East Anglia. The nest is a slight hollow, placed among dead ferns and fallen leaves in a sheltered situation in a wood. The eggs are four, pale yellowish white, the larger end spotted and blotched with ash-grey and brown of a reddish yellow tint.

A little over a century ago it was discovered that the female woodcock had the habit of removing its young, one at a time, when in danger by flying away with them. But it was said that the young bird was carried in the bill of its parent, and ornithologists declined to believe it, because, as Gilbert White remarked, the long, unwieldy beak of the woodcock was unfitted for such a task. The matter remained in doubt until about twenty years ago; and it is now known that the bird carries her young with her feet, either grasping them in her claws or holding them pressed between her thighs. According to some observers, the bird uses her bill to keep her young one pressed firmly against her thighs when flying with it.

Great Snipe.

Gallinago major.

Crown black, divided lengthways by a yellowish white band; a streak of the same colour over the eye; upper parts mottled with black and chestnut-brown; greater wing-coverts tipped with white; under parts whitish, spotted and barred with black. Length, twelve inches.

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The great, or solitary snipe, sometimes called the double snipe, resembles the common snipe in form and colouring, and in size is intermediate between that species and the woodcock. This species, described in the B.O.U. official list as a ‘straggler,’ hardly comes within the scope of the present work. But although a straggler, it comes regularly, appearing in the eastern and southern counties from the middle of August to the middle of October. These visitors are young birds, and few in number, and as they do not revisit us in spring, it may be assumed that they perish in their winter wanderings--the usual fate of stragglers from the migrating route of the species, or race. The fact that young birds in very many cases migrate in advance of the adults, that they keep to the same lines, and often journey vast distances, clearly shows that migration is performed instinctively. We may call the principle of action in this case crystallised experience, or inherited or historical knowledge, or lapsed intelligence, or by any other pretty name; but it is not ordinary intelligence--the guiding faculty that observes, considers, and profits by experience. And it is possible to believe that the young of the great snipe, when visiting Great Britain in the autumn, are going back to an ancient route abandoned by the species, perhaps thousands of years ago, on account of physical changes in the earth’s surface, or of a change in the system of the bird itself.

Common Snipe.

Gallinago cælestis.

Upper plumage mottled black and chestnut-brown; flanks barred with white and dusky; under parts white. Length, ten inches and a half.

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The common snipe, like the woodcock, breeds in limited numbers throughout the British Islands. But the woodcock nests in woods, and, owing to the increase of plantations, the bird as a breeding species has increased with us. Just the contrary has happened with the snipe. He is a breeder in marshes, fens, and low, wet grounds, and as drainage and cultivation deprive him of suitable localities to nest in, he diminishes in numbers. Most of the birds that winter in our islands are migrants from Scandinavia; they come in October and November, and remain until March. During the winter months they are often compelled by changes in the weather to shift their feeding-grounds, and intense cold is very fatal to them. Their soft, sensitive bills must have a soft soil to probe in, and frost cuts off their food-supply. When approached, the snipe seeks to avoid observation by crouching close to the earth, where its mottled upper plumage fits in well with the colour of the boggy or wet ground; on taking wing it rushes upwards with a violent zigzag flight, uttering at the same time a sharp, scraping cry, two or three times repeated. Late in March or early in April the snipes pair, and it is then that the males begin to practise their curious aërial exercises, familiar to anyone who observes wild bird life, and about which so much has been said by ornithologists. The performance takes place at all hours of the day, but chiefly towards evening, the bird rising to an immense height in the air, and precipitating himself downwards with astonishing violence, producing in his descent the peculiar sound variously described as drumming, bleating, scythe-whetting, and neighing. From this sound the snipe has been named in some districts ‘moor-lamb’ and ‘heather-bleater.’ As to how the sound is produced opinions differ still, although the question has been discussed for over a century. Probably it is in part vocal and partly produced by the wing-feathers.

The snipe makes a very slight nest of a few dried grass leaves and stalks, placed among rushes or by the side of a tussock of coarse grass. Four eggs are laid, yellowish or greenish white, the larger end spotted with various shades of brown. The female hatches the eggs without assistance from her mate, who continues his play in the air at intervals every day until the young are out. Two broods are sometimes reared in the season.

Jack-Snipe.

Limnocryptes gallinula.

Upper parts mottled with buff, reddish brown, and black, the latter exhibiting green and purple reflections; neck and breast spotted; belly white. Length, eight inches.

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The small jack-snipe is exclusively a winter visitor to this country, never remaining to breed. It comes at the end of September and in October, and is found generally distributed in Great Britain and Ireland, but in less numbers than the common snipe. In its habits it is more solitary than that species, and sits closer, often refusing to rise until almost trodden upon; and when it flies it utters no alarm-note. In April it leaves us, after assuming its summer plumage, glossed with beautiful colours. In its breeding-haunts in northern Europe and beyond the arctic circle the male has an aërial performance similar to that of the common snipe, but the sound produced by the bird in descending is different, and has been compared by Wolley to ‘the cantering of a horse over a hard, hollow road; it comes in fours, with a similar cadence and a like clear yet hollow sound.’ It makes its slight nest on the low ground, and lays four eggs, very large for the bird, of a yellowish olive colour, spotted and streaked with brown.

Dunlin.

Tringa alpina.

Crown rufous streaked with black; mantle chestnut variegated with black; rest of upper parts grey; throat and upper breast greyish white and striped; lower breast black; belly white. The female is the largest, and measures eight inches. The winter plumage is chiefly grey on the upper parts; the under parts white with a greyish band on the lower breast.

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The dunlin is by far the most abundant sandpiper on our coasts during the autumnal and vernal migrations; a considerable number of birds remain throughout the winter, and non-breeders or immature birds are to be met with in summer on the sandbanks and mud flats. The dunlin also breeds in this country, on moors and fells, in the wilder portions of England, Wales, and Scotland, and, in smaller numbers, in Ireland. In autumn they often congregate in such large numbers that a cloud of dunlins is on many parts of the coast as familiar a sight as is a cloud of starlings in more inland districts. The well-known and esteemed writer known as ‘A Son of the Marshes’ thus vividly describes the variable appearance of a vast flock of these birds on the wing: ‘In the distance something is coming up ... that looks like the smoke from the funnel of a steamer; it waves and streams as smoke will do in a rush of wind. Now the smoke has vanished. Again it shows thick, as at first, and then it breaks up in patches. Presently the dark cloud becomes a light one--a great flash of silver. It consists of dunlins coming up the wind at full speed. We can hear the rush of the thousands of wings, and their soft chatter, some time before they reach us. Now they are here; with a humming roar they pass below us up the creek; shoot up, showing black and white as they turn; dive down into the creek again; pass us, and take a sweep over the snow, where they are invisible, for their white under plumage, caused by the turn, is in the light. Another turn, and the dark cloud is passing over the snow and into the creek. One turn more, and we see the cloud of dunlins drop below us on the slub--a vast host of living silver dots moving rapidly over the dark brown mud and grey ooze. As they throw their wings up, as they flirt up from one spot to another, all busy chattering, and dibbling, now here, now there--for we can see all their actions, so close are they to us--I thought that it was one of the most interesting sights I had been privileged to witness.’

At the end of April the great body of dunlins forsake our coasts, going north to breed; those that remain to breed in the British Islands withdraw to the loneliest moors and fells, the summer haunts of the curlew and golden plover. On this account the dunlins are called ‘plovers’ pages’ in some districts.

The language of the dunlin differs from that of most of the sandpipers, being hoarse and somewhat grating; but in spring, on the moors, the male has an agreeable trilling love-call, uttered in the air, or as the bird descends to earth with set, motionless wings and expanded tail.

A slight nest is made on the ground among the heather, and four eggs are laid, greenish white, spotted and blotched with reddish brown.

The great difference in the summer and winter plumage of the dunlin caused it to be regarded formerly, by most persons, as two distinct species: in the chestnut-and-black plumage it was the dunlin; in white-and-grey, the purre. Other local names for this species are stint, ox-bird, and sea-snipe.

Little Stint.

Tringa minuta.

Upper parts variegated with rufous and black; throat and upper breast tinged with rufous and speckled with dark brown; under parts white; bill and feet black. Length, six inches. In winter the upper parts are ashy brown, and there is no rufous on the throat.

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This diminutive sandpiper, no larger than a house-sparrow, and in appearance a miniature dunlin, is the least of its order in the British Islands. It comes to us only during the autumn and spring migrations, but in small numbers, as the British coasts lie a little outside of its main lines of travel. It makes its appearance in August, chiefly on the east side of Great Britain, and is gone by October; in May it reappears, to stay till June, when it resumes its journey northwards. Its known breeding-places are in Northern Norway and Siberia, north of the arctic circle. The eggs are four in number, of the same length as those of the song-thrush, in colour and markings like dunlins’ eggs. The note of this species is described in Yarrell as a ‘whispering, warbling trill, very different from the louder call of the dunlin; ... and the call of a flock is something like the confused chirping of grasshoppers or crickets.’

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Temminck’s stint (_Tringa temmincki_) is a visitor on migration to the coasts of Great Britain, but is less regular, and appears in smaller numbers than the little stint, which it resembles in size and colour.

Curlew-Sandpiper.

Tringa subarquata.

Head, neck, and mantle chestnut, streaked and barred with black and grey; upper tail-coverts white tinged with buff and barred with black; quills and tail-feathers ash-grey; under parts chestnut-red, slightly barred with brown and grey on the belly and flanks. Length, eight inches. In winter the upper parts are ash-brown, mottled with darker and paler brown; breast paler; under parts and upper tail-coverts white.

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This species derives its name from the form of the bill, which is curved downwards, as in the curlew; pigmy curlew is one of its common names. It is an annual visitor on migration to this country, on the east side chiefly, and occasionally penetrates to inland waters. It associates with dunlins on the sand and mud flats, and resembles that species in its feeding habits, but when flying may be easily distinguished by its conspicuous white tail-coverts. On its return from its breeding-grounds it remains on our coasts from August to October. From its winter haunts in the south it begins to arrive at the end of March, the migration continuing until June. At this season the birds are in their full summer dress, which resembles that of the knot. The bird is, Seebohm writes, ‘a miniature knot with a long, decurved bill.’ Its breeding-grounds have not yet been discovered.

Purple Sandpiper.

Tringa striata.

Head and neck dusky brown tinged with grey; upper parts nearly black, with purple reflections; the feathers edged with ash; throat, neck, and breast greyish; below, white; legs and feet ochre-yellow. Length, eight and a quarter inches. In winter the upper parts are sooty and the breast dark ash-brown, with faint lines and mottlings.

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The purple sandpiper is an inhabitant of the British coasts in autumn and winter, and is occasionally seen associating with dunlins on the sand and mud flats, and may readily be distinguished by its darker colour and its lumpier figure, caused by the thickness of its winter plumage. But its favourite haunts are rocky shores, where it feeds among the stranded seaweed on marine insects, small shrimps, and other crustaceans. It is, in fact, a sandpiper with the feeding habits of the turnstone. It is known to breed on the Faröes, where it nests on the fells and mountains and lays four eggs, pale green or olive, blotched with reddish brown, with purplish under-markings. Its eggs have never been found within the British Islands, but it is probable that a few pairs breed annually on some of the islands and on the mainland of Scotland. In its summer haunts in the arctic regions it is said to be the most abundant sandpiper. With us it is not a common species, and is seen in small flocks of half a dozen to a dozen birds.

Knot.

Tringa canutus.

Crown and neck reddish brown with darker streaks; mantle blackish; the feathers spotted with chestnut and margined with white; tail-coverts white barred with black; cheeks, throat, and breast chestnut. Length, ten inches. In winter the upper parts are ash-grey and the under parts white flecked with grey.

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This richly coloured and pretty sandpiper with a strange name is one of two species in this order of birds of which the eggs are not known to ornithologists, or do not exist in collections. It is a regular visitor to the British coasts on migration in August, but many birds remain in this country until the following May. In some seasons they are very abundant, especially on the north-east coast of England; and in former times they were esteemed a great delicacy, and were netted in large numbers, to be fattened, like dotterels and ruffs and reeves, on bread-and-milk for the table. According to Camden (‘Britannia,’ 1607), the bird was named after King Canute on account of his excessive fondness for its flesh. Drayton, adopting this explanation of the name, wrote in his ‘Polyolbion’:

The _Knot_ that called was _Canutus_ Bird of old,
Of that great King of _Danes_, his name that still doth hold,
His apetite to please, that farre and neare was sought,
For him (as some have sayd) from Denmark, hither brought.

It is possible that the Danish king introduced the taste for the knot, which lasted down to the end of the seventeenth century.

As long ago as 1820 the knot was found breeding in the Melville Islands (lat. 80°), and later, at various times, in other arctic localities, but in no case were the eggs preserved. During the pairing-time the birds toy with each other in the air, the male uttering a sweet, fluting whistle. On our coasts they are very gregarious, feeding on the extensive mud-flats in large flocks. It has been observed that the young birds that come in advance of the adults in August are strangely tame in disposition. In May, when the return migration to their arctic breeding-grounds takes place, the birds that arrive on our shores from the south have their rich nuptial colours fully developed.

Ruff and Reeve.

Machetes pugnax.

The male in spring dress has the face covered with yellowish caruncles; a tuft of long feathers on each side of the head; throat furnished with a shield-like ruff of feathers; general plumage mottled with ash, black, brown, yellowish, and white, the ornamental feathers being differently coloured in almost every individual. In his winter plumage the male has the face feathered, and is without the ruff and ear-like tufts; under parts pale buff. Length, twelve inches. The female, or reeve, is a third smaller than the male, and in colour resembles the male in his winter dress.

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If by chance the reader has seen in some museum or collection a group of ruffs in full breeding-plumage, displaying their immense, shield-like ruffs of many colours, their beauty, singularity, and wonderful variety must have astonished him. The curious feather ornament is similar in form in all the birds, but the colour varies infinitely, and it is hard to find two birds exactly alike. In some individuals it is entirely white, in others intense purple-black, and between these two extremes numberless varieties are found--buffs, reds, chestnuts, browns of many shades, and mottled black or brown and white, often beautifully streaked, or barred, or spotted, or delicately vermiculated. But, alas! these dead, stuffed birds, standing immovable by means of wire frames--a burlesque on the wonderful living creatures--are the only ruffs he is ever likely to see, since this bird, as a breeding species, has now been extirpated in England. On migration in autumn and spring it still visits our coasts, but in small numbers, and probably not very regularly. These visitors, or stragglers, are without the wonderful feather ornaments, which are nuptial, and assumed about the middle of May, to be worn only for about six weeks.

The ruff is polygamous; and in spring the birds have the habit of meeting on some small dry spot, or hillock, in a marsh to show off and fight for the possession of the females, or reeves. When engaging in combat the birds stand face to face, like fighting-cocks, their great feather shields erected, and thrust at each other with their long beaks. These combats usually take place early in the morning; and formerly, when the birds were abundant, the marshmen made it their business to find the hillocks used by the birds, and set horsehair nooses on them. The birds taken were fattened for the market, and it was owing to this system of persecution during the breeding season that the ruffs were reduced to a mere remnant; and the remnant has since been destroyed by collectors. In Lincolnshire the ruffs and reeves finally ceased to breed in 1882; in Norfolk the last few pairs of the once numerous British race lingered on until within the last three or four years.

Sanderling.

Calidris arenaria.

Feathers of the upper parts with dark brown centres, edged or spotted with rufous and tipped with grey; base of inner primaries and edge of greater wing-coverts white, and outer feathers of tail-coverts also white; face, neck, and upper breast pale chestnut spotted with dark brown; under parts white; bill black; legs and feet dark olive. Length, eight inches. In winter the upper plumage is ash-grey and the whole under parts white.

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The sanderling is the sole member of its genus, and differs from other sandpipers in having no hind toe. It arrives on our coasts in August, young and old birds coming together. During the autumn months it is found in small flocks, associating with dunlins and other species on the seashore, and it is also a visitor to the margins of inland waters. A few birds remain through the winter. In April the migrants reappear, and remain until May or June before going north to their breeding-grounds. The sanderling is circumpolar in its distribution, and breeds farther north than most of the arctic species. The eggs are greenish buff in ground-colour, spotted with various shades of brown, and have been described as ‘miniature curlews’ eggs of a pale colour.’ After the young have been reared the birds travel south along the shores of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. On the Pacific coast of America their migration extends from the arctic regions to Patagonia, a journey of nearly eight thousand miles.

Common Sandpiper.

Tringoïdes hypoleucus.

Upper parts ash-brown glossed with olive; chin white; sides of the neck and breast pale ash with dusky streaks; under parts and tips of outer tail-feathers white. Length, eight inches.

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The common sandpiper, known also as the summer snipe, is a summer visitor, to be met with from April until the end of September in suitable places throughout the British Islands. He is an exceeding lively and restless little bird, running nimbly or flitting along the margin of the water; when standing, perpetually bobbing his head and jerking his tail, on which account he is named ‘fidler’ in some districts; solitary in habit, or living with his mate only, choosing for a home the most secluded spots by streams and meres. In the southern half of England, where the localities that best suit him are fewest, he is very thinly diffused; in Scotland, on the other hand, he is most abundant. Seebohm writes of this sandpiper: ‘It is found in the same localities as those frequented by the dipper. High up among the mountains its melodious cry may be heard from the shingly margin of the stream, or the bird may not unfrequently be seen perched on a rock surrounded by water. Even here the sandpiper shows a partiality for certain haunts. The dipper loves their wildest mood, and the more they roll and toss over the rocky boulders, the more he seems at home; but the sandpiper prefers their slow-running reaches and sandy, driftwood-covered islets, where the shingly and oozy rush-grown banks afford it the haunt it needs.’

The slight nest of moss and dried leaves is placed among coarse grass or rushes, or in a hole or sheltered hollow in a bank near a stream. Four pear-shaped eggs are laid, very large for the bird, reddish white in ground-colour, spotted and speckled with dusky brown.

The sandpiper utters on the wing a clear musical note, thrice repeated; and in the pairing season the male has a trilling note, or song, emitted while hovering in the air. Both old and young birds are able to swim with ease, and, to escape danger, dive as readily as a moorhen or water-rail.

Green Sandpiper.

Helodromus ochropus.

Upper parts olive-brown glossed with green and spotted with white and dusky; under parts white; tail white, the central feathers barred with black. Length, nine and a quarter inches.

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The green sandpiper, like many other members of its family, is a visitor to the British Islands after the breeding season. This species differs from others in coming earlier and departing later. Half a century ago it was observed in Norfolk that the green sandpiper was to be met with during nearly every month in the year. The discovery was made later that it differs from other sandpipers in breeding in trees, in old nests of other birds, in squirrels’ dreys, and on mossy trunks and branches. On account of this singular habit its nest is rarely found; but that it has bred, and does breed, in this country scarcely admits of a doubt.

In continental Europe it is known to breed in Scandinavia, North and Central Russia, and North Germany. The eggs are four in number, pale greyish green in ground-colour, with small purple-brown spots and markings.

The green sandpiper frequents inland watercourses and swamps in wooded districts, and is excessively shy and wary in its habits; it flies rapidly, and utters when on the wing its shrill, piping note, thrice repeated.

Redshank.

Totanus calidris.

Summer plumage: upper parts pale brown closely streaked and barred with umber; secondaries nearly white; rump white, with a few dusky flecks; tail-feathers white barred with blackish; under parts white, streaked on the neck and breast with umber; legs and feet orange-red. Winter plumage: upper parts ash-colour; rump and under parts white, sparsely streaked and spotted with grey on the neck and breast. The female is slightly larger than the male. Length, eleven inches.

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The redshank, although not so numerous as formerly, is still a fairly common bird of the tidal flats and saltings on the east coast of England, and, in smaller numbers, in all suitable localities in Great Britain and Ireland. It is resident throughout the year, but is most plentiful in autumn and winter, at which time its numbers are increased by the arrival of migrants from northern Europe. Its food consists of marine worms, insects, and small crustaceans, and when its feeding-grounds are covered at flood-tide, it may be seen in close flocks on the small, dry areas, waiting for the water to subside. When thus congregated the birds are very loquacious, keeping up a perpetual confused sound of many voices, which has been compared to the chirruping concert of a flock of house-sparrows before settling down to roost of an evening. When the tide goes out the flocks break up, and the birds scatter in all directions to feed. The redshank begins to breed about the end of May, in fens and inland marshes, and on the saltings, out of reach of the tide.

The nest is a slight depression in the ground, with a few dried bents and grass-blades for lining, or with no lining at all, and is in some cases quite exposed; but it is more often placed among coarse grass, or in the centre of a tussock, which conceals it from view. Four eggs are laid, of a yellowish grey ground-colour, blotched and spotted with purplish brown. When its breeding-haunts are approached the bird displays the greatest excitement, and flies circling about high above the intruder’s head; and at such times a peculiar manner of flight, common to all the species of the genus Totanus, becomes very marked. The flight is slow and somewhat wavering, with an occasional downward stroke of the wings, which are much depressed, as of a duck about to drop on to the water. While flying in this way it clamours loudly, making the marsh ring with its shrill, piercing pipe, and at times dashes down close to the intruder’s head, as if to intimidate him; and if there should be young, or eggs about to hatch, it drops on to the ground, and flutters along the surface like a wounded bird, in order to draw the danger away. Most birds in the order which includes the sandpipers, snipes, and plovers, make use of this device when their young are in danger.

At all times the redshank is a vigilant and clamorous bird, and as the meaning of its ringing alarm-note is understood by all waders and waterfowl, it is heartily detested by the gunners on the sea-coast.

Greenshank.

Totanus canescens.

Head and neck greyish white streaked with blackish brown; mantle and secondaries nearly black; rump and tail-feathers white, the latter mottled and barred with dusky brown; under parts white, streaked and spotted with ash-brown; legs and feet olive-green. Length, fourteen inches. In the winter plumage the upper parts are greyer and the under parts pure white.

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The greenshank is an annual visitor during the spring and autumn migrations to the coasts and inland waters of Great Britain and Ireland; but it comes in small numbers. It has long been known that a number of pairs remain annually to breed in Scotland, and, according to Mr. Harvie-Brown, its breeding-range is extending in that country. Macgillivray wrote of this species: ‘Its habits are very similar to those of the redshank, with which it associates in autumn. It is extremely shy and vigilant.... Many individuals remain during the summer, when they are to be found by the lakes in the interior.... At that season it is easily discovered, for when you are, perhaps, more than a quarter of a mile distant, it rises into the air with clamorous cries, alarming all the birds in its neighbourhood, flies round the place of its nest, now wheeling off to a distance, again advancing towards you, and at intervals alighting by the edge of the lake, where it continues its cries, vibrating its body all the while.’

The nest is often placed at some distance from the water. The four eggs are of a warm stone-colour, spotted with brown and blotched with purplish grey.

Whimbrel.

Numenius phæopus.

Crown dark brown, with broad pale streak down the middle; upper parts like the curlew, but darker; axillaries white barred with brown. Length of female, eighteen inches.

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If it were our belief that the happiness of birds consisted in the degree of interest they, as species, excite in us, it could be said that the whimbrel suffers from his resemblance to the curlew. He is in form and colouring a lesser curlew with a less strongly marked individuality; ‘half-curlew’ and ‘jack-curlew,’ his two vernacular names, really imply that he is only half as attractive as the bigger bird. With us he is best known as an autumn and spring visitor, breeding only in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The migration eastwards begins at the end of July, and the birds continue to pass until September, flying rapidly and at a great height. Of the flocks that alight to rest and feed on our coasts, a few birds remain through the winter. The return migration begins in April, but the greatest number of the migrants appear on our coasts about the beginning of May. On account of their punctuality, the whimbrel is known in some districts as the ‘May bird.’ In language and habits they resemble curlews, but have shriller voices, a more rapid flight, are not so excessively shy, and do not confine themselves so exclusively to the sand-flats when feeding. Grass-grown saltings, low meadows, and pasture-lands in the neighbourhood of the sea are visited by them. The nest is placed on moors and heaths not far removed from the shore. A slight hollow among the heather or coarse grass is lined with dead stems and leaves, and four eggs are laid, in colour like those of the curlew, but differing in size. During the breeding season the whimbrels are extremely pugnacious, and attack the skuas, lesser black-backed gulls, and other egg-stealing species, and chase them from their nesting-ground with shrill, angry cries.

Common Curlew.

Numenius arquata.

General plumage reddish ash mottled with dusky spots; belly nearly white, with dusky streaks; rump and tail-coverts white; tail-feathers barred with dark brown. Length of the female, which is the larger, twenty-one to twenty-six inches.

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The curlew is the largest of its order in the British Islands; even the large woodcock looks small besides him, and among diminutive stints and sandpipers he is a veritable giant. An imperfect ibis in figure, in a pale sandy brown dress with dusky mottlings, he is, perhaps, the least handsome of the Limicolæ; in character he is one of the most interesting. What marvellously keen senses, what unfailing wariness and alertness must this large, inland-breeding species possess to keep its hold on existence in so many localities in this populous country in spite of incessant persecution! Most vigilant of birds, he is not vigilant on his own account only. He is the unsleeping sentinel of all the wild creatures that are pursued by man, warning them of danger with piercing cries that none fail to understand. The redshank, greenshank, and many other species, in this and other orders, are equally vociferous in the presence of danger, and their warnings are as promptly obeyed by all wild creatures that live with or near them; but a curious feature about the curlew is that he appears to take an intelligent interest in the welfare of beings not of his own species, and that he is distressed if they fail to act on his signal. In Yarrell’s ‘British Birds’ (4th edit. vol. iii.) Howard Saunders gives a striking instance of this characteristic. He describes seeing one of these birds, ‘after shrieking wildly over the head of a sleeping seal, swoop down, and apparently flick with its wings the unsuspecting animal, upon which the stalker was just raising his rifle.’ This, to my mind, is a far more wonderful instance of the help-giving instinct in the lower animals than that related by Edwards of Banff, in which a number of terns swooped down upon one of their number which he had wounded and was pursuing, and, taking its wings in their beaks, raised it, and bore it away out to sea beyond his reach. The case of the curlew reminds us rather of the action of the rhinoceros-bird in waking the rhinoceros on the appearance of an enemy; but between curlew and seal there is no such thing as commensalism, and no tie, excepting the common knowledge that they are living creatures, and must fly for life at the approach of man, their deadliest enemy, on account of his superior cunning and his power to slay them at long distances.

During a greater part of the year the curlew is a shore-bird, seeking its food on the sand-flats which become covered at high water. When the tide overflows the flats the birds go inland, often to a distance of several miles from the sea, and wait there until the tide turns. They appear to know just when this occurs, however far from the shore they may be, and, rising and calling to each other, set out on their return, to arrive at the exact time when feeding may begin. It is during these journeys to and fro between the sea and the moors that the curlew looks at his best when, seen at a moderate distance, he passes in small flocks, disposed in the form of a wedge, or letter V, his sharp-pointed wings and long, ibis-like beak clearly outlined against the blue sky. To most lovers of nature and wild bird life the voice of the curlew is his principal attraction. He is very loquacious, and his ordinary cry of two notes, from which he takes his name, is singularly clear, far-reaching, and wild in character. His night cries have given rise to some curious and gloomy superstitions in Scotland, where the curlew is called ‘whaup.’ According to Yarrell, the bird is a ‘long-nebbit thing,’ from which the Highlander prays to be delivered, classing it with ‘witches and warlocks.’ In the same work we read: ‘Saxby says that the Shetlanders regard with horror the very idea of using so uncanny a bird as food; in fact, a visitor who did so was afterwards alluded to, almost in a whisper, as “the man that ate the whaup.”’ Long may the ‘long-nebbit things’ continue to exist, to delight and invigorate us with their wild voices!

In spring--early in April as a rule--the curlews begin to forsake their feeding-grounds on the sandbanks and go inland to breed; but some unpaired or non-breeding birds remain through the summer by the sea. Wild extensive moors are its favourite summer haunts. ‘Its breeding-range,’ Seebohm says, ‘is similar to that of the red grouse and ring-ouzel.’ Its nesting-place, as a rule, is on the flat and boggy parts of the moor, and the nest is not unfrequently placed among reeds or rushes. The three or four eggs are olive-green, blotched and spotted with dark brown and dusky green. The young birds when hatched have short, straight, plover-like bills.

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The family Scolopacidæ, which comprises the phalaropes, avocet, snipes, sandpipers, godwits, the curlew, and whimbrel, numbers thirty-four (so-called) British species. Eighteen have been fully described, including the ruff, now extinct as a breeder, and fallen to the position of a mere straggler in this country. The ruff is one of three interesting and handsome species in this family of birds which have been extirpated in England during the present century. Another is the avocet (_Recurvirostra avocetta_), a singular wader, conspicuous and beautiful in black and white plumage, with a long bill, curved upwards. It bred in large numbers in fens and marshes in the eastern countries; but since about 1825, when it finally ceased to visit its old haunts in summer, it has been known only as a rare straggler. The third extirpated species is the fine black-tailed godwit (_Limosa melanura_), which bred annually in Norfolk and the neighbouring county until about 1835. It is now a visitor on migration, in very small numbers, to the east coast. The bar-tailed godwit, which has never bred in the British Islands, also appears occasionally in small numbers during migration. It breeds in northern Europe. The black-winged stilt, which resembles the avocet in its black and white dress, but has longer legs and a straight bill, is a rare straggler from southern Europe. Of several species of sandpipers that appear as stragglers on our coasts during migration, there are two that have some claim to be regarded as British species. One is the wood-sandpiper (_Totanus glareola_), which comes nearest to the green sandpiper in size, colour, and general appearance. It appears on the east and south coasts in autumn, in small flocks composed of young birds. The wood-sandpiper is known to have bred on one occasion in this country--at Prestwich Car, in Northumberland, in 1853. The second species is the spotted redshank, a rare and irregular visitor during migration, chiefly to the eastern counties. Its winter plumage is ash-grey above and white beneath; in summer it differs from all other sandpipers in its dark hue, the general colour being sooty black, the upper parts studded with triangular spots of pure white. It breeds in northern Europe in wooded situations, and is partial to burnt grounds, where its dark plumage assimilates in colour to the charred wood and blackened earth. Like the redshank, it is, when breeding, exceedingly vigilant and noisy when approached.

Eight species, all rare stragglers, remain to be mentioned: the broad-billed sandpiper, pectoral sandpiper, Bonaparte’s sandpiper, American stint, buff-breasted sandpiper, Bartram’s sandpiper, red-breasted snipe, and Esquimaux curlew. With the exception of the first, which breeds in northern Europe and winters in Africa, these are all American species, breeding in or near the arctic regions, and migrating in autumn to South America, in some cases as far south as Patagonia.

Roughly speaking, we may say that, of the thirty-four species of the snipe family described in most ornithological works as ‘British,’ seventeen or eighteen are breeders in or annual visitants to this country; six are occasional visitors--two or three of these are perhaps, annual visitors, but in very small numbers; and the remaining ten are all rare stragglers.

Arctic Tern.

Sterna macrura.

Bill blood-red; legs and feet coral-red; head and nape black; mantle pearl-grey; rump and tail white; under parts paler pearl-grey. Length, fourteen and a half inches.

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