Part 23
The heronry is a most interesting place to visit when the young birds are nearly old enough to fly, and are most hungry and vociferous, and stand erect on the nests or neighbouring branches, looking very strange and tall and conspicuous on the tree-tops. The nests are of various sizes, and have a very disordered appearance, some of them looking like huge bundles of sticks and weed-stalks flung anyhow into the trees. At this period the parent birds are extremely active, and if the colony be a large one, they are seen arriving singly, or in twos and threes, at intervals of a few minutes throughout the day. Each time a great blue bird with well-filled gullet is seen sweeping downwards the young birds in all the nests are thrown into a great state of excitement, and greet the food-bearer with a storm of extraordinary sounds. The cries are powerful and harsh, but vary greatly, and resemble grunts and squeals and prolonged screams, mingled with chatterings and strange quacking or barking notes. When the parent bird has settled on its own nest, and fed its young, the sounds die away; but when several birds arrive in quick succession the vocal tempest rages continuously among the trees, for every young bird appears to regard any old bird on arrival as its own parent bringing food to satisfy its raging hunger.
The cry of the adult is powerful and harsh, and not unlike the harsh alarm-cry of the peacock.
Common Bittern.
Botaurus stellaris.
Crown and nape black; general colour buff, irregularly barred above and streaked below with black; feathers of the neck long, and forming a ruff; bill greenish yellow; legs and feet green. Length, thirty inches.
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The bittern, formerly a common bird, is hardly entitled to a place in this book, since it has long been extirpated as a breeding species. It is, however, a noteworthy fact that, whereas other species that have been driven out, such as the great bustard, spoonbill, avocet, black tern, and several more, appear now as only rare occasional visitors in our country, the bittern comes back to us annually, as if ever seeking to recover its lost footing in our island. And that he would recover it, and breed again in suitable places as in former times, is not to be doubted, if only the human inhabitants would allow it; but, unhappily, this bird, like the ruff, hoopoe, and kingfisher, when stuffed and in a glass case, is looked upon as an attractive ornament by persons of a low order of intelligence and vulgar tastes.
[Illustration: _PLATE IX._ BITTERN. ⅕ nat. size.]
The bittern is a bird of singular appearance. On the wing he resembles the heron, but it is a rare thing to see him abroad in the daytime. He is strictly nocturnal in habits, and passes the daylight hours concealed in thick reed-beds in extensive marshes. His buff and yellow and chestnut colour, mottled and barred and pencilled with black and brown, gives him a strange tigrine or cat-like appearance; it is a colouring well suited to his surroundings, where yellow and brown dead vegetation is mixed with the green, and the stems and loose leaves of the reeds throw numberless spots and bars of shade beneath. Secure in its imitative colouring, the bittern remains motionless in its place until almost trodden upon. Its active life begins in the evening, when it leaves its hiding-place to prey on fishes, eels, frogs, voles, small birds, and insects, and every living thing it finds and is able to conquer with a blow of its sharp, powerful bill.
When flying he utters a harsh, powerful scream, and he has, besides, a strange vocal performance, called ‘booming’--a sound that resembles the bellowing of a bull. Formerly, when the bittern was a common bird in England, this extraordinary evening performance was the subject of some superstitious notions, and it was commonly believed that, to produce so great a volume of sound, the bird, when screaming, thrust its beak and head into the water. Thus, in Thomson’s ‘Seasons’ we read:--
The bittern knows his time, with, bill submerged, To shake the sounding marsh.
In March or April the nest is made on the ground, among the thick reeds, and is formed of weeds, sticks, and rushes. The eggs are four in number, of an olive-brown colour, sometimes with a greenish shade.
Besides the two species described there are no fewer than eight herons in our list of British birds, most of these being very rare stragglers to our shores:--
Purple heron (_Ardea purpurea_) is a straggler from the continent of Europe; it breeds in Holland.
Great white heron (_Ardea alba_).--Eight examples of this species, a straggler from South-eastern Europe, have been obtained in this country.
Little egret (_Ardea gazetta_).--A waif from Southern Europe; it also inhabits Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Buff-backed heron (_Ardea bubulcus_).--Inhabits Southern Europe; three examples have been obtained.
Squacco heron (_Ardea ralloïdes_).--From Southern Europe; occasionally seen on migration in England.
Little bittern (_Ardetta minuta_).--This bittern almost deserves to rank as a British species, as it is of somewhat frequent occurrence, and has been known to breed in the Broads of Norfolk, and in other localities in Great Britain. It is a summer visitor to most countries in Europe.
Night heron (_Nycticorax griseus_).--This heron has a range almost as extensive as that of the barn-owl, and breeds in many localities throughout the continent of Europe. The question as to whether or not it has ever bred in England has not been settled; but it is now an almost annual spring and autumn visitor to our country, and it is hardly to be doubted that it would breed with us if unmolested, or, in other words, allowed to live.
American bittern (_Botaurus lentiginosus_).--A few examples of this North American bittern have been obtained in this country.
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Two other families in the present order (Herodiones) are represented by occasional visitors in the list of British birds--two storks (Ciconiidæ), and a spoonbill, and an ibis (Platalaidæ):--
White stork (_Ciconia alba_).--Common in Holland, and an occasional visitor to the east coast of England.
Black stork (_Ciconia nigra_).--A rare straggler from continental Europe.
Spoonbill (_Platalea leucorodia_).--Now an occasional straggler to Great Britain; formerly a regular breeder in heronries in several localities in England.
Glossy ibis (_Plegadis falcinellus_).--A very rare straggler from Southern Europe.
Grey Lag Goose.
Anser cinereus.
[Illustration: FIG. 75.--GREY LAG GOOSE. ¹⁄₁₄ natural size.]
Head, neck, and upper parts greyish brown; lower breast and abdomen dull white with a few black spots; bluish grey rump and wing-coverts; bill flesh-coloured, with a white nail at the tip; legs and feet flesh-coloured. Length, thirty-five inches.
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Eight species of geese are counted among British birds; two of these--the snow-goose (_Chen albatus_) and the red-breasted goose (_Bernicla ruficollis_)--may be dismissed at once as rare stragglers to the British Islands. The other six are all winter visitors to our coasts, and are divisible into two natural groups--the grey geese (counting four species), all large birds, brownish grey in colour, and feeders on land; and the black, or dark-coloured geese (two species), very dark in colour, very much smaller in size, and feeders on the tidal flats.
The grey lag is the largest species in the first group, and the only goose that breeds within the limits of the United Kingdom. It was formerly a common summer resident, and bred in the eastern counties of England; it is now confined as a breeding species to a few localities in Scotland and the Hebrides, and in all these last refuges it is said to be rapidly diminishing. That it will diminish still further, until the vanishing-point is reached, hardly admits of a doubt. As a winter migrant from northern Europe it will long continue to visit our coasts, and as a domestic bird we shall have it always with us; for the grey lag is supposed to be the species from which our familiar bird has descended.
The grey lag goose pairs for life, and is gregarious, but is said not to associate with geese of other species. It feeds on grass and young shoots, and in the autumn on grain, and spends nearly the whole day in feeding, and resorts at dark to some open level space to roost, where it is almost impossible to approach within gunshot of the flock, owing to its watchfulness. The grey lag makes a large nest of reeds and grass, lined with moss, and lays six eggs, sometimes a larger number. During incubation the gander keeps guard over his mate, and afterwards assists her in rearing the young. These are led back to the nest every evening by the goose, and sleep under her wing. The male begins to moult a month earlier than the female, and when the time comes he leaves her in sole charge of the young, and withdraws to some hiding-place, or spends the daylight hours on the water, coming to the land in the evening to feed. The goose begins her moult after the young are able to take care of themselves.
The grey lag goose does not range so far north as the allied species; it is only in Norway, where the summer is longest, owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream, that it is found nesting north of the arctic circle.
Bean-Goose.
Anser segetum.
The bean-goose differs from the preceding species in its more slender shape and longer bill, which is orange-colour in the middle, black at the base and on the nail; and in its darker colour and the absence of black marks on the breast, and the bluish grey colour on the shoulder of the wing; legs and feet orange-yellow. Length, thirty-four inches.
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This species is more arctic in its range than the grey lag, and has not been known to breed in this country, except in a domestic state. It visits Scotland, Ireland, and the north and east coasts of England, in winter. It is less in size than the grey lag, but its habits are similar: by day it feeds on the wolds and stubbles, and its love of grain has won for it the common name of bean-goose, as well as its scientific name, _segetum_. Its flight is somewhat laboured, with measured wing-beats, but powerful and rapid, and the birds travel in skeins, or in a phalanx formation. It breeds in extensive marshes and lakes, making its nest on the ground among the rushes on small islands. The nest is a slight hollow lined with dead grass and moss, and down from the parent bird: three or four eggs are laid, creamy white in colour, with a rough granular surface. Before the young are able to fly the moulting season begins, when the birds lose the power of flight, as is the case with all the geese; and according to Seebohm’s interesting account, even in the remote and desolate districts in Siberia, to which this bird resorts to breed, the moulting season is one of great danger to it. He says: ‘The Samoyades in the valley of the Petchora gave us glowing accounts of the grand battues which they used to have at these times, surrounding the geese, killing them with sticks, and collecting sacks full of down and feathers.’
Pink-footed Goose.
Anser brachyrhynchus.
Colour of plumage as in the bean-goose, but with the bluish grey on the shoulder of the wing as in the grey lag goose; upper mandible pink in the centre; base, edges, and nail black; legs and feet pink. Length, twenty-eight inches.
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This goose very closely resembles the bean-goose in habits, colour, and general appearance; the only difference of any importance between the two species consists in the smaller beak of the pink-foot, from which it takes its name of _brachyrhynchus_ (short-billed), and in its legs being pink instead of yellow. It was first described as a distinct species about fifty years ago, but is still regarded by some authorities as only an ‘island form’ of the bean-goose. The pink colour of the bill and feet is found not to be constant, and Seebohm says, ‘It looks very much as if the pink-footed geese had been long enough in the arctic climate of Spitzbergen to change the colour of their feet, but not long enough to make the new colour permanent, and that when bred in the warmer climate of this country they had a tendency to hark back to their ancestors.’
White-fronted Goose.
Anser albifrons.
White on the forehead and at the base of the lower mandible; upper parts brownish ash; breast and belly brownish white broadly barred with black; bill orange-yellow, with a white nail at the tip; legs and feet orange. Length, twenty-seven inches.
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The white-fronted goose is the fourth and last on our list of grey geese--four forms of one species, as some hold--and, like the others, it comes to us from the north in winter, but is more common in Ireland than in Great Britain. It is like the bean-goose in size, but differs from it in its white front, and from the grey lag goose in having the under parts more speckled with black feathers. Its voice is most like that of the grey lag, but is more trumpet-like in sound, and the rapidly repeated notes give its cry a laughter-like character; laughing goose is one of its common names. It breeds farther north than the bean-goose, and its nest is described as a hollow in the ground lined with dead grass. It lays five to seven creamy white eggs.
Brent Goose.
Bernicla brenta.
Bill, head, throat, and neck black, except a small white patch on each side of the latter; mantle brownish black with rufous-brown edges; wing-feathers, rump, and tail black; coverts white; upper breast black; lower breast and belly slate-grey; legs black. Length, twenty-three inches.
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[Illustration: FIG. 76.--BRENT GOOSE. ¹⁄₁₀ natural size.]
The brent goose arrives in our islands in the autumn, and remains through the winter in suitable localities in various parts of the coast, from the Orkneys and Shetlands in the north to the Channel Islands; it is, however, most abundant on the north-east coast of England. In most years old and young birds arrive together in flocks; in other years only adults appear, and it is supposed that in such seasons exceptionally cold weather has prevented the eggs from hatching. The brent differs from its nearest ally, the barnacle goose, in its slightly smaller size, darker plumage, which is nearly black, and its more marine habits. With us it spends most of the time out at sea, visiting the tidal flats early and late in the day, and at night, to feed on the wrack grass (_Zostera marina_). Mr. Abel Chapman has graphically described this goose in his ‘Bird Life on the Border.’ It is, he says, the last of our winter visitors to arrive, seldom coming in force until the new year. Their affections are so hyperborean that they will come no farther south than they are actually compelled by food requirements, being driven reluctantly southwards, point by point, before the advancing line of the winter’s ice. He writes: ‘On alighting at the feeding-grounds the geese at once commence greedily to pull up and devour the blades of the sea-grass, the whole flock advancing in the closest order over the green oozy mud, all heads down except the sentries, of which an ample number are always discernible.... After finishing their morning meal, about noon, the geese are disposed to rest, and spend the middle of the day floating about on the water, preening themselves, and, in mild weather, splashing about, and chasing each other in sheer exuberance of spirit.... Towards evening the geese recommence feeding, and so intensely eager are they about sunset to utilise the few remaining minutes that they then, perhaps, offer the most favourable chance to get within shot.... Just at dark the whole host rise on wing together, and make for the open sea. In the morning they come in by companies and battalions, but at night they go out in a solid army; and a fine sight it is to witness their departure. The whole host, perhaps ten thousand strong, here massed in dense phalanxes, elsewhere in columns, tailing off into long skeins, V’s, or rectilinear formations of every conceivable shape, but always with a certain formation--out they go; ... while their loud clanging _honk honk_, and its running accompaniment of lower croaks and shrill bi-tones, resound for miles around.’
Barnacle Goose.
Bernicla leucopsis.
[Illustration: FIG. 77.--BARNACLE GOOSE. ¹⁄₁₀ natural size.]
Head, neck, and throat black; forehead, cheeks, and chin white; a black stripe between the eye and bill; mantle lavender-grey barred with bluish black and white; wing and tail feathers blackish; breast and belly greyish; vent and tail-coverts pure white; flanks barred with grey; bill, legs, and feet black. Length, twenty-five inches.
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The present species is not nearly so abundant as the brent, and not so exclusively marine in its habits. It sometimes visits inland districts, and although it feeds on the mud-flats like the brent, it leaves them as soon as the tide rises, and repairs to some grassy bank of a river or lake, where it feeds. The breeding habits of this species are not known; it is believed to have its nesting-grounds in Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla.
Mute Swan.
Cygnus olor.
Bill reddish orange; the nail, nostrils, lores, and basal tubercle black; plumage pure white; legs and feet black. Length, sixty inches; weight, about thirty pounds.
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The mute, or tame swan, is as well known to most people as the turkey, goose, and pheasant, and, like the pheasant, is supposed to be a foreign species, said to have been first brought from Cyprus to this country, by Richard I., about the end of the twelfth century. As a semi-domestic species it exists throughout the British Islands, but whether wild birds of its species visit us or not is not known, since wild and semi-wild birds are indistinguishable. The wild mute swan breeds in Denmark and South Sweden, in South Russia and the valley of the Danube, and many other localities, and in winter visits the Mediterranean. The breeding habits of the wild and tame bird are the same, but, according to Naumann, the wild bird in the pairing season has a loud, trumpet-like note, resembling the cry of a crane or whooper swan.
The cygnet is sooty grey in colour, but in the so-called ‘Polish swan’ (_Cygnus immutabilis_) of Yarrell, which is now regarded by most ornithologists as a variety of the mute swan the cygnets are white.
Whooper Swan.
Cygnus musicus.
Beak: anterior part depressed and black, basal part quadrangular and lemon-colour; plumage white; legs and feet black. Length, sixty inches; weight, about twenty-four pounds.
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The whooper, also called the wild swan and the whistling swan, is a not uncommon visitor to our coasts in winter, and a little over a century ago had a breeding-station in the Orkneys. It is very closely related to the mute swan, but it ranges very much farther north in summer, its breeding-grounds being north of the arctic circle. The nest is bulky, composed of sedge and coarse herbage, and the eggs are four or five in number, and white. Seebohm, who observed its habits in its breeding-grounds, says: ‘The whooper is a ten times handsomer bird than a tame swan in the eyes of an ornithologist, but is not really so graceful--its neck is shorter, and its scapulars are not so plume-like. Instead of sailing about with its long neck curved in the shape of the letter S, bent back almost to the fluffed-up scapulars, the whooper seemed intent on feeding with his head and neck under water.’ He compares the notes of the whooper to a bass trombone; but the notes are short--three or four trumpet-blasts, keeping time with the upward and downward beat of the wings. He adds: ‘The extermination of the whooper in so many of its breeding-places has arisen from the unfortunate habit, which it evidently acquired years ago, before men came upon the scene--a habit which it shares with the goose. Most birds moult their quills slowly, in pairs, so that they are only slightly inconvenienced by the operation, and never without quills enough to enable them to fly. Swans and geese, on the other hand, drop nearly all their flight-feathers at once, and for a week or two, before the new feathers have grown, are quite unable to fly. In some localities the whoopers have had the misfortune to breed where the natives have been clever enough to surround them at the critical period of their lives, and stupid enough to avail themselves of the opportunity thus afforded of killing the geese that laid the golden eggs.’
Bewick’s swan (_Cygnus Bewickii_), named by Yarrell after Thomas Bewick, author of a well-known ‘History of British Birds,’ is of frequent occurrence in the British Islands in severe winters, but is not a regular visitant. It is a third smaller than the whooper, which it resembles in figure and habits.
Common Sheldrake.
Tadorna cornuta.
[Illustration: FIG. 78.--SHELDRAKE. ¹⁄₁₀ natural size.]
Beak and basal knob bright red; head and upper neck dark glossy green, followed by a white collar, below which is a chestnut band; wing-coverts white; speculum green; scapulars, part of the secondaries, and the primaries black; rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers white, the latter tipped with black; lower, central line of the breast and belly dark brown, the rest of the under parts white; legs and feet pink. Length, twenty-six inches. The female is without the knob at the base of the bill, and her colours are not so bright.
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The sheldrakes, or sheld-ducks, are curious and interesting birds, and form a connecting-link between the geese and ducks; but they are more like the former than the latter, and sheld-gander, or sheldgoose, would perhaps be a more suitable name. The common sheldrake is, perhaps, the most duck-like in appearance of all the birds of this genus, and the common name, sheld, which means parti-coloured, really applies to this species only. As in the geese, the male and female sheld-ducks are nearly alike in plumage, and the male does not change colour; and, like the gander, he assists his mate in rearing the young. In the true ducks the drake changes his plumage in summer, becoming like the female in colour, and in most cases (for there are exceptions) he remains apart from the duck from the time that incubation begins until the young are fully grown. Of the seven known species of sheldrake, only one is indigenous to the British Islands. A second species, the ruddy sheldrake (_Tadorna casarca_), is a rare visitor, or straggler, to our coasts, and it is probable that most of the sheldrakes of this species that are shot from time to time in England are escaped birds.