British Birds in their Haunts Part 46

RED-NECKED GREBE PoDICIPES GRISEiGENA

Bill as long as the head, black, yellow at the base; distance from the nostrils to the tip eleven lines; crest very short; head and crest l.u.s.trous black; cheeks and throat mouse-colour; a black band along the nape; breast bright rust-red; lower parts white; flanks spotted with dusky; feet black, greenish yellow beneath. _Young birds_ have the head, neck, and back, dusky; throat, cheeks, breast, belly, and abdomen, silky white; sides of the breast spotted with grey. Length sixteen inches.

Eggs dirty greenish white.

The Red-necked Grebe is smaller than the Loon, from which it differs also in wanting the elongated crest, in having a more robust bill in proportion to its size, and is further distinguished by the grey hue of its cheeks, on account of which last character it is known in France under the name of _Grebe Jou-gris_. It is a native of the north-eastern parts of Europe, and is fairly common along the eastern coast of Great Britain from autumn to spring. In habits it differs little from the last described species, but is less common, occurring both in fresh-water lakes and along the sea-coast.

SLAVONIAN GREBE PoDICIPES AURITUS

Bill strong, shorter than the head, compressed throughout its whole length, black, with the tip red; eyes with a double iris, the inner yellow, the outer red; distance from the nostrils to the tip of the bill six or seven lines; head and bushy ruff glossy black; two horn-like crests orange-red; lore, neck, and breast, bright chestnut; upper plumage dusky; secondaries and under parts white; bill black, rose-coloured at the base and red at the tip. _Young_--crest and ruff wanting; upper plumage and flanks dusky ash, under parts white; irides white, surrounded by red. Eggs dirty white.

The Slavonian, or Horned Grebe, approaches so closely in habits to the two preceding species that it is unnecessary to say more than that it inhabits the northern parts of America and Europe, visiting us from autumn to spring. Audubon describes its nest as a rude structure of weeds, situated at a distance of about twelve feet from the water's edge; but other authors state that though it constructs its nest of these materials, it disposes it among weeds in such a way that it rises and falls with every alteration in the level of the water. It lays from five to seven eggs, and the male is supposed to a.s.sist in the office of incubation.

THE BLACK-NECKED OR EARED GREBE PoDICIPES NIGRICOLLIS

In summer the head and neck of this species are black, with a triangular patch of long golden-reddish feathers on the ear-coverts. Breast and belly white--flanks a dull chestnut, bill black, upcurved slightly. In winter it resembles the last named Grebe in plumage, excepting that it is white on the primaries. Length twelve inches.

This is essentially a bird of the south, visiting us in spring and summer, but also now and again in autumn and winter, but this more rarely. It is said to have bred occasionally in the southern counties, and more often in Suffolk and Norfolk. To the north it becomes more scarce, although it has been observed up to the Orkneys. Just a few instances are recorded from c.u.mberland, but the bird is rare on our western side. Very few have been met with in Ireland. In Algeria it is said to nest in "societies more densely crowded than any rookery," the nests being raised on islets with stout foundations constructed by the bird. In Denmark the nests observed were on tussocks at the edge of the lake, and they were made of moss, part of which the female used to cover her eggs with on leaving them.

THE LITTLE GREBE, OR DABCHICK PoDICIPES FLUVIaTILIS

Bill very short, s.h.i.+ning, compressed; no crest or ruff; distance from nostrils to tip of the bill five lines; tarsus with a double row of serratures behind; head black; cheeks bright chestnut; breast and flanks dusky, mottled with white; upper parts dark brown, tinged with green; primaries ash-brown; secondaries white at the base and on the inner web, under parts dusky ash, tinged on the thighs with reddish; bill black, whitish at the tip and base of the lower mandible; irides reddish brown; feet externally greenish brown, beneath flesh-colour. _Young birds_ are ash-brown above, slightly tinged with red; breast and flanks reddish white; belly pure white; bill brown and yellowish ash. Length nearly ten inches.

Eggs dirty white.

The Lesser Grebe, or, as it is more commonly called, the Dabchick, is the only species with which it is possible to become familiarly acquainted in Britain. It frequents rivers, ponds, and lakes, in all parts of the country, rarely flying, and still more rarely coming to land.

Rambling by the side of a sluggish river, the sides of which are lined with reeds or bulrushes, one may often descry, paddling about with undecided motion, what appears to be a miniature Duck no longer than a Blackbird. It does not, like the Moor-hen, swim with a jerking movement, nor when alarmed does it half swim and half fly in a direct line for the nearest bank of weeds. If you are un.o.bserved, it swims steadily for a short distance, then suddenly disappears, making no splash or noise, but slipping into the water as if its body were lubricated. It is diving for its food, which consists of water insects, molluscs, small fish and worms. As suddenly as it dives so suddenly does it reappear, most likely not far from the spot where you first observed it:

A di-dapper peering through a wave, Who, being looked on, ducks as quickly in.

SHAKSPEARE.

Another short swim and it dives again; and so it goes on, the time spent under the water being far in excess of that employed in taking breath. Advance openly or make a noise, it wastes no time in idle examinations or surmises of your intentions, but slips down as before, not, however, to reappear in the same neighbourhood. Its motives are different: it now seeks not food, but safety, and this it finds first by diving, and then by propelling itself by its wings under water in some direction which you cannot possibly divine; for it by no means follows that it will pursue the course to which its bill pointed when it went down. It can alter its line of flight beneath the water as readily as a swallow can change its course of flight through the air.

But wherever it may reappear, its stay is now instantaneous; a trout rising at a fly is not more expeditious. You may even fail to detect it at all. It may have ensconced itself among weeds, or it may be burrowing in some subaqueous hole. That it has the power of remaining a long while submerged, I have no doubt. There is in the parish of Stamford Dingley, Berks, a large and beautiful spring of water, clear as crystal, the source of one of the tributaries of the Thames. I was once bending over the bank of this spring, with a friend, watching the water, some five or six feet down, as it issued from a pipe-like orifice and stirred the sand around like the bubbling of a cauldron, when there suddenly pa.s.sed between us and the object we were examining a form so strange that we were at first doubtful to what cla.s.s of animals we should refer it. In reality, it was a Dabchick, which, alarmed probably by the noise of our conversation, was making for a place of safety. As it pa.s.sed within two or three feet of our faces, we could distinctly see that it propelled itself by its wings; but it appeared not to have observed us, for it kept on in a direct course towards the head of the spring. We searched long in the hope of discovering it again, but failed; and as there were no weeds among which it could possibly hide above water, and we could examine the bottom of the spring almost as thoroughly as if it contained air only, we could but conclude that our apparition had taken refuge in a hole under the bank.

Early in spring, when Dabchicks leave the small streams and watercourses for broader pieces of water, they have been observed to fly; and during the building season also they have been seen circling round in the air near the locality of their intended nest. The nest itself is constructed of weeds of all kinds, forming a thick ma.s.s raised but a few inches above the surface of the water, and invariably far enough from the bank to be inaccessible except by wading. The Dabchick lays five or six long-shaped eggs, pointed at either end, of a chalky white colour. These the bird, when she leaves the nest, covers with weeds for the purpose of concealment, and on her return continues the work of incubation without removing the covering, so that the eggs soon lose their white hue, and before the period of hatching have become very dirty. The young birds can swim and dive immediately on leaving the egg. I have never myself seen a Dabchick fly through the air or walk on land, neither have I ever heard its note. The latter, a low clicking and chattering sort of noise, it is said to utter in spring. It breeds even in St. James' Park. Females smaller than males.

ORDER TUBINARES

FAMILY PROCELLARIIDae

THE FULMAR PETREL PROCELLARIA GLACIaLIS

Head, neck, under plumage, and tail, white; wings bluish ash, the primaries brownish grey; beak, irides, and feet, yellow.

_Young of the year_ grey tinged with brown, mottled on the back with deeper brown; bill and feet yellowish ash. Length nineteen inches. Eggs white.

In some of the Outer Hebrides Fulmars breed; but the great station, to which tens of thousands annually resort, is the remote island of St. Kilda. To the Fulmar indeed, and in a less degree to the Gannet and two or three other sea-birds, the island is indebted for its being able to boast of human inhabitants. Eggs and birds, fresh or salted, furnish them with food; the Fulmar with oil: and feathers pay their rent. In the Shetlands it is said to be increasing.

Professor James Wilson says: 'The oil is extracted from both the young and old birds, which, however, they must seize on suddenly and strangle, else, as a defensive movement, the desired (and pungent) oil is immediately squirted in the face and eyes of their opponent.' This oil is ejected, not, as it is sometimes said, through tubular nostrils, but directly through the throat and open mouth. The flesh of the Fulmar is also a favourite food with the St. Kildans, who like it all the better on account of its oily nature.

The Fulmar is essentially a sea-bird, and never comes to land except in the breeding season, when it builds its nest of herbage on the gra.s.sy shelves of the highest cliffs, and lays a single egg, if which be taken, it lays no more. The young birds are fed with oil by the parents, and on being molested spurt out through the throat and open mouth the same fluid, which, being of a rank smell, infects not only the nest, but the whole neighbourhood. The young birds, which are taken early in August, are boiled, and made to furnish a large quant.i.ty of fat, which is skimmed off and preserved for winter use.

The old birds are considered great dainties.

In the Arctic regions the Fulmar is well known for its a.s.siduity in attending on whale s.h.i.+ps, keeping an eager watch for anything thrown over; and when the operation of cutting up a whale is going on, helping itself most greedily to stray pieces of offal, and venturing so near as to be easily knocked down by a boathook or to be taken by hand.

Owing to the rankness of its food, the smell of the Fulmar is very offensive. A specimen recently shot was brought to me in Norfolk, early in January, 1862, and being a great rarity, was carefully preserved and set up; but on being sent home from the bird-stuffer's it was banished to an outhouse, where it has remained for three months without losing anything of its offensive odour.

THE GREAT SHEARWATER PUFFINUS MAJOR

Bill two inches long; tail pointed; upper plumage dusky; under, deep ash grey. Length eighteen inches.

The Great Shearwater is far less abundant than the preceding species, and may indeed be considered a rarity. A few solitary specimens have from time to time been shot on various parts of the coast, and they have occasionally been noticed in considerable numbers off the coast of Cornwall. In the Scilly Islands, where they are called 'Hackbolts', they are said to be yet more frequent. The Great Shearwater differs little in habits, as far as they are known, from the other species.

THE MANX SHEARWATER PUFFINUS ANGLORUM

Bill an inch and a half long; tail rounded; upper plumage brownish black l.u.s.trous; under white; sides of the neck barred with grey; sides spotted with grey. Length fourteen inches.

Eggs nearly round; pure white.

That a bird whose generic name is _Puffinus_ should sometimes be called a 'Puffin' is not surprising; and the reader who meets with the name in books should satisfy himself whether the subject of his study be an Auk or a Shearwater, before he admits as facts any statements about the 'Puffin' which may fall in his way. Yarrell, for instance, gives the name of Puffin to the bird already described under the name of _Fratercula Arctica_, while by Montagu that bird is described under the name of 'Coulterneb', 'Puffin' being given as a synonym for the Shearwater. Off Cornwall it is called _skiddeu_ and _brew_.

The Shearwater is so called from its mode of flight, in which it 'shears' or skims the water; and its distinctive name, Manx, it owes to its having been formerly very abundant in the Calf[60] of Man, a small island lying south of the Isle of Man.

The Manx Shearwater is, during the greater portion of the year, an ocean-bird, and only ventures on sh.o.r.e during the breeding season. It then repairs to some island, or portion of the coast little frequented by man, and in society with other birds of the same species there takes up its summer quarters. A sandy or light earthy soil, scantily furnished with vegetation, is preferred to any other station. Its nest is a hole in the ground, either the deserted burrow of a rabbit or a tunnel excavated by itself, or less frequently it lays its one egg in the crevice of a rock. During the day Shearwaters, for the most part, remain concealed in their holes, and lie so close that they will suffer themselves to be dug out with a spade and make no attempt to escape. Towards evening they quit their hiding-places, and paddle or fly out to sea in quest of food. This consists of small fish and other marine animals which swim near the surface, and are caught by the birds either while they are floating or 'shearing' the water. No nest ever contains more than one egg, but that one and the chick which it produces are objects of the greatest solicitude.

Unfortunately for the poor Shearwaters, their young, though fed on half-digested fish oil, are delicate eating; consequently, some of the stations of these birds have been quite depopulated, and in others their numbers have been greatly thinned.

Willughby tells us that in his time 'Puffins' were very numerous in the Calf of Man, and that fully fledged young birds, taken from the nests, were sold at the rate of ninepence a dozen. He adds, that in order to keep an accurate reckoning of the number taken, it was customary to cut off, and retain, one of each bird's legs. The consequence was that the state in which the birds were sent to market was supposed to be their natural condition, and the Puffin was popularly believed to be a 'monopod' (one-footed bird).

This station is now nearly, if not quite, deserted; but colonies still exist in Annet, one of the Scilly Islands, on the south coast of Wales, in the Orkneys, and in the Shetlands. In the Scilly Islands the Shearwater is called a Crew, from the harsh note uttered by the bird when its burrow is invaded; in the north, a Lyrie or Scrabe.

[60] 'Calf', on many parts of the coast, is a name given to the smaller of two rocks in proximity, of which the larger is called the 'Cow'.

THE STORM-PETREL PROCELLARIA PELaGICA

General plumage like the last; tail even at the extremity; legs moderate; membranes black. Length scarcely six inches. Eggs white.

Under the name of 'Mother Carey's Chickens' the Petrels must be known to all readers of voyages. According to the belief popular in the forecastle, these birds are invisible during calm or bright weather; but when the sky lowers, and a storm is impending, suddenly, no one knows whence, forth come these ill-omened heralds of the tempest, inspiring more terror than would be caused even by the hurricane which they are supposed to commence. In reality, the Petrels are scarcely birds of the day; they love to hide themselves in holes and behind stones. It is not, therefore, surprising that when the sea is calm, and the sun bright, they lurk in their hiding-places, if near enough to land; or, if on the open ocean, lie asleep on the surface of the water, unnoticed, because still and of small size. An overcast sky, however, awakes them as twilight would, and they leave their hiding-places, or rise from their watery bed, not because a storm is impending, but because the cloud which accompanies the storm brings them the desired gloom. When in motion they are more conspicuous than when at rest, and they follow the wake of a s.h.i.+p for the same reason that other sea-fowl do, for the sake of the offal thrown overboard.

They will sometimes accompany a s.h.i.+p for days, showing that they have untiring power of wing, and to all but the superst.i.tious greatly relieving the monotony of the voyage.

The Petrel builds its nest, a rude structure of weeds and rubbish, either in the hole of a cliff or under stones on the beach, and lays a single egg. It rarely comes abroad by day, and if disturbed ejects from its mouth an oily matter, after the manner of the Fulmar. Towards evening it comes forth from its stronghold, and skims the sea in quest of food, which consists of floating animal matter of all kinds. Its name, Petrel, or Little Peter, is derived from its habit of occasionally skimming along so close to the surface of the sea as to dip its feet in the water, and present the appearance of walking; but its ordinary flight is very like that of the Swallow.