British Birds in their Haunts Part 35

The flesh of the Quail is considered a great delicacy, and many thousands are caught, imported to the London markets, for the table.

They are placed in low flat cages, scarcely exceeding in height the stature of the bird, for the reason that in confinement, the birds, in their effort to escape, would beat themselves against the upper bars, and destroy themselves. These are said to be all old males.

Quails inhabit the eastern continent, from China--where they are said to be carried about in winter by the natives, to keep their hands warm--to the British Isles. With us they are nowhere plentiful, but are occasionally shot by sportsmen in most parts of the country. In corn-fields, on the sh.o.r.es of Belfast Lough, in the north of Ireland, they are of frequent occurrence.

In Palestine the Quails still come up in the night, as of old, and "cover the land."

[44] Colonel C. H. Smith.

ORDER FULICARIae

FAMILY RALLIDae

LAND RAIL, OR CORN CRAKE CREX PRATENSIS

Upper feathers dusky brown bordered with reddish ash; over the eye and down the side of the head, a streak of ash; wing-coverts rust-red; quills reddish brown; throat, belly, and abdomen, whitish; breast pale yellowish brown; flanks barred with white and rust-red; upper mandible brown, lower whitish; irides brown; feet reddish brown. Length ten inches. Eggs yellowish brown spotted and speckled with grey and reddish brown.

Few persons can have spent the summer months in the country, and enjoyed their evenings in the open air, without having grown familiar with the note of the Corn Crake; yet, strange to say, among those who have heard it on numberless occasions, not one in a hundred (leaving sportsmen out of the account) have ever seen one alive. Its whole life, while with us, seems to be spent among the long gra.s.s and stalks of hay or corn, between which its long legs and slender body give it peculiar facility of moving, and it is only when hard pressed that it rises from the ground. Its flight is low, with its legs hanging down; and it usually drops into the nearest hedge or cover which presents itself, and from which it is not easily flushed a second time.

The Corn Crake used to be found, during summer, in all the counties of England, but is less frequent in Cornwall and Devons.h.i.+re than in the counties farther east, and increases in abundance as we advance northwards. In the north of Ireland it is to be heard in every meadow and cornfield, and here its incessant cry in the evenings is monotonous, if not wearisome; in many parts of Scotland it is also very common, and here it is much more frequently seen. In waste lands, where it can find no continuous corn, it takes refuge in patches of flags, rushes, or tall weeds, and if watched for, may be seen leaving its place of concealment, and quietly walking along the gra.s.s, lifting its feet high, and stooping from time to time to pick up its food, consisting of worms, insects, snails, and seeds.

The Land Rail is considered a delicate article of food, and has long been prized as such. In France it used to be termed, in old sporting phraseology, 'King of the Quails', the Quail being a bird which it much resembles it colouring.

The Corn Crake places its nest, which is composed of a few straws, in a hollow in the ground, among corn or hay, and lays from eight to ten, or rarely, twelve eggs. The young birds are able to accompany their parents in their mazy travels as soon as they have left the sh.e.l.l. The note of the old bird is heard much later in the season than the song of most other birds, and is probably employed as a call-note to the young, which, but for some such guidance, would be very likely to go astray. In the still evenings of August, I have, while standing on the sh.o.r.e of the island of Islay, distinctly heard its monotonous _crek-crek_ proceeding from a cornfield on the opposite sh.o.r.e of Jura, the Sound of Islay which intervened being here upwards of half a mile wide. On ordinary occasions it is not easy to decide on the position and distance of the bird while uttering its note; for the Corn Crake is a ventriloquist of no mean proficiency.

THE SPOTTED CRAKE PORZANA MARUETTA

Forehead, throat, and a streak over the eye, lead-grey; upper plumage olive-brown, spotted with black and white; breast and under plumage olive and ash, spotted with white, the flanks barred with white and brown; bill greenish yellow, orange at the base; irides brown; feet greenish yellow. Length nine inches. Eggs yellowish red, spotted and speckled with brown and ash.

The Spotted Crake is smaller in size than the Corn Crake, and far less common. It is shot from time to time in various parts of Great Britain, especially in the fen countries, to which its habits are best suited. It frequents watery places which abound with reeds, flags, and sedges, and among these it conceals itself, rarely using its wings, but often wading over mud and weeds, and taking freely to the water, in which it swims with facility. The nest, which is a large structure, composed of rushes and reeds, is placed among thick vegetation, near the water's edge, and contains from seven to ten eggs.

The drainage and improving of waste lands has driven this Crake away, but its eggs have been found in Roscommon, and a nestling in Kerry.

THE LITTLE CRAKE PORZANA PARVA

Head brown; upper plumage olive-ash, the feathers black in the centre; middle of the back black, sprinkled with white; throat, face, and breast, bluish grey, without spots; abdomen and flanks indistinctly barred with white and brown; wings without spots, reaching to the extremity of the tail; bill green, reddish at the base; irides red; feet green. Length seven and a half inches. Eggs yellowish, spotted with olive-brown.

This species appears to be generally diffused throughout the eastern and southern countries of Europe, but is very rare in England, coming now and again from spring to autumn. It is a shy bird, like the last species, confining itself exclusively to reedy marshes, and building its nest close to the water's edge. It lays seven or eight eggs.

THE WATER RAIL RALLUS AQUaTICUS

Upper feathers reddish brown, with black centres; under plumage in front lead-colour, behind and on the flanks barred with black and white; bill red, tinged with red above and at the tip; irides red; feet flesh-colour. Length ten inches. Eggs yellowish, spotted with ash-grey and red-brown.

The Water Rail is a generally diffused bird, but nowhere very common, haunting bushy and reedy places near the banks of rivers and lakes, and especially the Norfolk Broads, where it feeds on aquatic insects, worms, and snails. Like the Crakes, it makes more use of its legs than of its wings, and places its safety in concealment. Rarely does it take flight, and then only when closely hunted; still more rarely does it expose itself outside its aquatic jungle. I recollect on one occasion, during an intense frost, when every marsh was as impenetrable to a bird's bill as a sheet of marble, pa.s.sing in a carriage near a stream which, having just issued from its source, was unfrozen; I then saw more than one Water Rail hunting for food among the short rushes and gra.s.s on the water's edge. Its mode of walking I thought was very like that of the Moor-hen, but it had not the jerking movement of body characteristic of that bird, which alone would have sufficed to distinguish it, even if I had not been near enough to detect the difference of colour. Either the severity of the weather had sharpened its appet.i.te, and made it less shy than usual, or it had not learnt to fear a horse and carriage, for it took no notice of the intrusion on its privacy, but went on with its search without condescending to look up. The Water Rail, then, unlike the Corn Crake, remains with us all the winter. When forced to rise, this bird flies heavily straight forwards, at no great elevation above the rushes, with its legs hanging loose, and drops into the nearest thicket of weeds. A nest and eggs of this bird are thus described in the _Annals of Natural History_: 'The bird had selected for her nest a thick tuft of long gra.s.s, hollow at the bottom, on the side of the reed pond; the nest, about an inch and a half thick, was composed of withered leaves and rushes; it was so covered by the top of the gra.s.s, that neither bird, nest, nor eggs could be seen; the entrance to the nest was through an aperture of the gra.s.s, directly into the reeds, opposite to where any one would stand to see the nest.' The number of eggs is about ten or eleven. Its note during breeding is a loud, groaning _cro-o-o-an_.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Spotted Crake

Little Crake

Corn Crake or Land-Rail [M]

Water Rail [M]

[_face p. 230._]]

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Spoonbill [M]

Moor Hen.

Coot [F]

Bittern [M]]

THE MOOR-HEN GALLiNULA CHLoROPUS

Upper plumage deep olive-brown; under tail-coverts and edge of the wing white, the former with a few black feathers; under plumage slate colour, the flanks streaked with white; base of the bill and a s.p.a.ce on the forehead bright orange, point of the bill yellow; irides red; feet olive-brown; a red ring round the tibia. In _females_ the colours are brighter than in the _males_. _Young birds_ have the front of the neck whitish, the belly grey, the base of the beak and legs olive-brown. Length thirteen inches. Eggs buff, spotted and speckled with orange-brown.

Of the two common names of this bird, 'Moor-hen' and 'Water-hen', the former is that which is more generally in use, though the latter is the more appropriate. The bird frequents moors, it must be admitted, but only such as are watery; while there is scarcely a river, lake, ca.n.a.l, brook, or even pond, of moderate dimensions, which Moor-hens do not either inhabit all the year round or occasionally visit. The name is objectionable on other accounts; the male bird is called a Moor-hen as well as the female, while the terms Moor-fowl and Moor-c.o.c.k have long been applied to the Ptarmigan. For these reasons, I suppose, many recent ornithologists Anglicize the systematic name, and call it the Gallinule, which means 'little fowl', and is suggestive of the half-domestic habits of the bird, under certain circ.u.mstances.

The Gallinule being a common bird of some size, conspicuous colours, and active habits, is an interesting appendage of our rivers and pieces of artificial water. Its note, something between a bark and a croak, is as well known in watered districts as the note of the Cuckoo, and is often uttered when the bird has no intention of being seen. Any one who may happen to be walking on the bank of a reedy pond may perhaps hear its strange cry and see the bird itself at some little distance, swimming about with a restless jerky motion, often dipping its head, and with every dip turning slightly to the right or the left. If he wishes for a nearer view, let him advance quietly, concealing himself as much as he can; for if he proceeds carelessly, and takes off his eyes for any considerable time from the spot where he observed it, when he looks again it will have disappeared, taken wing, he may imagine, for some distant part of the water. Not so; the cunning bird, as soon as a stranger was perceived within a dangerous proximity, steered quietly for the nearest tuft of reeds, among which it lies ensconced till he has pa.s.sed on his way. Or it rose out of the water, and, with its feet trailing on the surface, made for a similar place of concealment; or dived to the bottom, where it still remains clinging to the weeds. Perhaps it lies close to his feet, having sunk beneath the water, and, aided by feet and wings, rowed a subaqueous course to an often-tried thicket of rushes, where, holding on with its feet to the stems of submerged weeds, it remains perfectly still, leaving nothing above the surface of the water but the point of its beak. If the observer suspects the whereabouts of its concealment, he may beat the rushes with his stick and produce no effect; the bird knows itself to be safe where it is and will make no foolish attempt to better itself. A water spaniel or Newfoundland dog will be more effective. Very often an animal of this kind is an overmatch for its sagacity, and seizes it in his mouth before the poor bird was aware that the water itself was to be invaded; but more frequently it discovers an onset of this nature in time to clear itself from its moorings, and das.h.i.+ng out with a splas.h.i.+ng movement of feet and wings skims across the pond to another lurking-place, and defies further pursuit.

The Gallinule, though an excellent swimmer and diver, belongs to the Waders; it has, consequently, free use of its legs on land, and here it is no less nimble than in the water. When induced to change the scene it steps ash.o.r.e, and, with a peculiar jerking motion of its tail, showing the white feathers beneath, and very conspicuous by its bright red bill, which harmonizes pleasantly with the green gra.s.s, it struts about and picks up worms, insects, snails, or seeds, with unflagging perseverance, making no stay anywhere, and often running rapidly. If surprised on these occasions, it either makes for the water, or flies off in a line for some thick hedge or patch of brushwood, from which it is very difficult to dislodge it.

Its mode of life is pretty much the same all the year round; it is not a traveller from choice. Only in severe weather, when its haunts are bound up with ice, it is perforce compelled to s.h.i.+ft its quarters. It then travels by night and searches for unfrozen streams. At such times it appears occasionally in pretty large numbers in places where usually a few only resort. When the south of Europe is visited by severe frosts it is supposed even to cross the Mediterranean, it having been observed in Algeria, feeding in marshes in half-social parties, where a day or two before none had been seen. To the faculties of swimming and running it adds that of perching on trees; this it does habitually, as it roosts in low bushy trees; and it has besides the power of walking cleverly along the branches.

In the neighbourhood of houses where it has long been undisturbed, it loses much of its shy nature, and will not only allow itself to be approached within a short distance, but, becoming half-domesticated, will consort with the poultry in the farmyard, and come with them to be fed. It is fond also of visiting the kitchen-garden, where it is apt to make itself unwelcome, by helping itself to the tenderest and best of the vegetables. Bishop Stanley, in his entertaining _Book on Birds_, gives some highly amusing anecdotes of the Gallinule.

It builds its nest on the stump of a tree, or in a bush among wet places, or in the roots of alders, but often it is placed on the low-lying branch of a tree overhanging the water. The nest is a large structure, made of rushes and dry flags, and is easy of detection. It is very liable, too, to be swept away by any sudden rise in a river.

Added to which, the young frequently fall a prey to pike. But as the bird has two, and sometimes three, broods in a year, each consisting of from six to eight, it remains undiminished in numbers. The nest is sometimes placed in a tree at a distance from the water. When this is the case, as the habits of the young birds are aquatic, immediately on their breaking the egg, the old birds convey them in their claws to the water. An instance is recorded in the _Zoologist_ of a female Gallinule being seen thus employed carrying a young one in each foot; it has been observed, too, that in such cases the male bird builds a second nest, near the water's edge, to which the young retire for shelter during the night, until they are sufficiently fledged to accompany their parents to their ordinary roosting-places in trees.

THE COMMON COOT FuLICA aTRA

Upper plumage black, tinged on the back with grey; under parts bluish grey; frontal disk large, pure white; bill white, tinged with rose-red; irides crimson; feet grey, tinged with green; part of the tibia orange-yellow. Length sixteen inches. Eggs brownish, speckled with reddish brown.