Part 31
So nearly alike are the arctic and common terns that it is hard, well-nigh impossible, in fact, to distinguish them when they are observed flying about in company. In size, manner of flight, language, and general appearance, they are identical. On a close examination the common tern is found to be slightly less slender in build, its under parts dull white instead of pale grey, its beak tipped with black and coral-red, instead of blood-red. It is doubtless owing to their similarity that the two species associate freely together at all times, and are often to be found breeding side by side. But while the arctic tern is most common in the north, from the Shetlands, Orkneys, and Hebrides, to the coast of Northumberland on the one side of the country, and of Lancashire on the other, the common tern is common only on the coasts south of these two points. The nest is a slight depression, sometimes with a little dry grass for lining, placed on the shingle of the beach; the three eggs are yellowish stone, grey, or olive colour, spotted and blotched with dark brown and grey.
Roseate Tern.
Sterna dougalli.
Bill black, orange-red at the base in the breeding season; legs and feet red; head and upper parts the same as in the arctic and common terns, except that the mantle is a paler pearl-grey; lower parts white suffused with rose. Length, fifteen inches and a quarter.
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This species differs from the two already described in its slimmer body and greater length of tail, and in its shorter and narrower wings. It also differs in the delicate rose-colour suffusing or tinging the white under-plumage; but this faint exquisite hue is seen only when the bird is in the hand. On the wing, unless very near, it appears white and pale grey like the common tern, and only an accustomed eye can distinguish it among the others by its slightly different shape. It may be more easily recognised by its short, constantly repeated note, which is more musical than that of the other species. Besides this short, excited note, it has the long, somewhat guttural, and gull-like cry common to all the terns. It breeds only on islands, and Howard Saunders, our best authority on the birds of this order, says that it is more ‘intolerant of interference’ than other terns: hence many of its old breeding-stations on the British coasts have been successively abandoned during the last half-century owing to egg-collecting, and the bird is now becoming so rare that its extinction as a British species at no distant date is feared by ornithologists. In the north of England, and at various places on the coasts of Scotland, a few pairs still breed in company with the common and arctic terns. The nest is a slight depression in the sand and gravel, and two or three eggs are laid, creamy white or buff-colour, blotched and clouded with bluish grey and rich brown. As soon as the young have been reared the breeding-ground is abandoned, and the migration southwards begins.
Little Tern.
Sterna minuta.
Bill orange-yellow tipped with black; legs and feet orange; crown and nape black; forehead and stripe over the eye white; mantle pearl-grey; tail and under parts white. Length, eight inches.
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[Illustration:
_PLATE XIV._
ROSEATE TERN (ADULT AND IMMATURE). ⅖ NAT. SIZE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 108.--LESSER TERN. ¼ natural size.]
The little, or lesser tern, is a third less than the common species in size, measuring only eight inches in length. The colour is nearly the same in both birds, except that the under parts in the little tern are pure white, and the bill orange--instead of coral-red. The voice differs somewhat, being thinner and shriller in tone; otherwise the language is the same. The flight is more wavering. This species is much less numerous than the arctic and common terns; in its habits it closely resembles them, breeding in communities, sometimes in company with the other kinds. When breeding alongside of the common tern its nests, as a rule, are placed a little apart and nearer to the water. The nest is a slight depression in the loose sand and gravel, sometimes with a few bents and fragments of dry seaweed for lining; the eggs are two or three in number, of a light stone-colour, spotted with grey and brown. In size and colour they closely resemble the eggs of the ringed plover. This tern, like the others, hovers screaming overhead when its breeding-ground is intruded on; but recovers from its anxiety only too quickly, for no sooner has the intruder got a little distance away than the bird drops down directly on to its nest. When the female is incubating the male brings food for her, and Mr. Trevor-Battye has described in his ‘Pictures in Prose’ the pretty way in which the birds play with each other before the fish is delivered. ‘Returned from his quest, the bird with a fish in his bill circles round and round, and lower and lower, over his mate, and presently drops down beside her. Then he begins a series of extraordinary evolutions. With head thrown back, wings drooping, and tail cocked straight up, he struts--no other word expresses it--he struts about in front of his mate.... He jumps at his mate, as if daring her to take the fish. Then he will fly round for a bit, only to settle again and repeat the play. I have seen on several occasions a female “chit,” before she had settled down on her eggs, get up, fly off, settle on the shingle off and on for a considerable time, followed persistently by her fish-bearing partner, but always avoiding him, as if coquetting or really annoyed. Sooner or later the fish is always relinquished, or, as I suspect, taken by the female bird.’
In Norfolk the little terns are called chits, or chit-perles.
Sandwich Tern.
Sterna cantiaca.
Bill and feet black; upper part of the head black; mantle pearl-grey; rump, tail, throat, and under parts white; the breast suffused with rose. Length, sixteen inches.
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This is the largest of the British terns, being as much superior as the little tern is inferior in size to the arctic and common species. In its manner of flight and language it differs somewhat from the others. At a distance the under parts appear to be of a snowy whiteness; in the captive or dead bird the white plumage is seen to be suffused with an evanescent delicate pink colour. On the wing the Sandwich tern does not look so graceful and beautiful as the smaller species: the flight is heavier, straighter, unwavering, the wings beating more rapidly. Its scream is shorter, less inflected, and has a harsh and even grating sound.
This tern suffers much from the persecutions of the egg-collector, as well as of that base kind of sportsman who is allowed to amuse himself in August and September by slaughtering terns. On the Farne Islands, which are protected during the breeding season, there now exists a considerable colony of Sandwich terns, numbering about one thousand pairs, and a few smaller colonies are found on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and on some of the lakes of those countries. On the Farnes the birds breed on one of the islands on a flat surface overgrown with sea-campion, and here their nests are placed so close together that it is difficult at times to walk over the ground without treading on the nests containing eggs or young birds. The eggs are two or three in number, and are stone-colour with a yellow tinge, thickly spotted with grey or brown.
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Besides the five species described, there are eight terns set down in the books as British. Of these, the Caspian tern, gull-billed tern, and black tern, are described as ‘irregular visitors,’ and come in small numbers; the whiskered tern, white-winged black tern, sooty tern, Scopoli’s sooty tern, and noddy, are all rare stragglers, the last three from the tropics. The black tern (_Hydrochelidon nigra_) was in reality a British bird in former times, a summer visitor, breeding in immense numbers in the fens and marshes in some of the eastern counties. It bred ‘in myriads’ in Norfolk as late as 1818, and, in diminishing numbers, down to 1835. ‘Drainage and persecution’ caused the destruction of this graceful species.
[Illustration: FIG. 109.--BLACK TERN. ⅐ natural size.]
Kittiwake.
Rissa tridactyla.
Bill greenish yellow; legs and feet black; mantle deep grey; head, neck, tail, and under parts white. Length, fifteen and a half inches.
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The kittiwake takes its pretty name from its usual cry, composed of three notes, two quick and short, and one long. It is the smallest of the British gulls, excluding the stragglers, and is also one of the handsomest and most interesting in its habits. It is more of a sea-bird than most gulls, feeding principally on small fish, which it captures after the manner of a tern, hovering motionless for a few moments, then dashing down on to the water with great force. It is common round the British Islands throughout the year, but probably most of the birds that breed on our coasts migrate to more southern regions in winter, their places, meanwhile, being taken by visitors from the north. Its breeding-sites, often shared with the guillemot and razorbill, are precipitous rocky cliffs fronting the sea, the nest being placed on the ledges and wherever a projecting rock affords standing-room for a bird of its size. When the colony is a numerous one the birds may be seen whitening the face of the precipice from within a few feet above high-water mark to within a few feet of the top. The nests, often placed so near together as to be almost touching, are rather bulky, built of seaweed mixed with turf, and lined with dry grass. Two or three, sometimes four, eggs are laid, varying in ground-colour from greenish blue to olive-brown, or buff, or buffish brown, spotted and blotched with reddish brown, and under-markings of pale brown and grey.
Where suitable sites exist, and the birds are not too much molested, the kittiwakes have breeding colonies on the British coasts from the Scilly Islands and the Cornish and Devon cliffs right away to St. Kilda in the north. The kittiwakes breed later than most gulls, unfortunately for them. It has been pointed out again and again that the young birds are often hardly able to feed themselves, and in many cases are not yet out of their nests, at the end of July, which is also the end of the close time for sea-birds. It then becomes lawful for the scoundrels who practise this form of sport to slaughter the kittiwakes--both the helpless young and the parent birds that are engaged in feeding and protecting them.
Herring-Gull.
Larus argentatus.
Bill yellow; legs and feet flesh-colour; mantle grey; head, tail, and lower parts white; outer primaries black. Length, twenty-four inches.
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The herring-gull, which derives its name from its habit of following the shoals of herrings, is common on our coasts throughout the year. Like most gulls, it searches the shore at ebb-tide for stranded marine animals, dead and alive, and garbage of all kinds. It quarrels with ravens and crows over the carcass of a dead sheep, and, like the raven, is a plunderer of eggs and young birds from the cliffs. It is often seen at a distance from the sea, roaming over the moors in search of prey or carrion; and it also feeds on insects and, like the black-headed gull, sometimes follows the plough to pick up worms and grubs. It nests on precipitous, rocky shores, usually making choice of the summit or upper ledges. It also breeds on flat islands, sometimes in company with the lesser black-backed gull, which it resembles in size and general appearance. It usually breeds in communities, but is not so strictly gregarious as most gulls at this season. The nest, which is usually somewhat bulky, is composed of seaweed and herbage, and lined with dry grass. Three eggs are laid, stone-colour or light olive-brown, spotted and blotched with dark umber.
Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Larus fuscus.
Bill, legs, and feet yellow; summer plumage of the adult white, except on the mantle, which varies from slate-grey to black. Length, twenty-three inches.
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From its abundance, its large size--which is nearly the same as that of the herring-gull--and its extremely conspicuous black-and-white plumage at maturity, the lesser black-back is one of the most familiar birds on our coasts. The young differ greatly from the adults, having a slate-grey beak, flesh-coloured legs, and a general brown plumage. The mature breeding colours, including yellow on legs and bill, with a vermilion patch on the lower mandible, are not perfect until the fourth year. Judging solely from this fact of its slow growth to maturity, we may take it that the lesser black-back lives long--that its natural term, as in some accipitrine species, probably exceeds a century. It is certainly the case that this gull is able, not only to keep itself alive, but to keep up its numbers, notwithstanding its large size and the dislike with which it is regarded on account of its predacious habits. The unfeathered biped is ever anxious to keep all the killing and plundering in his own hands. The voice of this gull is very powerful and far-reaching, and, when soaring with its fellows, occasionally all the birds unite their voices in a chorus of short and long cries, laughter-like in character, yet with something solemn, and even desolate, in the sound, as of the sea. It is gregarious and social at all seasons, and breeds in gulleries, where the nests are placed close together on the level ground. The three eggs are of a light stone colour, spotted and blotched with blackish brown and grey. The largest and best-known colony on the British coasts is at the Farne Islands, and of that colony Seebohm writes: ‘It is a wonderful sight on approaching an island to see the green mass sprinkled all over with large white-looking birds, every one standing head to wind, like an innumerable army of white weathercocks.’ It is also fine to see and hear them, when a person walks about among the nests, stooping occasionally to examine eggs or handle the yellow, black-spotted chicks: the birds hover in a dense cloud over his head, their deep, powerful cries mingling in one mighty uproar, and, at short intervals, one or two birds dash down out of the bird-cloud as if to strike his head, and, missing it by an inch or two, reascend to repeat the action.
Common Gull.
Larus canus.
Bill greenish at the base, yellow at the tip; legs and feet greenish yellow; mantle ash-grey; first two primaries black, with a white patch near the extremity; the rest black near the end; head, neck, tail, and under parts white. Length, eighteen and a half inches.
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The name of this species is somewhat misleading, as it is less numerous on most of our coasts, and in estuaries and rivers, than the black-headed species, which indeed is often called the common gull. When flying about in company, the two species are indistinguishable in the winter plumage. The common gull has no breeding-place south of the Border. In Scotland and its islands there are several colonies, and in Ireland a few. In its habits it is intermediate between the marine and inland species, and its gulleries are placed both on islands near the sea-coast and in lochs at a distance from the shore. Like the herring-gull and black-headed gull, it follows the plough to pick up worms and grubs, and roams over moors, marshes, and pasture-lands in search of insects, small vertebrates, and carrion. The nest is bulky, and composed of seaweed, herbage, and dry grass. Three eggs are laid, olive-brown, spotted and streaked with blackish.
Great Black-backed Gull.
Larus marinus.
Bill yellow; legs and feet flesh-colour; plumage as in the lesser black-backed gull. Length, thirty inches.
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[Illustration: FIG. 110.--GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. ¹⁄₁₁ natural size.]
Turner, who wrote on British birds three centuries ago, in describing the great black-backed gull, says that it was called ‘cob’ on the Kentish and Essex coast. It is curious to find that it is still known by this name in the same localities, where it is now very rare. In colour and appearance it closely resembles the lesser black-back, but exceeds it in size, and is nearly twice as heavy--it is, in fact, the largest of the gulls. It is also the rarest species in the British Islands; for although its breeding-sites are not few in Scotland, while others exist on the coasts of England, Wales, and Ireland, its colonies are very small compared with those of other species, and in many cases the breeding-place is occupied by a single pair. Its habits are similar to those of the herring and lesser black-backed gulls; but being so much larger and more powerful, it is more injurious to other sea-birds, whose nests it plunders of their eggs or young. It is also more oceanic, straying to a great distance from land in its search for dead animal matter floating on the waves--a veritable ‘vulture of the sea.’ Its nest is placed, as a rule, on the summit of an inaccessible rock on the coast, or on a small rocky island, and is carelessly formed of seaweed and grass. Two or three eggs are laid, greyish brown, sometimes tinged with olive, with dark brown spots distributed sparingly over the whole surface.
Black-headed Gull.
Larus ridibundus.
Bill and feet red; head and upper part of the neck blackish brown; mantle grey; all the rest, white; the under parts tinged with pink. The black on the head is lost in winter. Length, sixteen inches.
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The black-headed gull, if not the most abundant of its genus, is without doubt the most generally known, on account of its wide diffusion in the country, and of its habit of breeding in inland marshes. It remains throughout the year, most of the time frequenting the flat parts of the sea-coast, estuaries, and tidal rivers, where it is seen perpetually roaming up and down in search of the small fishes and crustaceans on which it feeds, and any dead animal matter cast up by the tide. In its winter dress it is almost impossible to tell this species from the common gull and kittiwake when they are seen together, as in size they are nearly alike, and the buoyant, leisurely flight and circling motions in the air are the same in all. But very early in spring the distinguishing mark and nuptial ornament of a black hood is assumed, after which there can be no mistake. And here I may remark that I differ from Howard Saunders when he says that, as the hood is not black, the bird should be called the brown-headed gull. Vernacular names of this kind are descriptive of the creatures as they appear to us when seen living in a state of nature; and at a distance of twenty or thirty yards, which is as close as a flying gull will come to a man, the hood certainly appears to be black.
[Illustration: BLACK-HEADED GULLS. POCHARDS. SHOVELER. WATER-HENS.]
In March the gulls withdraw to marshes and meres to breed. The breeding-place is usually in the neighbourhood of the sea, sometimes in an inland district. Year after year the same spot is resorted to, and it is known that some of the gulleries in this country have existed for centuries. One of the largest and best known in England is at Scoulton Mere, in Norfolk. Half a century ago 20,000 birds annually bred at this spot, but the colony has now diminished to less than half that number. A favourite site for the gullery is an island in a mere or swamp, and the nests are placed both on the ground and on clumps of rushes or tussocks of grass. Three or four eggs are laid, varying in ground-colour from olive-brown to pale green, blue, or salmon, blotched with black and dark brown. During the breeding season the birds seek their food over the surrounding country in marshes, meadow-lands, and fields that are being ploughed. Seebohm says: ‘So easily do they adapt themselves to changed circumstances, that they have already become used to the steam-plough. It is a very pretty sight to watch a party of these little gulls, looking snow-white in the distance against the rich brown of the newly turned-up soil, paddling amongst the clumsy clods with dainty, red-webbed feet, and continually lifting their white wings to balance themselves on the rough ground, reminding one of a group of angels by Gustave Doré.’ One suspects that Doré, being, like other artists, incapable of imagining the unimaginable, made use of gulls and such like as models for his angels.
This gull, like most of the Laridæ, is a vociferous bird, and his notes--short and rapid, like excited exclamations, or drawn out, guttural in tone, and inflected in various ways--often sound like laughter; hence the name of laughing gull, sometimes given to this species, and the specific name of _ridibundus_. To my ear it is like the guttural and extravagant laughter of the negro, rather than that of the white man.
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Besides the six species described, there are six others, belonging to the sub-family Larinæ (true gulls), which figure in the books as British species. One of these (the second on the list) is perhaps a regular visitor.
Ivory gull (_Pagophila eburnea_).--A circumpolar species; occasionally straggles to the British coasts.
Glaucous gull (_Larus glaucus_).--Circumpolar in its range; a winter visitor to the northern parts of the United Kingdom.
Iceland gull (_L. leucopterus_).--A rare winter visitor (to the north) from the arctic regions.
Great black-headed gull (_L. ichthyaëtus_).--A single specimen of this southern species was obtained many years ago in this country.
Little gull (_L. minutus_).--An irregular visitor from continental Europe.
Sabine’s gull (_Xema sabinii_).--A rare straggler from North America.
Common or Great Skua.
Stercorarius catarrhactes.
[Illustration: FIG. 111.--GREAT SKUA. ¹⁄₁₂ natural size.]
Upper parts mottled brown; shafts of the quills and tail-feathers white; under parts rufous-brown; bill, legs, and feet black. Length, twenty-five inches.
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