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CORMORANT.

A

H I S T 0 E Y

or

BRITISH BIRDS.

BY

THE EEY. rra^^IOERIS, B.A.,

MEMBER OF THE ASEMOLEAN SOCIETY.

YOL, Till.
co^"IAI^'l^'G rcETY-rorE coloueed £>'geatings.

' Be profu n dis a d Dora in u m .

LONDON:
GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW

CONTEXTS

OF

THE EIGHTH VOLUME.

PAGE

Cormorant 1

Green Cormorant 9

Gannet 12

Caspian Tern 20

Sandwich Tern .23

Eoseate Tern 27

Common Tern ......... 30

Arctic Tern 34

Sooty Tern 37

^Vhiskered Tern 39

Gull-billed Tern . ^ 41

Swift Tern 43

Lesser Tern 44

Black Tern . . . .' 47

White-winged Black Tern 51

Noddy 53

Sabine's Gull 55

-Eoss's Gull 58

Little Gull 60

Buonaparte's Gull 63

Masked Gull QQ

IV CONTENTS.

PAGE

Black-headed Gull 68

Laughing Gull . 80

Ivorj Gull 82

Common Gull 85

Iceland Gull 89

Lesser Black-backed Gull 92

Great Black-backed Gull ....... 95

Herring Gull 98

Glaucous Gull 103

Kittiwake 107

Skua ........... Ill

Pomerine Skua . . 114

E-icbardson's Skua ........ 118

Buffon's Skua .122

Cinereous Shearwater 124

Manx Shearwater . . . . . . . . 127

Dusky Petrel . . ' 130

Capped Petrel 132

Fulmar 134

Bulwer's Petrel 137

Wilson's Petrel 138

Leach's Petrel ......... 140

Stormy Petrel 143

HISTOEY OF BEITISH BIEDS.

CORMORANT.

COMMON COEMORAKT. CEESTED COEMOEAXT. COEYOEAIS'T.
GEEAT COEYOEA^^T. CEESTED COETOEAXT.

Pekcanus carhop Pennant. Montagu. Bewick.

Fhalacrocorax carbo, Fleming. Selby. Jenyns. Gould,

Carbo cormoranus, Temminck.

Pekcanus — A Pelican. Carbo— ?

The Cormorant is a bird of almost universal distribution,
and belongs to each of the four quarters of the globe. It is
also accommodating in the situations it frequents, and makes
itself equally at home on sea or land, both near the shore
and farther from it, in barren and rocky places, as well as
in those that are wooded, the neighbourhood of buildings, and
the most lonely wilderness, rivers and lakes, fresh-water and
salt.

In Europe it occurs on the shores of Norway and Iceland,
and then in the south is seen in the Black Sea and the
Grecian Archipelago, as also on the Swiss and other lakes
and rivers. In Asia, in Siberia, Russia, and the Icy Sea, the
Caspian Sea, and India; in America, from Greenland and
Hudson's Bay to Canada and the United States.

The Cormorant used formerly to breed near the lighthouse
at Flamborough Head, in Yorkshire, as it does still, or did
not long since, in the neighbouring rocks of RainclifTe, before
Buckton Hall. In Suffolk they have been known to build
near Fritton Decoy, taking possession of part of a rookery,
and they used to do so formerly, according to Sir Thomas
VOL. vm. B

2 CORMOEA"NrT.

Browne, at Reedham, upon trees. Other bullding-plaee«
mentioned are the Eoss of Kh'cudbright, St. Bees' Head, and
the Isle of Man.

It is common on the Norfolk coast near Yarmouth, in the
neighbourhood of the broads, especially in the autumn.
One was shot at Herringfleet, in breeding plumage, on the
4th. of April, 1848; also in Dorsetshire. In Cornwall, about
Falmouth, Gwylljn Vase, Swanpool, Mainporth, Pennance,
and other parts. In Oxfordshire, a fine bird of this species
was shot bj Frederic Dashwood, Esq. en the piece of
water in Kirtlington Park. In Berkshire it has occurred
on Frilham Pond, near ISTewbury, namely, in JSTovember,
1803. In Worcestershire, one at Hewell Park, near Broms-
grove, the seat of the Hon. Pobert Henry Ciive, M.P.,
the early part of April, 1849. Dr. Heysham has recorded
that about the year 1759, one of these birds perched upon
the castle at Carlisle, and soon afterwards removed to the
Cathedral. In another instance a flock of fifteen or twenty
alighted in a tree on the banks of the Biver Esk, in the
same county of Cumberland, near Netherby Hall, the seat
of the 'Grraham of Netherby Clan.'

The Cormorant has been met with near Grodalming, Surrey.
In Lincolnshire, on Croxby Lake and other places. An
immature specimen was shot on the Thames at Swanscombe,
in Kent, in April, 1848. They often frequent the water
around Walton Hall, Yorkshire, in the winter.

In Orkney it is a native bird; so also common in Ireland.
One was shot on the wing with a rifle by the Hon. Mr.
Plunkett, son of Lord Plunkett, and having hit it in the
neck, the bullet cut in two a large eel, which the bird had
in its throat at the time. This singular circumstance is
related in 'The ISTaturalist,' volume i., page 68, by Samuel
Hannaford, Esq., Jun.

Mr. John Dutton, E.N., has favoured me with some
particulars of these birds. He says they always dip their
wings in the water on first taking flight from their resting-
places.

They often collect in parties of thirty or forty, and occa-
sionally in very large bodies, more than a thousand having
been seen together at one time.

On the land they are dull and heavy. They are only to
be seen to advantage on the water. Tlisy roost indiscrimi-
nately on rocks or high trees, houses and other buildings, posts,

COBMOBAT^T. 3

or logs of floating timber, and may often be noticed perched
on a rail or withered tree by the water side. They now
and then follow the course of a river for several miles
inland, both by flight and swimming. Sir William Jardine
says, 'We have known several birds take up a regular
station, remaining to fish on the river, and roosting during
night on its banks, upon some overhanging trees, and where
inland lakes or waters are situate at no great distance from
the sea, they are constantly frequented.'

Under the head of 'Sporting by Steam,' a curious circum-
stance is related in the 'Zoologist,' page 3712, by the Kev.
Gr. Gordon, of one of these birds having been struck down
and killed by the funnel of the engine of an express train,
as it was crossing the Loch of Spynie, in Elginshire, on the
20th. of September, 1852. It had a flounder ten inches
long in its bill at the time, and both bird and fish were
taken up. On the sea these birds are undeniably shy, yet
Dn inland water, that for instance at Mr. Waterton's, where
Qot disturbed, they seem to have little fear.

Young Cormorants become perfectly tame, and are readily
trained in this country, as well as in China, where, as is
well known, the practice is a regular and established one,
to catch fish for their owners, the precaution being taken
of placing a ring round the neck of the bird, to prevent
the prey from being totally swallowed. Montagu mentions
one which never seemed to be so happy as when permitted
to remain by the side of its master. Some kept by Dr.
Neill used to roost with the poultry, but to usurp the best
places. One of them laid two eggs while in the domesti-
cated state. Sir Eobert Shafto Adair, Bart, reported to
Mr. Yarrell the circumstance of a pair of Cormorants having
led. and brought up a nest of young Ravens, whose own
aarents had been destroyed. They provided them with a
2onstant supply of fish.

Mv friend the Rev. R. P. Alins^ton mentions in 'The
N'aturalist,' vol. iv., page 209, how the Cormorant not unoften
rests, apparently after long journeys, upon elevated spots.
Many years ago one perched upon the tower of West Rasen
Church, as another had previously done on the splendid spire
Df Louth Church. This reminds me of a still more remark-
able circumstance with regard to this church and another
denizen of the sea, which he once narrated to me, as having,
[ think he said, seen himself, when a boy at school in that;

COEMOEAKT.

town, at all events it occurred at the time. A sailor, for
the sum of GiVe shillings, undertook to stand on the top of
the spire: he first ascended one of the pinnacles, on which
he stood on one foot, and next went up one side of the
spire, but finding one of the knobs, with which it is studded,
broken ofi*, he descended, and succeeded in another place.
He then tied his neckerchief to the weathercock, and danced
a hornpipe round it, on the millstone at the top. The spire
was at that time about two hundred and seventy feet high,
the uppermost portion having been struck down by lightning.
It has since been restored to its original height of three
hundred feet.

Nothing is more interesting than to see a Cormorant
fishing, so well does he swim, and so quickly does he dive.
There he is, long and low in the water, like a pirate craft,
and equally swift for his size. To pursue is to capture, and
to overtake is death. Nor is he ever becalmed, wind-bound,
or without the weather-gage; or if he floats indeed on a
surface unruffled by a breath of air and as smooth as glass,
he has oars which are never motionless, and his upright bead
is unceasingly on the look out. Now he raises up his body,
and down below and onwards he plunges, as if in the act
of making a sommersault: you cannot help but look with
interest for his re-appearance, and on a sudden he starts up
after a lengthened dive, where you perhaps expected him, or
still more likely in -a different spot — a fish you may be almost
sure he has.

In the old days of the flint-and-steel guns, the first flash
used to send the Cormorant down, so quick was his eye, and
even now it is difficult to get within shot. They fly strongly
and well, though not very fast, and at a considerable height,
if over the land. They may often be seen standing on the
shore or rocks apparently to dry their wings, previous to
which the one kept by Montagu was observed to beat the
water violently with its wings without moving from the spot,
then shake its whole body, ruffle its feathers, at the same
time covering itself with water, and this many times together
with short intervals of rest. They are able to perch on trees.
•The young dive instinctively even from the very first.

It is curious to watch the Cormorant swallowing, or
attempting to swallow a fish, eel, or other, too large to be
got down at once; sometimes as much as half an hour is
passed in the attempt, before a successiui issue is come to*

COEMOEANT. 5

it last down it goes, and always head foremost. Fish are
.ts natural food, and those of the size of a herring or
mackarel it can swallow whole. One has heen seen to carry
an eel it had caught to a rail it had previously been sitting
on, strike it with three or four hard blows against the rail,
and then after tossing it up into the air, catch it by th^
head, and swallow it at once. Colonel Montagu says, 'If
by accident a large fish sticks in the gullet, it has the
power of inflating that part to its utmost, and while in that
state the head and neck are shaken violently, in order to
promote its passage.' He adds, speaking of a tame bird he
had, 'to a Gull with a piece of fish it will instantly give
chase: in this it seemed actuated with a desire to possess
the fish, for if the Gull had time to swallow it no resent-
ment was offered.'

Meyer writes, 'When this bird is engaged in fishing, it
frequently swims with its head beneath the surface of the
^water, in order, most probably, to overcome the difficulty,
caused by the ripple on its surface, of seeing its prey; (or
ratljer, in my opinion, to try to swallow some fish it has
already caught, and stretching out its neck to aid it in doing
so,) and from time to time it dives under to catch the fish,
which it can pursue for more than sixty or seventy yards
under water, before it is obliged to come up for air.
Several Cormorants may be seen at a time sitting side by
side on the water's edge, looking out for fish, and if they
are frightened, they rise up to a sufficient height in the air
to be out of gunshot. When this bird is met with at a
distance from the sea it frequently seems to lose its presence
of mind, and is easily approached and captured.' When
attacked at close quarters on its natural element, it defends
itself to the last with its strong bill, and is a formidable
antagonist. Meyer also asserts that the birds frequently
assist each other in killing the more unmanageable fishes,
but if so it must rather, I should think, be from a selfish
motive, and with a private end in view that they are thus
officious in being 'in at the death:' I do not incline to think
that there is much disinterested generosity in the nature of
the Cormorant.

The note of this species is harsh; a 'kree,' 'kraw,' or 'krell.*
The young ones have a querulous cry.

The Cormorant naturally prefers an elevated siti ation for
its nest, though in default of such it is obliged to put up

6 CORMOEANT.

with a lowly one. It is well for those of a higher rank
in creation than the bird when they can thus readily ac-
commodate themselves to the circumstances in which they
are placed. Many pairs congregate together.

In the former case the tops of lofty cliffs are built on.
hv, as the next best, high trees. Failing these, a bed of
rushes is made to serve the purpose on the mainland; or
the top of a low island rock is resorted to.

The nest, which is large, is composed of sticks or sea-
weeds, heaped up to the height of a couple of feet. The
finer portions of grass forming the interior.

The eggs, small in proportion to the size of the bird, are
of a pale bluish or greenish white colour, without polish,
and of an oblong shape. Three, four, or five are usually
laid, but sometimes six. This in the month of April or
May.

As soon as the young are able to fend and forage for
themselves, which is as soon as they can fly, they are con-
ducted to the sea by their parents, and then left to their
own resources. This is when they are about three weeks
or a month old.

Male; weight, as much as seven or eight pounds; length,
about three feet three inches; bill, yellowish brown, the tip
horn-colour, hooked, and sharp-pointed, the base of the under
mandible yellow. The upper bill is furrowed on each side
nearly to the tip, without any appearance of a nostril.
Iris, bright green, giving the bird a singularly wild look,
and the gaze of some ^green-eyed monster.' Head on the
front, upper part, and sides, black, with narrow white silky
feathers intermixed, forming at the back a short crest,
deficient in winter, and the white nearly extinct: it is
erectile at will. ISTeck on the upper part, black, with the
like intermixture of white feathers, on the lower part and
the nape, greenish or bluish black, according to the light;
chin, white; the throat and pouch under it are blue with
yellow spots, margined on the sides with white, or greyish
white in winter, the gular pouch is yellow; breast, rich
greenish or bluish velvet black, excepting an oval white spot
above the leg, which is distinguishable in flight; from this
the bird is said by fishermen to have a watch under his
wing. It varies in size and conspicuousness according to
the season, and at times is only marked by one or two
sparse feathers. Back, dark brown, with purple and red

COEMOEANT. 7

reflections, and eaeli feather is narrowly edged witli deep
velvet black.

The wings reach, when extended, from four feet four to
four feet six inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, bronze
brown, with a tinge of green; primaries, dull black; secondaries,
blackish bronze brown, tinged with purple and green; ter-
tiaries, also blackish bronze brown, tinged with purple and
green. The tail, which is rounded at the end, is black, the
feathers, fourteen in number, are remarkably strong and
stiff, and when on the land the bird rests on them. The
legs, which are thick and strong, are as the toes, black;
webs, black.

The female is like the male in his winter plumage, and
both assume summer plumage; length, about two feet nine
inches; Yarrell says that her crest is longer than that of
the male, and brighter in colour, but smaller in size.

The young are at first of a bluish black colour, and in a
few days become covered with black down. In their first
plumage, which is not fully attained in less than five or six
weeks, they have the upper bill dark brown, the lower one
yellowish brown; iris, brown. Forehead and crown, dark
dusky brown, slightly glossed w^ith purple green, the lower
part of the sides of the head white; neck and nape, also dark
brown, the pouch under the chin, and throat, dull yellowish
white. Breast, dull yellowish brown above, mottled with
greyish white, below dull white, varied with a little brown,
the sides darker dusky brown; greater and lesser w^ing coverts,
greyish black, the edges of the feathers blackish brown. Under
tail coverts, dusky; legs and toes, nearly black; webs, nearly
black.

Mr. Yarrell gives the following account of observations
made on an old Cormorant, kept in the Garden of the Royal
Zoological Society, Regent's Park, London, with reference to
the changes in its plumage, incident to the approach of
summer: — 'Some white feathers on the side of the head and
neck began to appear on the 4th. of January, 1S32, and
arrived at their greatest perfection by the 26th. of February.
They remained in this state until the 2nd. of April, when
they began gradually to disappear, and by the 12th. of May
were wholly lost, having been fifty-three days arriving at
perfection; making together a period of eighteen weeks tl>ree
days. These white feathers arc new ones, much longer than
the bluck feathers of the same part, rounded in form, and in

8 COEMOEA^T.

some deg:ree resemblins: bristles. Some white feathers besran

to appear on the thighs of the same bird on the 25th. of
January, and the patch was completed in five weeks. These
white feathers began to disappear about the 16th. of June,
and by the 20th. of July were almost entirely gone.'

The engraving is from a spirited drawing sent by Theodore
Compton, Esq.

GREEN CORMORANT.

9

GREEN CORMORANT.

CEESTED COEMOEAT^T. SKAET. SCAEF. CEESTED SCAEP.

SHAG. SHAG C0E1I0EAK"T.

CEESTED SHAG. GEEEN SCOUT. COMMOJS' SHAG.

Pelecanus cristatuSi Pennant

" graculus, Montagu. Bewick.

Phalacrocorax cristatus, Stephens. Fleming. Selbt.

" " Jenyns. Gould.

** graculus, Stephens. Fle3iing.

Carbo cristatus, Teaiminck.

Pelecanus— A Pelican. CmtaifMS— Crested.

This species is common on the northern shores of Europe,
those of Norway and Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Russia, Ice-
land, and the Ferroe Isles, and is not unfrequent about the
islands of the Mediterranean — Corsica, Sardinia, and Cyprus;
also in Asia, both on the coasts and lakes of Siberia, and
Kamtschatka; so too in America.

In the county of York a young bird of this kind was
shot by the keeper of Andrew Lawson, Esq., at Rawcliff,
near Boroughbridge, towards the end of October, 184i8. In
Oxfordshire one was obtained on the River Isis, near Oxford;
and in Berkshire one near Pangbourne, in September, 1794.
In July, 1851, a pair of these birds, in immature plumage,
were killed at Burton Joyce, on the River Trent, six miles
from Nottingham, as Mr. John Felkin, Junior, informed me,
and one of them was obligingly presented to me by that
gentleman. A specimen was shot near Oxford in the beginning
of 1851.

In Surrey it has occurred near Godalming. It is thought
very rare at Yarmouth, in Norfolk, and the specimens which
occur are chiefly seen in the autumn, and mostly immature.
In Cornwall one, a young bird, was shot near Pennance
Point, Swanpool, Falmouth, in 1854i. One killed at the

10 GEEEN CORMOBAIS-T.

mouth of the Yealm, April 2nd., 1852. It is rot an
uncommon species in those parts. Building-places exist in
the Isle of Man, and at St. Bees' Head.

In Scotland the Glreen Cormorant breeds in many places
along the coast of Kircudbright and Sutherland, Whiten-
Head, Handa, and others; the Bass Hock and the Isle of
May. So also in Orkney are they common; as likewise in
Ireland.

This kind keeps exclusively to the sea.

On the ground these birds walk but indifferently. They
sit in an upright posture, resting partly on the tail, but
sometimes, Meyer says, lay down fiat. They seem fond of
spreading and flapping their wings, as if to dry them, when
perched, as they often continue to be for a considerable
time, on a low rock or sand-bank. They swim and dive in
the most perfect manner. The head, or rather the neck, is
carried very erect, and the body sunk low in the water.
They do not remain swimming for a long time together,
but either fly about or repair to the rocks or the land for
a change.

These birds return home regularly about sundown, from
their feeding places, flying in a straight line, and low over
the water, if the weather be fine, but at a good height if
it be rough or lowering.

The old and young birds appear to keep in separate flocks
or companies.

They feed on fish, and dive after them to a depth of from
one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet.

These Cormorants make their nests on the ledges and shelves
of cliffs or caves over the sea, lower down than the other
species. Many pairs, a score or more, frequent the same
place. They return to it annually for the breeding-season.
Montagu mentions his having counted thirty together on a
small rock. The bird sits upright on the eggs.

The nest is a mass of sea- weed, softened off internally with
the finer sorts of grass.

The eggs are three, four, or five in number, and their
original colour is white; but they soon become stained and
discoloured.

Male; weight, about four pounds; length, two feet four or
five inches. Bill, at the base of the under mandible, yellowish
green, the remainder dusky black; iris, green. There is a
rich dark green crest on the head in the spring, which is

OEEEN CORMOEANT. 11

erected and even bent forwards at the pleasure of the bird.
In some specimens it consists of only one, two, or three
plumes, but in others is much more developed, probably with
more mature age; their length upwards of two inches, and
bent forwards. In autumn and winter the crest is absent.
Crown, neck, and nape, rich dark bronze green, the plumage
of a silky texture. In some individuals a few white feathers
have been noticed. Chin and throat, rich dark green, the
pouch under the chin is yellowish green with specks of black;
breast, rich dark green, the plumage silky. Back on the
upper part, dark green, with purple, green, and bronze
reflections, the feathers narrowly edged at the tip with
black.

The wings expand to the width of three feet eight or ten
inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, dark blackish green,
shewing reflections of purple, green, and bronze, the feathers
narrowly edged with velvet black. Primaries, black; second-
aries, black; tertiaries, black. The tail is short, wedge-shaped,
and black in colour. It contains twelve feathers; they are
strong and elastic, forming, as already noticed, a support for
the bird when on land. Legs and toes, dusky black; the
middle claw is serrated; webs, black.

The female resembles the male, but is less in size; weight,
three pounds and a quarter; length, about two feet three
inches.

The young bird is at first covered with black down, which
soon gives place to the regular plumage, namely, head, crown,
neck, and nape, greyish black tinged with green; chin and
throat, white. Breast above, greyish brown, on the middle
and lower part greyish white, the sides dusky; back, brown,
tinged with dull green; the black edge to the feathers is wider
than in the old bird. The tail dusky, each feather edged
with pale grey, the tips white; upper tail coverts, dusky.

Sir William Jardine mentions one of these bh'ds which he
saw of a light grey appearance. A cream-coloured specimen
was shot off" the coast of lona, in the summer of 1854, by
Mr. Colin Mc'Yean; as Henry F. Wood, Esq., of Southflckl
Square, Bradford, has obligingly sent me word. All such
occasional varieties pay the penalty of ^shewing false colours,'
and are sure to receive a shot.

The engraving is from a figure made by John Gatcombe,
Esq., of Plymouth. Theodore Compton, Esq. has also obliged
me With a drawing of the bird.

12

GANNET.

COMMON GAIS-^^ET. SOLAJS^ GOOSE. SOLATs^D GOOSE.

Sula alba, Fleming.

*' hassana, Selby. Jenyns. Gould.

Felecanus bassanus, Pennant. Montagu. Bewick,

Sula, Sulao—To rob or spoil. Alba— WhitQ,

The Gannet, in Europe, is frequent in Norway, Sweden,
the Ferroe Isles, and Iceland, and thence advances to Portugal,
Spain, and the Mediterranean generally. It thus occurs on
che northern shores of Africa. In Asia it is equally common,
ind is also assigned to South Africa and Madeira. In
America it extends from Greenland and Labrador, to the
United States, as far south as Carolina it is said, and pro-
bably still further.

Gannets breed in immense numbers on Ailsa Crag, in the
Firth of Clyde; the Bass Eock, in the Firth of Forth; the
Stack of Souliskerry, near the Orkney Islands; Corea and
St. Kilda, in the Hebrides; Lundy Island, in the Bristol
Channel; and the Skelig Isles, off the coast of Ireland.

The Solan Goose has not unfrequently been met with
quite inland." Thus one was shot in Fulbourn Fields, Cam-
bridgeshire, the latter end of September, 1852. Another,
a young one, in 1853, on some high ground called Kirmond
Top, near Swinhope House, Lincolnshire, the seat of George
Marmaduke Alington, Esq. One near Great Grimsby, an
adult bird, about the 1st. of May, 1850. One was found
at Culford, near Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, in December,
1844; a second was seen in the same neighbourhood a few
days after; and a third was procured on Icklmgham Heath,
in the beginning of iSTovember, in 1849.

GANNET. 13

Joseph R. Little, Esq., of St. John's College, Camhndge,
has written me word of one which was shot in January,
1853, at Elderwel], near Whittlesea, Cambridgeshire, at least
twenty miles from the sea. He says in another letter that
they occasionally stray so far inland. Mr. M. C. Cooke
informs me of one found in a field at Swanscombe, in Kent,
in the spring of 18^:7. Another was obtained at Frensham
Pond, near Farnham, Surrey.

The G-annet has occurred two or three times in the county
of Northampton.

A young one was taken in the parish of Ash, near
Godalming, Surrey, during the autumn of 1847. In Norfolk,
they are not uncommon about Yarmouth in the autumn,
following the shoals of fish as they pass along the coast.
They occasionally occur also in the spring. Several were
shot in the Eoads, after the severe gale of October 31st.,
1827.

One was taken near Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, in 1843;
it was in company with some tame Geese. Two others,
males, apparently exhausted after a gale from the north-
east, in the summer of 1849.

In Yorkshire, one was taken in a field near Beverley. In
Berkshire, one, a young male, was shot near Wytham, the
seat of Lord Abingdon, by his Lordship's gamekeeper, on
the 14th. of October, 1838. Another was seen at the time;
and a third about the same time was seen at Weston-on-
the-G-reen, Oxfordshire, in which neighbourhood others have
been previously noticed.

In Cornwall, this species is seen occasionally near Falmouth,
at Gw;\^llyn Yase, Swanpool, and other places. One, the Hon.
T. L. Powys wrote me word, haunted Plymouth Sound in 1855.

In Scotland one was found, a young bird of the year,
on Mofi'at Water, Dumfriesshire, in the latter part of Oc'.ober,
1828. They breed on some of the rocks on the northern
part of Sutherlandshire. In the Orkneys they are abundant,
especially in the autumn.

In Ireland they are occasional summer visitants.

They migrate southwards towards winter, and northwards
again in the spring; the latter towards the end of the month
of March or the beginning of April, *over the sea, over the
sea,' and occur with us mostly in the summer, but some have
been met with in February and March. Many occurred in
March, 1807, and in February, 180S.

14 aA:?f>ET.

Great numbers of Gannets are taken for the sake of their
feathers and down, which are very vakiable. They are sold
for as much as one and eightpence each. They are also eaten
by those who can get no better food. They are tameable
birds, and will live for many ^^ears if kept by a piece of water.

MoDtagu points out a very curious peculiarit}^ in the forma-
tion of the Gannet. I give the subjoined extracts from his
account: —

^In the act of respiration, there appears to be always some
air propelled between the skin and the body of this bird, as
a visible expansion and contraction is observed about the
breast; and this singular conformation makes the bird so buoyant,
that it floats high on the water, and not sunk beneath its
surface as observed in the Cormorant and Shao^. The legfs
are not placed so far behind as in such of the feathered tribe
as procure their subsistence by immersion: the Gannet, con-
sequently, has the centre of gravity placed more forward, and,
when standing, the body is nearly horizontal like a Goose,
and not erect like a Cormorant.

Having, by the dissection of a specimen of the Gannet
for preservation, noticed the slight and partial adhesion of
the skin to the flesh of the whole under part of the body,
we availed ourselves of the opportunity of paying more
attention to the structm^e of this bird, and by experiments
endeavoured to discover to what extent, and upon what
principle, the inflation of the body was performed.

The appearance of so singular a conformation, brought to
recollection wdiat Buff'on relates of the Pelican; who remarks,
that from the lungs the air passes through axillary pipes, into
a thick vesicular cellular membrane, that covers the muscles
and envelopes the wdiole body. The structure, however, of
the Gannet, although probably intended for similar purposes,
is very different from that of the Pelican, according to the
relation of that naturalist.

By comparative anatomy it has been clearly demonstrated,
that birds in general are provided with air-vessels in diff'erent
parts of the body, and that many of their bones are not
destitute of this contrivance, admirably fitted for increasing
their levity, and consequent buoyancy, as well as progressive
motion throuo^h that element in w^hich thev are intended
principally to move; and that too, wdth a velocity that far
surpasses all other parts of animated nature. Mr. John Hunter,
(in the Transactions of the Koyal Society,) proves that the

a Ay NET. 15

air-cells in tlie parts alreadv mentionecl, hare a free com-
munication with the lungs, by means of openings on their
surface, through which the air passes readily into them.

Thus far have the scientific researches of that anatomist
contributed to our knowledge on this subject. Xo one
appears to have noticed the phenomena attendant on the
construction of the Gannet, or to what further extent this
circulation of aerial fluid is carried in some particular species
of birds, a circumstance which demands our highest admi-
ration, when we contemplate the advantages of such a
structure in conducing to the comforts, and perhaps to the
very existence of such animals. On each side nearly
equidistant between this pectoral membrane and the back,
is situated another longitudinal one, very similar to the
last, but perforated; between this and the pectoral are about
nine irregular transverse membranous septa that hold the
skin firmly to the body, having a free communication with
each other. The skin is also furnished with a transparent
cellular membrane, the cells being regularly perforated close
to the base of each feather; at the upper part of the breast
is a large bag, which extends some way up the neck; this
is attached to the skin by the septa of innumerable small ceils,
but no opening into this cellular bag could be discovered;
the introduction, however, of a small pipe through an
artificial aperture clearly demonstrated a passage to the
lungs, as the whole internal cavity of the body was inflated,
and the air issued from the trachea. Upon opening this
bag, the passage of communication with the internal parts
appeared to be under the shoulder blades, (clavicles,) as a
thin perforated membrane was perceived at the bottom,
leading to the thorax, not directly into the lungs, but near
the part where the trachea divaricates, and afterwards com-
municating with the lungs. It could not, however, be
discovered where the air could find a passage from the great
magazine into the cellular bag, and yet there is every reason
to conclude that at this part some valvular passage exists.
Pursuing our researches we observed at the bottom of each
lobe of the lungs a considerable opening for the passage of
air into the cavity of the body.

From what has been already observed, it will not be
unreasonable to conclude that the Gannet is endowed with
such singular properties for very different purposes than
those of long and continual immersion, of which we have

16 GAJS'NET.

before stated it appears to be incapable. But sucb a power
of inflation must contribute greatly to lessen the concussion
in its rapid descent upon water in order to seize its prey.
Besides, as the enlarofement of the surface, without materially
adding to the specific gravity, must greatly contribute to
its buoyancy both in air and water, it is well adapted for
residing in the midst of the most tempestuous sea, floating
on its surface in the most perfect security, and following
those shoals of fishes on which depends its whole existence.
Thus when all other birds are compelled to seek shelter in
bays and creeks, the Gannet is enabled to brave the severest
weather in all seasons without attempting to near the shore.
This contrivance may also be of the most important service
to an animal which is constantly exposed, even in the most
inclement season, and cannot quit its station without starving.
Nothing could possibly conduce more to its security against
intense cold, or be better adapted to preserve the necessary
temperature of animal heat, than the intermediate air dis-
persed between the skin and the body, since that element
is found to be a non-conductor of caloric. Upon this principle,
what animal can be more securely protected against cold,
or retain its vital heat so efl'ectually as the Gannet of such
birds as are almost surrounded with a body of confined air,
divided by cells, and intersected by membranes between the
skin and the body, and that skin so amply covered with a
light porous substance filled also with air and impervious to
water. The Gannet is capable of containing about three
full inspirations of the human lungs divided into three equal
portions, the cellular parts under the skin on each side
holding nearly as much as the cavity of the body.

^N'ow as a full or extraordinary inspiration of the human
lungs has been considered to occupy a space of about sixty
cubic inches, ('Philosophical Transactions,' volume- Ixix, page
349,) so the Gannet is capable of containing not less than
one hundred and eighty cubic inches of air at one time,
subject to the will of the bird under certain impressions.'

These birds roost on rocks along the coast, or on lonely
islets in the open sea, or on the water itself in default of
the former. Yast numbers cono-resrate tosfether. The follow-
ing occurrence was recorded in the ^Sherborne Journal:' —
'A servant of the Eev. F. J. C. Trenon, Eector of Langton,
observed, on the 23rd. ultimo, an unusual commotion among
the Swans m the Fleet, near Langton, which proved to be

GA^OTET. 17

a battle between a Gannet and two full-grown male Swans,
the latter both attacking at the same time, and following
up the contest most vigorously with the former, who defended
himself most resolutely for a very long time, and ultimately
defeated the Swans, beating them both off, and laying them
prostrate, totally disabled, helpless, and seemingly seriously
injured. The G-annet, much exhausted by the protracted
struggle, was easily caught alive, and very little the w^orse
for fighting.'

The following singular circumstance has been communicated
to me by Miss Eickaby, of Burlington Quay: —

*0n the 22nd. day of April, 1S3S, after exceeding stormy
snowy w^eather for two or three days before, an old full-
feathered Gannet was found dead on Swainby Moor, in
Cleveland, about twenty miles from the sea-coast. This bird
had evidently been driven that same night inland by the
force of a tremendous wdnd from the north-east, and had flown
in a state of blindness as long as strength lasted, it being
found scarcely stiff, and with about two inches and a quarter
of the sharp beak, or snout, of the Garfish forced into one
eye, leaving only about half an inch visible, when it was
brought by the person who picked it up to the late Eev.
George Marwood, of Busby Hall, who on making this
discovery of tbe mode of its death, pulled the instrument
of it out, and sent it the next day to Mr. Chapman, of
York, to be preserved. It was returned in the course of a
few weeks after to Mr. Marwood, in a case, and the eye,
with the portion of the beak of the Garfish placed through
it as when found, was preserved in spirits, and sent with it
to Busby Hall, where the w^hole were when this account
was written, March 4th., 184:0, in the possession of the late
Rev. George Marw^ood.'

It is described as a beautiful sight to watch the Gannet
hawking for, and stooping on its prey. It flies with great
power, agility, and freedom, the wings being quickly beaten,
or at times skims along in a steady sailing manner: thus
coursinor on at a o:reater or less heio^ht, or catchinof siiafht
of a quarry, it is down upon it like a thunderbolt, straight,
or in a slightly slanting direction, the wings partly closed,
dashing the water into foam as it plunges, and soon re-
ascends, rarely without its prey. The time that elapses
between the plunge and the emersion, is about fifteen
seconds. Sometimes after the bii'd has arrested its flight

TOL. VIII. C

18 GANl^ET.

for a stoop, on perceiving either that it has been mistaken
in the supposed object, or that the intended prey has already
disappeared, it sails away on a fresh voyage of discovery.

Selby says that Grannets are long-lived birds, some that
had been recognised from particular marks, having been
observed to return to the same stations for upwards of forty-
eight years.

When engaged with their nests they become very tame,
and will allow themselves to be stroked with the hand,
without any sign of displeasure or alarm, beyond the utter-
ance of a low guttural note. It is said that they are unable
to rise from the water, except against the wind, and
consequently that they may be taken in that situation by
being run down upon in a boat.

They feed on fish — herrings, pilchards, anchovies, sardines,
and sprats especially, such being found near the surface.
They are swallowed head foremost.

The note is a dull 'grog, grog.'

Great numbers of these birds build together in the same
situations, on the sides of precipitous cliffs and rocks, the
nests being placed almost close to each other. These are
made of sea-weed and grass.

The egg, for there is only one, is white, or with a pale
tinge of blue.

Both parents sit; the period of incubation being about six
weeks.

Male; weight, between six and seven pounds; length, about
two feet and three quarters or over, up to three feet; bill,
pale greyish horn-colour, the tip fading into white, and a
little inclined down, the edges somewhat serrated. The upper
mandible has a ridge running along it nearly from the base
to the tip, and no nostril is apparent; the part about the
base of the upper mandible black, which colour extends back
over the eye in an arched form, somewhat like a spectacle.
Iris, pale yellow, giving the bird a staring appearance;
eyelids, blue; forehead, black. Head, crown, and neck above,
buff-colour; nape, white; chin, dusky black on the centre
and downwards for some distance under the gular pouch;
throat, otherwise white; breast, white; back, white.

The wings, which are long, have the first quill feather
the longest. They expand to the width of six feet; greater
and lesser wing coverts, white; primaries, black; greater and
lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail, white, is of

aA>"]srET. 19

twelve feathers, the two middle ones being mnch longer than
the others; they are strong and pointed; upper tail coverts,
white; under tail coverts, white. Legs in front, bluish green,
or bluish yellow, behind nearly black; they are feathered
down to the joint; toes, green, the first joints almost black:
they are covered with small scales; claws, greyish white, the
inner edge of the middle one dilated and serrated; webs,
blackish grey.

The female is like the male.

The young bird is on first being hatched of a bluish
black colour; in about a week it becomes covered with white
down. In its first plumage it is totally diiferent from the
old bird, and at the same time of an exceedingly elegant
appearance. Bill, nearly black; iris, dusky slate-colour, the
eyelids blue black. Head, crown, neck, and nape, darker or
lighter slate-colour, according to the age of the bird, and
each feather is more or less tipped with a triangular-shaped
white spot; chin, thr at and breast above, light grey,
mottled with white, the tip of each feather being of the
latter colour in a triangular-shaped mark; below, white.
Back, dark or light slate-colour, according to age, the tip
of each feather white. In the second year the white in-
creases on the plumage. Plumage, dusky greyish black;
tail, dusky greyish black; legs, lead-colour in front, behind,
blackish; toes, blackish grey; webs, blackish grey.

In the third year the white increases, the tertiaries and
long scapulars remaining dark, or spotted with dark. The
full white plumage is acquired in the fourth year.

20

CASPIAN TERN.

Sterna caspica, Selby. Jenyns. Eyton.

*• " Gould. Yarrell.

Sterna — ? Caspica — Belonging to the Caspian.

Op this species, named by Pallas from the region wher^
it was first discovered, the neighbourhood of the Caspian
Sea, a few have occurred on the lakes in Switzerland, and
others in Germany: the Black Sea is also frequented. It is
included among the birds of Saxony, Italy, Holland, and
France, and has been found at Corsica, and among the
islands of the Grecian Archipelago.

It has also been observed in Africa, on the west coast,
in Egypt, and at the Cape of Good Hope. So too in Asia
— in India, China, the Sandwich Islands, and the Friendly
Islands.

These Terns breed on the coast of Denmark and Jutland.

One of these birds occurred at Yarmouth, Norfolk, in
October, 1825; one in 1839; a third June the 9th., 1849;
and one on the 16th. of July, 1850, when one or two others
were said to have been seen. Another, June 12th., 1851;
and another in the middle of August, the same year. In
the county of Lincoln one was shot at Caythorpe, near
Grantham, many miles from the sea, May the 17th., 1853.
In Suffolk three or four were also seen, and one of them
obtained near Aldborough.

They are of migratory habits arriving at the breeding-
places in April, and departing in August. They travel, it
is said, by day as well as by night.

Meyer says that the Caspian Tern, when disturbed, flies
invariably towards the open sea and disappears, but never
seeks its safety by resorting to the land, and thus its

CASPIAN TEEN. 21

appearance on fresh-water lakes or rivers is consequently-
very rare. They roost on the ground. They are very shy
birds, always on the look out, and difficult to be approached,
except when engaged with their nest and young, but sociable
among themselves.

Like the Swallows, these, as all the other Terns, true to
their *nom de guerre,' are incessantly on the wing, and
nothing can be more interesting than to watch them hawking
for their prey.

They swim buoyantly on the water, but do not dive,
beyond the plash made in plunging from their stoop.

They fly, for their size, in a peculiarly buoyant manner,
and hover over a quarry like a hawk, pouncing down and
catching it in an instant. They swim about occasionally,
and run with ease and swiftness.

They feed on fish, especially those of the herring tribe,
or any chance eatable that floats on or near the surface,
and even the young of other birds: the former they appear
to swallow head foremost.

The note is only a harsh cry.

The nest is a mere hollow scratched in the sand.

The eggs are two or three in number, of a yellowish
stone or pale olive green colour, spotted with grey and
reddish brown or blackish brown. They are hatched in
about twenty days; soon run about, and are fed by the
parents with small fish. ^Although the birds use great
exertions to prevent an intruder from approaching the nest
and eggs, by flying over his head, and making a consider-
able noise, yet it has been remarked that when they are
once disturbed, they do not easily return to their nest, and
are said even not to revisit the same spot the following year
if they are fired at.' Several hundreds of pairs build
together.

Male; length, one foot nine or ten inches; bill, vermilion
red, paler towards the tip; iris, dusky reddish brown; head
on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, velvet black,
the feathers elongated towards the last-named, and ended
in a rounded point. In winter, white, or with a few dark
feathers on the hind parts; the sides of the head below the
eyes are white; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, blue
grey. The expanse of the wings in this species is four feet
three inches and a half: they extend considerably beyond
the end of the tail. The fii'st quill feather is the longest^

22 CASPIAIf TEBlSr.

greater and lesser wing coverts, bine grey; the first four,
five, or six primaries are slate grey, with a brown tinge,
the shafts white; greater and lesser under wing coverts,
white. The tail, which is only slightly forked, is grey,
according to Sir William Jardine; under tail coverts, white;
the legs, bare of feathers for nearly an inch above the knee
joint, are as the toes, black; claws, strong and curved, black;
webs, black.

The female is not quite so large as the male.

The young are at first covered with white down. Before
their first autumnal moult they have the bill dull red, the
tip black; forehead and crown, white; chin, throat, and
breast, white; back, greyish brown, with some bars and
patches of a darker brown or blackish; greater and lesser
wing coverts, also greyish brown, with marks of a darker
colour; primaries, dark blackish brown. G-reater and lesser
under wing coverts, white. The tail is dark blackish brown
at the end.

Besides the autumnal moult, the Terns change part of
their plumage in the spring.

23

SANDWICH TERN.

STEiATED tee:n", (xorxG.)

Sterna Boysii, Pexnant. Fleming. Selbt.

" Cantiaca, Montagu. Bewick.

** " Je^jyns. Gould.

Sterna— .' Boysii— Of Boys.

This Tern has received its Latin name from that of Dr.
Boys, its first discoverer; and its English one from Sand-
wich, in Kent, the place where it then occurred.

It is more or less common in various parts of Europe
— Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, and Friesland,
France, Switzerland, Italy, and along the shores of the
Mediterranean. In Africa, it has been found at the Cape;
and in Xorth America from Texas and Charleston to Florida;
and in South America, in Mexico and Brazil. In Asia, in
Kamtschatka; also in New Zealand.

In Yorkshire, the Sandwich Tern has occurred near
Huddersfield; in Derbyshire, occasionally near Melbourne.
In Cornwall, it has been met with about Swanpool, Fal-
mouth, but is rare; also in Devonshire, Sussex, Suffolk, and
Durham; in Norfolk, it is not uncommon about Yarmouth,
one was shot at Hunstanton, September 6th., 1851. In
Oxfordshire it has been killed on Otmoor and near Oxford,
the latter specimen on the 24th. of August, 1847; three or
four others were shot near Oxford, on the Isis, April 23rd.,
1853.

In Ireland, the species occurs as an occasional straggler.

Id Scotland, it has been noticed in Sutherlandshire and
on the Frith of Forth, the Isle of May, and the Berwick-
shire coast.

24 SANDWICH TERIf.

They breed on the Bass Eock, off the coast of Berwick;
also in Kent, about Eomney Marsh; in Essex, at the mouth
of the* Blackwater River; and in Northumberland, on the
Fern Island and Coquet Island.

They are exclusively birds of the sea, and only seen inland
as chance stragglers.

They arrive about the end of April, or towards the middle
of May, and are gone again by the end of August or
beginning of September. They migrate by night.

*As soon,' says Selby, *as the young birds become tolerably
fledged, but before they are altogether able to fly, they
frequently take to the water, swimming off to the smaller
rocks, where they continue to be fed by the parents, until
capable of joining them in their fishing excursions.' They
are naturally shy birds, and rise altogether if approached,
assembling in vast numbers, being sociable among themselves.
They roost on the ground, near the water, gathering together
for the purpose about sunset, but their voices are heard
afterwards till far into the night, and again early in the
morning, while trimming their feathers for the day.

Its flight is rapid, each stroke of the pinions sending it
quickly onwards. Ever on the wing, its whole deportment
is elegant and graceful, and those who will *take the wings
of the morning' and go down to the sea to enjoy the sight
of the 'great deep,' — always the same and always different
— and all the bonders of the shore,' will see nothing more
worthy of notice — where ten thousand things are worthy of
notice — than the 'air and the grace' of the Sea Swallow on
the wing, as it now skims along backwards and forwards,
now stoops on its game, and now soars aloft for a more dis-
tant flight.

They feed on fish — the sand-launce, gar-fish, and others,
darting dow^n on such as come within ken, or sweeping up
any that chance between the waves when running high.

The note is a loud, hoarse, and grating cry or scream,
likened to the syllables *pink,' or 'cree.'

These birds live together in large colonies, hundreds and
even thousands of pairs crowding together in the same places,
the eggs in consequence being so close together that it is
difficult to avoid treading on them. The situation chosen
is a sandy spot, covered at the most with short and bare
vegetation. If the nesting-place is threatened, the birds fly
about in a cloud, or sweep or dash about an intruder.

SAITDWICH TEEllf. 25

They then may be approached, as they cannot be at other
times. They are late in breeding, seldom commencing till
the month of June.

The eggs are usually two, but sometimes three or eyen
four in number. Meyer says, 'The bird sits on them during
the whole night, but only occasionally during the day, and
as in the preceding species, some few birds remain about
the breeding-places, to keep watch during the absence of the
rest. It has been asserted that these birds, although laying
two or three eggs only for a brood, will, when the eggs
are taken out of the nest daily, continue laying for a fort-
night.' The eggs yary exceedingly, and are extremely
beautiful. They are of a pale yellowish stone-colour, thickly
spotted and marked with deep reddish brown, orange brown,
blackish brown, and grey. Some are of a whitish, and others
of a dull green ground colour, with spots of a darker shade.

Male; length, one foot fiye or six inches; bill, black, the
tip yellowish white, farther extended in winter; iris, dark
brown. Head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, black,
with generally a little intermixture of white, and in winter
the forehead and crown are white, or mottled with white
and black, the back of the head with the most black, the
edges of the feathers white. The feathers at the back of
the head elongated into a slight plume ending in a point,
this is followed by white, running into the bluish grey of
the back; head on the sides below the eyes, white. Chin,
throat, and breast, white, with a tinge of rose-red underneath,
that is to say in summer, not in winter; back, pale bluish
grey.

The wings haye the first quill feather the longest; they
expand to the width of two feet nine inches, and reach
beyond the end of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts,
pale bluish grey. Of the primaries, the longest is slate grey,
darker on the outer web, and more than half of the inner
near the shaft from the point, the shaft white; the two or
three next paler, and the succeeding ones still more so, till
they shade away into the colour of the wing coverts; the
inner webs paler than the outer; tertiaries, grey, the ends
nearly white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white.
Tail, forked and white, the outside feathers dashed with grey
on the outer webs; upper tail coverts, white; under taJ.
coverts, also white. Legs and toes, dusky black, with a
tinge of red, underneath the latter are yellowish; claws,

26 SA]SDWICH TEEIT.

black, and much curved, hollow below and a sharp edge
on the upper side; webs, dusky black, and yellow under-
neath.

The female has scarcely any of the red tint, and the tail
is shorter.

The young, when towards a year old, have the upper bill
dark brownish black, with a tinge of yellowish red, the lower
one pale yellowish red or brown at the base, the space
between the bill and the eye dark; iris, pale yellowish
brown; forehead, greyish white. Head on the crown, and
back, blackish grey, the feathers edged with white; neck on
the back, and nape, dull white; chin, throat, and breast,
dull white; back, grey, mottled across with pale brown.
Greater wing coverts, grey, the tips white; lesser wing
coverts, grey, varied with cresceDt-shaped marks of pale
brown; primaries, deep blackish grey, the inner margins and
tips white, the outside one nearly black, except the shaft,
which is white; tertiaries, greyish white, barred with dusky
reddish brown. Tail, greyish dusky on the base and middle
part, the inner webs and tips of the feathers white; legs
and toes, dark dusky brown; webs, dark dusky brown.

In another stage of plumage the head is mottled with
black and white, the back marked with angular spots of
black, so also are the wing coverts and the tail.

27

ROSEATE TERN.

Sterna BougalU, MoNTAQU.

Sterna^ ? Dougalli^Of (Mac)dougall.

The species before us extends its flight in Europe, from
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, to France, Holland, Germanj;
and Italy. Specimens have been procured in Africa, at the
Cape of Grood Hope, and in Madeira. In Asia, from India,-
and in America it is plentiful in Florida.

This very elegant Tern was first discovered by Dr. Mac-
dougall, after whom it was named. He found it on an
island called Cumbray, in the Frith of Clyde. It has since
been observed in divers other localities, among them in
Cumberland, at Brugh Marsh Point, on the Solway Frith.

In Yorkshire specimens have occurred at Scarborough,
Hornsea, and Hebden Bridge. One was shot at Swanpool,
Falmouth, Cornwall, October 1st., 1846; so too in Devonshire,
and in Norfolk at Yarmouth. Likewise in Oxfordshire, two
on the Eiver Isis, near Oxford, and one at Tusmore Park,
near Bicester, in the summer of 1818. T. C. Eyton, Esq.,
of Eyton, has recorded its capture in Shropshire.

In Ireland it is a rare species; has occurred in the county
of Dublin, and also in the Bay of Belfast.

They breed on the Fern Islands, the Walmseys, and
Coquet Island, oflF the Northumbrian coast; also in numbers
on Foulney Island, on the coast of Lancashire. In Scotland,
in the Isle of May, in the Frith of Forth; and, as already
mentioned, on the Cumbray Islands, in the Frith of Clyde.

This species arrives about the middle of May, and departs
by the end of September.

When engaged with their young these birds shew greafe
anxiety, and permit a close approach. They are naturally
shy.

28 EOSEATE TERN.

Their flight is as interesting and deserving of notice as
that of the other species, and as you may have seen any
of these birds in days of yore, so will you see them still
and always, for nature changes not, but like her Maker,
and obedient to His laws, is the 'same yesterday and to-day.'
*The sea is His and He made it' and 'all that therein is;'
and it and all that belong to it obey ever and always His
'perpetual decree.'

These birds feed on small fish.

The note is expressed by the word 'crake,' or 'crse,' uttered
in a hoarse and grating manner.

This species makes its nest among the herbage there may
be on low banks of sand, or shingle, or upon the bare ground
itself.

The eggs are two or three in number; the ground colour
yellowish cream white, pale brown, or yellowish olive green,
spotted and speckled with grey and brown.

Male; length, one foot three inches and a half; bill, jet
black, slender, and slightly curved, the base vermilion red;
the inside of the mouth bright orange red. Iris, dark
brownish black. Forehead, crown, neck on the back, and
nape, jet black, the feathers on the latter parts elongated,
and terminating in a point; the sides of the head, under
the eyes, white. Chin, throat, and breast, white, the latter
with a tinge of rose-colour, from which the bird derives its
name, reminding an entomologist of the delicate moth called
the 'maiden's blush.' This transient colour, like the hopes of
early youth, 'too bright to last,' fades away with the life
of the bird, and I hope that all the ladies who are my
readers will preserve the same pleasing attraction as long as
they live, remembering the maxim of Dr. Grregory, 'when
a woman ceases to blush, she loses the most powerful
charm of beauty:' so it is with the bird; its beauty is in
its life — who then can wantonly shoot the graceful and
chaste-coloured Sea Swallow?

Back, pale grey; greater and lesser wing coverts, pale grey;
primaries, dark hoary grey on the outer webs, paler on the
inner, verging to white at the tips. The shafts white, the
first one has the outer web dark hoary, or nearly black;
tertiaries, tipped with white. The tail, which is greatly forked,
and the outer feathers narrow, is very long, and extends two
inches, or in some specimens, nearly three inches beyond the
closed wings, its colour white or very pale grey; the tail

EOSEATE TEEN. 29

looks very attennated when drawn together. Upper tail coverts,
white; lower tail coverts white; the legs, bare of feathers
about half an inch above the knees, and toes, bright yellowish
oraDge red; claws, black and hooked; webs, yellowish orange
red, they are much scalloped.

In the young bird of the first year, the bill is brownish
black, orange yellow at the base; forehead, white; crown,
pale yellowish grey brown; neck on the back, and nape,
black, barred with pale brown or whitish; chin, throat, and
breast, dull white; back, bluish grey, barred with blackish
or brownish grey, the feathers tipped with yellowish white.
Greater and lesser wing coverts, bluish grey, barred with
blackish grey, the tips of the feathers white, or yellowish
white, forming a bar across the wing; primaries, blue grey,
the outer web of the first one black, the others margined
with white, the tips dusky with pale edges; secondaries,
tipped with white, or yellow white, forming a second narrow
white bar across the wing; tertiaries, blue grey bordered
with brown, with a white edge. Tail, grey, the outer webs
darker than the inner, that of the outermost nearly black,
the tips of the feathers white; legs and toes, pale yellowish
red; webs, pale yellowish red.

30

COMMON TERTT.

GEEATEIt TEEK SEA SWALLOW. GULL TEASER.

Sterna hirundo, Pennant. Montagu. Beavick.

" " Fleming. Selby. Jenyns.

" " Gould. Yarrell.

" major, Brisson.

Hirundo marina, Ray. Willoughby.

Sterna — ? Hirundo—A Swallow

It would appear that this species is not so common as
is imported "by its name, other kinds having heen confounded
with it in the first instance.

It visits Germany, France, Spain, Holland, Switzerland,
Italy, and the Mediterranean, from Norway, Spitzbergen, and
other places of the north. In Asia it is seen, Asia Minor;
and in Africa on the west coast, in Madeira, and the Canary-
Islands. In America, in Greenland and about Hudson's
Bay, and so southwards to New England and other parts.

In Cornv/all it occurs about Gwyllyn Vase, Swanpool,
and Falmouth, but is not common there, though generally
elsewhere. It is however not unfrequently seen quite inland,
as in Oxfordshire, especially in the spring months. In
Worcestershire one, a young bird, was shot near Worcester,
on the banks of the River Severn, in October, 1846. In
Monmouthshire another, also a young one, was obtained on
the 12th. of the same month; others were seen. Some large
flocks had occurred a few years before. In Surrey this bird
has been frequently shot at Frensham Pond, near Godalming.
Two at Chertsey, October 6th., 1846. One was killed at
Bushy Park, and others nearly forty miles up the Thames.

It is very common on the Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and
Norfolk coasts. Specimens, too, have occurred inland in the
first-named county, at Leeds, though rarely, Huddersfield,

^•^-^

COMMON TEEN. 31

Hebden Bridge, and Barnsley, by tbe margins of reservoirs
and the course of canals. In Derbyshire one near Melbourne,
May the 25th., 1845. It has been met with near Oxford.
In Cambridgeshire it is found in the Isle of Ely during
the summer months. Some were shot at March, the 7th.
of May, 1S50. The species is observed all along the south
coast; in Kent, most numerously, it is stated, about Win-
chelsea, Pungeness, and Eomney Marsh; Dorsetshire, Devon-
shire, and Cornwall; so in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Durham,
and jSTorthumberland.

It is common in Ireland; also in Scotland, in the Frith
of Forth, and along the coast, and has occurred in different
Years in Dumfriesshire; likewise in the Hebrides.

The Common Tern breeds near Skinburness, on Eockcliffe
Saltimarsh, by Solway Frith, and a few on Solway Moss.
Many on Foulney Island, on the Lancashire coast. Priest-
holm Isle, off the coast of Anglesea, is another nesting
place, as also the Fern Islands, on the jSTorthumbrian coast,
and the Isle of May in the Frith of Forth, the Frith of
Clyde, and also in the Orkneys.

They frequent low coasts, the borders of lakes, and the
mouths of large rivers, and follow the course of the latter.

These birds arrive variously in different parts of the country
in April, May, or June, and remain till the end of August,
or through the month of September, or to the beginning of
October. They migrate, it is said, by day, and travel slowly.

All the varied movements of the Sea Swallow in flight are
performed with that striking ease and grace which is char-
acteristic of these birds, whether on a calm summer day
when the glassy surface of the sea shimmering in the sun
is broken only by the leaping of the shoals of fish over
which the Terns hover, or later on in the waning year when
*tbe winds their revels keep.'

Their food consists of small sea-fish, and, in fresh water,
of minnows and any other small kinds. They sometimes
pursue the Sea Gulls, and make them drop what they had
caught for themselves, and then seize it before it reaches
the water. They also capture insects, running about in
pursuit of them on the ground.

The Common Tern lays its eggs on sand, rocks, or shingle,
making little or no nest beyond scooping out, a slight hollow;
what there is, is placed either by the sea-side or in marshes,
on islands, or by the sides of lakes and rivers.

32 COMMON TEEN.

The eggs are variously of a pale blue, pale yellow, green,
brown, white, or light dull yellowish or stone-colour, blotted
and spotted with grey, dark reddish brown, and blackish
brown, three in number. They are laid from the latter end
of May to the beginning of July.

The male bird assists the female in the task of sitting
during the day, she taking charge of the clutch at night; in
fine weather, however, the heat of the sun seems to be
thought sufficient warmth, and the bird leaves them to its
rays. Ten or twelve pairs of these birds breed together.
The young come forth in fifteen or sixteen days, and are
able to fly when about three weeks old. The old ones
display much anxiety for their safety, and are very clamorous
when any one approaches their station, flying round, and
frequently even striking against them.

Male; weight, over four ounces to four and a quarter;
length, one foot two inches, or two and a quarter to three.
Bill, coral red, the tip very sharp-pointed and black, the
extreme point yellowish white. Iris, dusky brownish black.
Forehead, crown, neck on the back, and nape, deep black,
ending in a queue; in winter duller in tint; sides of the
head, white below the eyes, in winter the black becomes
dull. Chin and throat, white; breast, dull white, with a
faint tinge of rose-colour. Back above, grey, on the lower
part white.

The wings extend to the width of two feet six inches;
greater and lesser wing coverts, grey; the primaries have
the outside web of the first darker, and the inner lighter,
grey; the others with the outer webs and part of the inner
hoary grey, the remainder of the inner webs white, the
shafts white; secondaries and tertiaries, grey; greater and
lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail, which is long
and considerably forked, has the outer webs of the feathers
pale grey, increasing in depth of colour to the outermost
one, which is greyish black, the inner white; in flight the
feathers are often closed together so as to look like only
one; upper tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, bright coral
red; webs, coral red.

The young are at first covered with mottled grey and
white down. In their first year's plumage the bill is reddish
yellow, the tip and upper ridge dark dusky brown. Forehead,
dull white; crown on the hinder part and neck on the back,
blackish with a hoary tint; chin, throat, and breast, white.

COMMON TEE2f. 33

Back on the upper part, grey, each feather margined with

white and greyish or reddish brown creseent-slmped marks;
on the lower part white. Of the primaries the first has the
outer web black, the others are -grey, the tips hoary grey;
secondaries, tipped with white; tertiaries, also tipped with
white; upper tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, yellowish
reddish brown; claws, dusky; webs, yellowish reddish brown.
One of these birds w^as shot at Lowestoft, in Norfolk, the
12th. of August, 1853, which was entirely of a snow-white
colour, except a few minute grey lines between the bill and
the eye, a little tinge of grey on the quill feathers of the
wings, and a very slight smoke-coloured tint over the head.

VOL. VIIT.

34

ARCTIC TERN.

Sterna arctica, Fleming. Selby. Jenyns.

** •* Eyton. Gould. Yarrell.

Sterna — ........... ? Arctica — Arctic.

The Arctic Tern, as conveyed by its name, is a bird of the
north, and rears its young on the shores that, are washed by
the Arctic Seas, both those of the mainland of Europe, Asia,
and America, and the lonely islands that are exposed on all
sides to the raving blasts of the Polar Furies — Melville Island,
Greenland, Iceland, and the Ferroe Islands; Baffin's Bay,
Siberia, and Kamtschatka; also in the milder regions of
Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Holstein, and Denmark, and farther
south, in Holland, Italy, and the Mediterranean; and in
Africa at the Cape of Good Hope.

In Yorkshire, individuals of this species have occurred inland
near Sheffield; on the coast they are plentiful; so also in
Durham. The Arctic Tern is not uncommon on the Norfolk
coast; it has been occasionally killed near Oxford, and in
other parts of that county. In Worcestershire, one, a young
bird, was shot on the banks of the Severn, near Worcester,
in October, 1846; great numbers had spread up the river in
the second week in June, 1842. Also in Glamorganshire, at
Swansea; in Monmouthshire; and in Somersetshire, at Bridge-
water, Bristol, Clevedon, Weston, and other places; flocks of
them appeared in the towns, hundreds were knocked down,
and some even perched on persons in the streets. The like
occurred in Worcestershire — near Worcester, Evesham, and at
Cofton Hall, one of the seats of the Throckmorton family, a
place associated with most pleasing recollections of my school-
days: then, however, buried in deep retirement, now a railroad
passes in front of it! Considerable flights were also seen in
Gloucestershire, at Tewkesbury; in Herefordshire, near Here-

,(/

A \

i^^^

^

\ x\

AECTTC TEEIS". 35

ford; and in "Wiltshire, at Devizes and Trowbridge; doubtless
most of the intermediate and adjacent parts were likewise
visited. In Surrey, one at Chertsey, October 6th., 186^.

These Terns breed in great numbers on Coquet Island and
the Fern Islands, off the coast of Xorthumberland. Some
also in Lincolnshire, on the coast near Skegness; and on the
Isle of Anglesea, near Holyhead; a few on the Scilly Islands,
in Cornwall. In Scotland, great numbers along the coast of
Sutherlandshire, and on the Isle of May, in the Frith of
Forth. A nest containing four eggs was found at Otmoor,
in Oxfordshire, in the summer of 1834.

In Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides, they are more or
less plentiful.

In Ireland, it is a common species.

The sea-shore and low grounds in its neighbourhood are
the situations frequented by these birds.

They are sociable among themselves, and also mingle with
other kinds when building their nests together.

I suppose that the name of Tern is derived from the habit
the bird has of turning in the remarkable manner it does
when pouncing on its prey. They are true birds of the air,
and right pleasant it is to watch them, as each and every
of the tribe, floating, falling, rising, sailing, turning, diving,
in the kindred element whose lightness 'they almost seem to
equal, on some 'smiling morn' which you will do well to
hail when land and sea are ready to welcome you with the
indescribable freshness of the early hours.

They feed on coal-fish, sand-launce, and any other small
fish that come to their neb, all stray things being considered
as such; these they capture on the wing; also water-insects
and their larvss, worms, and Crustacea; on the shore or grounds
near it severally, even following the plough, and availing
themselves of the results of the turning up of the soil. The
young are fed with the same food.

The note is described by Mever as resembling the u ord.-^
*greer, greer,' and *give, give,' uttered in a soft tone.

This Tern contents itself with a slio-ht hollow scratched
out either in the bare sand, gravel, rocks, or grass, a little
of the latter forming a lining, or the former alone sufficing,
as the case may be, by the sea-shore, the borders of islets,
or the mouths of rivers. Great numbers build to^rether, and
the nests are so closely contiguous that it is iiurdly possible
to avoid walking upon them.

36 AECTIC TEEK.

The eggs are two or three in number, rarely four; they
are subject to almost endless variety, the ground colour being
variously white, green, dull green, brown, pale blue, and pale
yellow, spotted with grey and dark reddish brown. They
are usually laid the beginning of June. The period of incu-
bation is about fifteen or sixteen days.

* Male; length, one foot three inches; bill, coral red, with
sometimes a little blackish red at the tip: head on the sides
below the eyes, white; forehead, crown, and neck on the back,
deep black, ending in a rather rounded peak; nape, white.
Chin, white; throat, pale grey; breast, grey; back, rather dark
grey above, below white. The wings, when closed, reach to
the end of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, grey; of
the primaries, the fij'st has the outer web dark leaden grey,
nearly black, except the tip, which is grey; the others have
the outer webs and half of the inner dark grey, the shafts
white, the tips grey. The tail, deeply forked, has the two
longest feathers on each side dark grey on the outer webs,
the others white; upper tail coverts, white; under tail coverts,
pale bluish grey. Legs, short, feathered to the knee joint,
and, as the toes, deep red; claws, dusky black; webs, deep
red.

The female is a little less than the male, and the black
extends rather farther down the nape.

The young are at first covered with yellowish grey down,
mottled with darker. In their first year, they have the bill
red, the ridge of the upper mandible and the tip dull brown.
Forehead, dull white; crown, a mixture of black and white,
or grey; back of the head, neck on the back, and nape, dusky
greyish black; the sides of the head below the eyes dull white;
chin, throat, and breast, dull white. Back, bluish grey, mottled
with crescent-shaped bars of brownish black on each feather,
the tips pale yellowish grey; greater and lesser wing coverts,
bluish grey, barred with crescent-shaped marks on the feathers
of dusky black, and tipped with white; of the primaries, the
first is leaden grey on the outer web, the others bluish grey,
the inner webs of all nearly white; secondaries, dull bluish
grey, barred with dusky black of a crescent-shaped form on
each feather, and tipped with white; tertiaries, tipped with
white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. The tail
has the outer webs of the three long feathers on each side
slate grey; upper tail coverts, white; legs and toes, palo
orange red; claws, dusky; webs, pale orange red.

37

SOOTY TEEN.

Sterna fuliginosa, Latham, Wilson. Euonapartk»

" " Audubon. Nuttall.

Onychoprion fuliginosus, Gould.

Sterna^ ? Fuliginosa— Dusky— smoky.

This Tern is mentioned as visiting Georgia, Florida, and
Cuba, also Bermuda, the Island of Ascension, Christmas Island,
and the Tortuo^as. Audubon relates a murderous onslauorht
made on the birds there by some sailors who were with him,
reminding one of the proceedings at the same place of the
Bucaniers. It belongs, moreover, to Australia and the islands
of the South Seas. In Europe it has occurred in G-ermanj.

A Tern of this species was shot in October, 1852, at
Tutbury, near Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and was secured
for the collection of H. W. Des Yseux, Esq., of Drakelow Hall.

In Ireland, two have been procured at Wexford.

They are migratory in their movements, arriving in May,
and leaving again by the end of August.

These birds assemble in vast numbers in the closest com-
panionship and seeming friendship. They have been met with
three hundred miles from land: 'How little do they think upon
the dangers of the seas!' Some, however, have appeared
fatigued, settling on the rigging of ships.

They hover, it is said, at times close to the water, when
seeking for food.

They prey on small fish.

No nest is formed, but the eggs are laid in the sand under
trees near the sea-shore, the birds scratching a hollow with
their feet, and frequently fitting themselves into it to see
that it will answer the purpose.

The eggs are smooth, and of a pale cream- colour, slightly

88 SOOTY TEEN".

marked with different shades of pale brown and lighter tints
of purple. The female, while sitting, is fed by the male in
a tender and affectionate manner.

Male; length, one foot five inches; bill, black; from its
base a black streak goes back to the eye; forehead, white,
'ending in a concave curve with a point over each eye;*
head on the crown and sides, neck on the back, and nape,
sooty brown black; the sides of the neck and the lower part
of the sides of the head, white; chin, throat, and breast,
white.

The wings, when closed, reach to within two inches of the
end of the tail; primaries, dark sooty brownish black; second-
aries, also sooty brownish black, but paler in colour on the
outer edges; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white.
The tail, which is deeply forked, has the outside feather on
each side white on the outer web, the others are white at
the base; the long feathers are grey below; under tail coverts,
white; legs and toes, black; webs, black.

In the young bird the tail has the outer feather on each
side light brown on the middle part, the base and the tip
whit«5.

Q

39

WHISKERED TERX

Sterna leucopareia, Gould. Temminck.

" Delamotte, ViBlLLOT.

/S^er/ia— ».„.„.,..„? Leucop .. tia. Leucos — White.

Pareion — The chee •

The Tern thus denominated has, in Europe, beeii noticed
in France and Italy, Hungary, Grermany, and Dalmatia; in
Africa, in Egypt; and in Asia, in Syria and Borneo.

In England, the occurrence of the first specimen was near
Lyme Eegis, Dorsetshire, the end of August, 1886. The
fact was placed on record by T. C. Heysham, Esq., of Car-
lisle, and his name goes down to posterity in connection
%vith it; as do those of other observers in like instances:
'dikaion gar autois, kai prepon de ama, on to toiode, ten
timen tauten tes mnemes didosthai,' as Thucydides used to
have it. A second was shot on Heigham sands, Norfolk,
on the 19th. of June, 1847, so P. Hansell, Esq. informed
me. One, a female in adult plumage, is recorded in the
'Zoologist,' page 1820, by J. H. Gurney and W. R. Fisher,
Esqrs., to have been shot while flying over Hickling Broad,
Yarmouth, on the l7th. of that month: I conclude that one
and the same specimen is intended.

In Ireland, another was obtained on the River LilFey, near
Dublin, in the month of September, 1839.

Male; length, eleven inches and a half; bill, red, inclining
to dark brown towards the tip; from its base a streak of
white goes backwards below the eye, and gives the bird the
name it has hence received. Iris, brownish black. Forehead,
crown, neck on the back, and nape, black, in winter white,
a black spot being left behind the eye; chin and throat,
greyish white; breast, dark grey, paler in winter; back, uark
grey, paler in winter.

40 WHISKEEED TEEN.

The wings have the first quill feather the longest; greater
and lesser wing coverts, dark grey, paler in winter; of the
primaries the first is leaden grey on the outer web and on
the inner portion of the inner web, the remainder of the
latter white; the others paler grey; secondaries, grey also,
but paler; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white.
Tail, dark grey, lighter in winter; upper tail coverts, dark
grey, paler in winter; under tail coverts, white. Legs and
toes, red; webs, red, and deeply indented.

In the young bu^d of the year, the bill is red at the base,
the remainder brown. Head on the crown, neck on the
back, and nape, varied with brown and greyish black; back,
brown, the feathers edged and tipped with dull yellowish
red; secondaries, brown. Tail, blackish grey, tipped with
white. Legs and toes, dull yellowish red; webs, dull yel-
lowish red.

41

GULL-BILLED TEEN

Sterna Anglica, Montagu. Bewick. Fleming. Selby.

" " Jenyns. Eyton. Gould.

Sterna— ? ^w^Z/ca— Anglican— English.

Montagu appears to have been the first to distinguish this
*soi-disant' Anglican species, less peculiar to England than to
any other of the countries where it is known, and' two others,
as will have been seen, do honour by their names to the
discrimination of English naturalists.

It inhabits Europe, Asia, and Africa, occurring in Hungary,
Italy, Turkey, France, Jutland, Holland, Egypt, Nubia, India,
the Isles of Sunda, Java, the United States in North, and
the Brazils in South America.

They breed in Denmark in the Sylt marshes.

In the county of Norfolk, one of these Terns was shot at
Yarmouth, on the 31st. of July, 1849, and two others, a pair
of adult birds, male and female, at the same place on the
1st. of September that year; one the 24th. of May, 1850, and
one the beginning of July, 1851. In Yorkshire, one was
captured near Leeds, in the West Riding, in July, 1843. In
Cornwall, a specimen was shot by John Jenkinson, Esq., at
Sciliy, the end of May or beginning of June, 1852. Two in
1839, one of them in Kent, in the month of June.

They addict themselves to salt-water lakes, swamps, and
other such localities.

They migrate in May and September.

They feed on winged and water insects, frogs and tadpoles,
small fish, taken up as they skim along, and worms, when
visible above ground; they are said also to prey on the eggs
and young of other birds.

The note is like the S3dlables *ha, ha, ha.'

The nesting-places of this species are marshy grounds not
far from the sea-beach. A small hollow is scratched in the
sand or gravel, and in this a few stems of grass and small
roots are placed.

42 GULL-BILLED TEEN.

The eggs are two, three, or four in number, of a pale, as
also of a dull greenish or yellowish olive-colour, marked and
spotted with pale grey, reddish brown of two shades, and
olive brown.

Male; length, one foot three inches and a half; bill, strong
and black, with a projecting angle, as in the Grull tribe; a
white streak runs back from it to the eye; iris, dark reddish
brown; before the eye there is in winter a greyish black spot,
and another towards the hinder part of the side of the head;
forehead, head on the crown and back, neck on the back,
and nape, silky black; afterwards a few of the feathers become
edged with white, the shafts being the same, and so gradually
more and more, till the former colour is entirely lost in the
winter, except a few dusky dots behind the eyes; the feathers
are rather elongated; chin, throat, and breast, white; back,
dark bluish grey.

The wings are two feet ten inches in extent; they reach
more than two inches beyond the end of the tail; greater
and lesser wing coverts, dark bluish grey; of the primaries,
the first is dark hoary grey, the others lighter; their tips
and half of the inner webs next to the shafts, grey, darkest
at the tips of the first five — nearly black, less dark in winter;
the shafts white; secondaries and tertiaries, dark bluish grey;
greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, pale bluish
grey; the shafts of the feathers white, as is the outer feather
on each side; upper tail coverts, pale bluish grey; under tail
coverts, white; legs and toes, reddish black; the hind toe is
lengthened; the claws are long and straight; webs, blackish
red.

The female is like the male.

The young are in the earlier stage mottled with brownish
grey. In the first year the bill is bluish black; head on the
crown, dull white, varied with pale brown and dusky streaks;
a spot of greyish black behind the eye; neck and nape, white;
chin, throat, and breast, white; back, dull orange brown,
spotted with darker brown. Greater and lesser wing coverts,
grey, tipped with pale dull orange brown; primaries, grey;
tertiaries, dull orange brown, spotted with darker brown;
greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, with not
much grey; legs and toes, black.

The engraving is from a drawing by John Gatcombe, Esq.,
of Plymouth.

pa

fa

00

43

SWIFT TERN

EUPPELLS TEKN.

Sterna velox, Ruppell.

Sterna — ? Velox — Swift.

This species has occurred in Europe, in Hungary; and in
Africa is found from the Red Sea to the Cape of G-ood Hope.

In Ireland one of these birds was shot, as recorded by the
late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, in the ^Annals and
Magazine of Natural History,' at Sutton, near Dublin, in the
end of December, 1846, and two others were seen in company
with it at the time.

Like all the others of their class, they possess great powers
of flight, and their rapid wheelings and turnings are performed
with every variety of graceful attitude. It would seem almost
paradoxical to attribute superior qualities in this respect to
one of these birds over others, where all are so highly gifted,
but the name assigned to this Tern would appear to imply
that it is *kat exoken,' the swift one — the swiftest of the
swift, where all are swift — the lightest of the light-winged,
where all are lio^ht-winf^^ed.

Male; length, one foot eight inches; bill, yellowish horn-
colour. Forehead, white; crown, neck on the back, and nape,
black; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, rather dark
bluish grey. The wings extend to the end of the longest
feathers of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, rather
dark bluish grey; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, grey;
greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Legs and toes,
black; webs, black.

M

LESSER TEE:N.

LITTLE TEEN".

Sterna minuta, Linn.'eus. Pennant. Montagu.

*' " Bewick. Fleming. Selby.

" " Jenyns. Gould.

" minor, Brisson.

•* metopoleucoSf Gmblin.

Sterna— ? iJfznttto— Minute— small.

The Little Tern, in Europe, is found on the coasts of
Holland, France, Holstein, Denmark, ISJ'orwaj, Sweden, and
Russia; also a few in Grermany. In America they range from
the States to the Gulf of Mexico. In Africa, along the western
shores and in the Canary Islands. In Asia, in India, Siberia,
and in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea and the Caspian
Sea.

This species, *La Petite Hirondelle-de-Mer,' is common on
the coast of Norfolk. In the county of York, specimens
have been procured near Huddersfield, at Ecclesfield, near
Sheffield, and not unfrequently near Barnsley; also, naturally
on the coast. In Cornwall, one was obtained at Mount's
Bay,- April 16th., 1852. They have been likewise noticed
on the coasts of Essex and Suffolk.

It occurs at uncertain intervals, as I have been informed
by Mr. Thomas Thorn croft, in the neighbourhood of Shore-
ham; two were shot by him there in May, 1850; seven or
eight appeared in May, 1853, near Brighthampton, Oxford-
shire; others near Oxford, two April 23rd., 1853. One was
seen by the Eevs. Andrew and Henry Matthews, in June,
1846, flying about the margin of the lake in Kirtlington
Park, near Weston-on-the-Green. In Cambridgeshire one, a

LESSER TEEN. 45

male, at March, the 7th. of May, 1850. In Surrey, some
have occurred at Frensham Pond, near Godalming.

It is seen in Ireland on different parts of the coast.

In Scotland, as far as Aberdeen. In Orkney it is not
uncommon.

The Lesser Tern breeds on the ISTorthumbrian coast, nearly
opposite to Holy Island. So too in Kent, about Yanlet
Islet, on the Thames; in Lincolnshire, at Skegness; and on
the Cumberland coast; on the Solway Frith Skinburness is
a station; also in Scotland, upon Gruillon Point, above Xorth
Berwick, on the Frith of Forth.

These birds are found both inland, by the sides of lakes
and rivers, and along the sea-coast, frequenting low gravelly
and sandy shores.

They arrive early in May, and depart towards the end of
August. The migratory journey is performed, it is said, in
pairs or small parties, and that both by day and night,
high in the air.

They are sociable among themselves, and not shy unless
alarmed.

Their flight is similar in its easy and graceful character
to that of the other species, and performed with quickly-
repeated beatings of the wings; but in stormy weather they
appear to be unable to buffet much with the gales, and
frequently alight on the ground, generally turning themselves
towards the wind.

Their food consists of young fish, shrimps, crabs, insects,
and Montagu and Meyer say, some of the smaller sea- weeds.
In search of these they frequently alight on the water, besides
their habit of descending on their prey.

The note sounds like *creek, creek,' uttered in a high
pitch; but though there is nothing very ^recherche' in the
musical performance of this or any other sea-birds, yet to
the ear of the naturalist every sound in nature is pleasant
and grateful.

The bird before us lays in the sand or gravel along the
sea-shore, as also by the borders of rivers: several pairs
breed close together.

The eggs are generally two, or sometimes three in number,
of a pale brown, dull green, or stone-colour, spotted and
speckled with grey and dark chesnut brown. They are laid
by the first week in June.

The young are hatched in a fortnight: they are able to

46 LESSER TEE]!T.

fly about the second week in July. Audubon says that they
are fed for a time on the wing by both parents.

Male; weight, a little over two ounces; length, eight inches
and a half to nine and a half; the bill, large, strong, and
nearly straight, is orange yellow, the tip black or dusky;
between it and the eye is a black mark; iris, deep brown,
over the eye is a white streak reaching from the forehead.
Forehead and head on the sides, white, the former extending
farther back in winter; crown, neck on the back, and nape,
jet black, less deep in winter; the feathers elongated at the
back of the head; chin, throat, and breast, white. Back,
pale soft bluish grey.

The wings reach to the extent of one foot seven or eight
inches, and extend, when closed, beyond the end of the tail;
greater and lesser wing coverts, pale delicate bluish grey; of
the primaries, the first one, two, or three are blackish grey,
the inner webs broadly edged with white, the others grey.
The tail is white, short, and not very much forked; upper
and under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, orange yellow;
webs, orange yellow.

The female is as the male.

The young of the year have the bill pale yellowish brown,
the tip blackish brown; before and behind the eye is a blackish
mark. Forehead, head on the crown, neck on the back, and
nape, dull ^^ellowish > brown, spotted at the tips of the feathers
with blackish grey, the latter colour prevailing on the latter-
named parts; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, pale bluish
grey, mixed with dull yellowish and barred with dusky black
near the tip. Primaries, dark blackish grey, the margins of
the inner webs white; secondaries, grey; tertiaries, grey mar-
gined with blackish grey. Tail, white at the base, and spotted
towards the end, and tipped with dusky yellowish, and with
dusky black marks on each web in the middle of the feather.
Legs and toes, pale yellowish brown; webs, pale yellowish
brown.

47

BLACK TEEN.

Sterna nigra, Ltnnjeus. Fleming. Selby.

" Jlssipes, Montagu. Bewick.

Viralva nigra, Leach. Stephens.

Sterna — ? iV7^?'a— Black,

The present species occurs in Europe in Holland, Sweden,
Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Hungary, and France.
In America, both North and South, from Hudson's Bay to
the Brazils. In Asia, in Tartary and Siberia, Persia, and along
the Caucasus. It has been noticed also at Madeira.

The Black Tern used to breed in numbers in several of the
marshy parts of the countr}^, but the drainage of lands has
destroyed many of its haunts. Winterton, in Norfolk, used
to be one of these, and Eomney Marsh, in Kent. It still
finds suitable places in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Cambridge-
shire. In the former county Crowland Wash was once a resort.
In Cambridgeshire, immense flocks of these birds appeared in
Bottisham and SwafPham fens, in the summer of 1824^, as
recorded by the E-ev. Leonard Jenyns; a pair were killed at
March, the 7th. of May, 1850. In Cornwall, a specimen
occurred at Mount's Bay, the beginning of April, 1850. In
Sussex, one the same year, at Balmer, near Lewes, on the
9th. of that month. Individuals have occurred in Hampshire,
Devonshire, and Shropshire. In Middlesex, some at Kingsbury,
in the autumn of 1841. The Black Tern is occasionally
plentiful on the Norfolk coast; three or four at Horsey, near
Yarmouth, May 17th., 1853. In Yorkshire, a few used to
frequent the streams near Driflield, and individuals have
occurred near York, Barnsley, Hebden Bridge, and Sheffield,
one in the middle of the town; one also at Kirkstall, near
Leeds, in the year 1812. In Worcestershire, two near Wor-
cester, on or about the 12th. of November, 1819. Six of

48 bla.ce: teen.

these birds were shot in October, 1840, at Swanpool, Fal-
mouth, Cornwall. A pair at Chertsey, in Surrey, the end
of May in the same year; others at Frensham Pond, near
G-odalming; at Wey bridge, one on the 10th. of August,
1841, and one on the 12th. of May, 1842, the latter out
of a flock of about twenty. In Oxfordshire this species is
occasionally found, generally in immature plumage, but adult
specimens have been obtained near Oxford and on Otmoor;
two, both adult males, on Port Meadow, near Oxford, in
May, 1848; others had been procured there previously.
William Felkin, Esq., Junior, of Carrington, near Notting-
ham, has written me word that a flock were seen near the
latter town, on the River Trent, in June, 1851, and one of
them shot; and also some others in January, 1854, during
the severe snow-storm of that month, at Wilford, near there.
Another, Mr. John Shaw informs me, was killed at Wroxeter,
on the Severn, in May, 1853. The Hon. T. L. Powys has
met with several in Northamptonshire, on the Eiver Nene,
near Thrapstone.

In Scotland, one was shot at Coldstream, Berwickshire,
the beginning of July, 1851. One had previously been
obtained in East Lothian.

In Ireland it occurs as an occasional straggler. Some have
been observed by the River Shannon, and Sir William Jardine
says there is a breeding-place at Roxburgh, near Middleton,
in the county of Cork.

These Terns frequent, for the most part, low and flat
watery grounds, morasses, bogs, fens, and pools.

They migrate chiefly by night, flying at a great elevation,
but otherwise, if following the course of a river, low down.
*When this bird rests on the ground, it carries its head
with the neck shortened, its breast lowered, and its body in
a horizontal position, with its wings crossed one over the
other, and carried considerably above the tail.' The time of
their arrival is in April or the beginning of May, and that
of their departure early m October. One was seen by
Montagu so late a^ the beginning of November, 1802.

In Italy, thousands of these birds are sold in the markets
for food.

The powers of flight of this species are equally great with
those of the others. Flocks have been seen in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean. *Nil moror' is their motto, in disregard
of the longest journey, and distance forms no part of their

BLACX TEEI^. 49

calculations in setting out. Meyer says that it has frequently
been observed that the Black Tern is so exceedingly quick
and dexterous on the wing, that Hawks find it generally
difficult, if not impossible, to strike one, and are frequently
obliged to give up the pursuit. Montagu was a witness to
one such instance, and mentions 'a, chase of this bird by a
Peregrine Falcon, whose repeated pounces it foiled, and from
whom it ultimately escaped, by the dexterity and singular
quickness of its manoeuvres.' They swim only from necessity,
not from choice, and walk or run but little, almost the whole
of their time being passed in the air.

They live on insects, dragon-flies and others, small fish,
young frogs, and worms. Those articles of food that belong
to the water, they dip down at, and so pick up; any on the
land, they alight beside for an instant, and then fly ofl* with.

Their call-note is thought to be like the word 'kear, kear,*
uttered in a rather soft and plaintive manner.

These birds build together in great numbers; they choose
for the purpose swampy places among moors or fens. Their
nests are either placed in some slight mound of earth, or tuft
of grass or rushes, close to or floated on the w^ater, among the
kindred stems and stalks of flags and reeds, and with grass
for the inner portion.

The eggs are three in number, and still oftener four, and
of a rather dark olive green or olive brown colour, blotted and
spotted with deep brown or black, principally at the larger end.

The young are produced in fifteen or sixteen days.

Male; weight, about two ounces and three quarters; length,
nine inches and three quarters to ten inches; the bill h flattened
at the sides, black and polished, with a tinge of crimson at
the base, the inside of the mouth red; iris, dark dusky brown.
Head and crown, dark leaden grey, nearly blacl^, in winter
white or nearly so, as is the space between the bill and the
eye; neck and nape, dark leaden gre}^, also white in winter;
chin, throat, and breast, deep blackish grey in summer, the
former white in winter; back, deep slate-colour.

The wings have the first quill feather the longej^i; they expand
to the width of one foot ten inches, and reach, when closed,
two inches beyond the end of the tail; the outer web of the
first is black, and a narrow pale stripe border^ tlic edge of the
inner. Primaries, slate-colour, bordered with u. lighter shade
on the ends of the inner webs of the two lusu Ta.il, dark
slate-coloui', not much forked; under tail covorts, winie. Legs

VOL. VllI, E

50 BLACK TEEN.

and toes, deep reddish brown; the claws, black, long, very
sharp, and hollowed underneath; the webs, deep reddish brown,
are deeply indented.

In the autumnal moult, preparatory to the winter dress, the
plumage appears to be as follows: — The base of the under
mandible dark reddish brown; eyelids, white and feathered, the
outermost edge black, in front of the eye a black mark.
Forehead, crown, neck on the back, nape, head, and neck on
the sides, blackish, a band across the front of the head has the
black feathers tipped with white; chin and throat, white; the
breast, blackish grey on each side. Back, dark hoary greyish
brown, the edges of the feathers being yellowish white. Greater
and lesser wing coverts, dark hoary grey with a tinge of reddish
brown, the shafts white; greater and lesser under wing coverts,
white. Tail, pale grey, underneath lighter-coloured, the shafts
white; upper tail coverts, pale grey; under tail coverts, white.
Legs and toes, bluish grey, with a tinge of pale yellowish or
reddish brown.

The female nearly resembles the male; the chin has a few
touches of white. The back is of a paler shade of lead-colour.

In the young of the year the bill is brownish black; forehead,
white; the neck has a white collar; the chin, throat, and breast,
are described as white; back, light slate-colour, the feathers
margined with brown or white, or a mixture of both.
Primaries, dark slate grey, the first one leaden grey; greater
and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, slate grey; upper
tail coverts, greyish white.

51

WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN,

SILTER-WINGED BLACK TEEIST.

Sterna leucoptera, ScHiNZ. Gould.

*' " Temminck. Yarrell.

Sterna — ? Leucoptera. Leucos — White. Pteron — A wing.

This bird appertains to the northern parts of Africa, Tunis,
and other districts, and the southern parts of Europe, affecting
the bays and inlets of the Mediterranean and its islands —
Sicily, and others. It is very common about the Straits of
Gribraltar, and on the lakes of Switzerland; also in Italy, and
is included in the birds of Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Germany.
In Asia, it has been noticed on the shores of the Black Sea

One of these birds was shot on the 17th. of May, 1853, at
Horsey, near Yarmouth, Norfolk; a ^material guarantee,' it
may be hoped, for the future occurrence of others in our
country.

In Ireland, one was shot by J. Hill, Esq., on the River
Shannon, in the year 1841; one also in Dublin.

They arrive at their summer haunts in the month of May,
and disappear in July and August.

Thev feed on drasron-flies and other winsred insects, and the
fry of fish.

The eggs of this species are three or four in number, with
many greyish spots, and some larger blackish red ones, the
ground colour being dull yellowish olive. They are of a
rotund form.

The male and female birds sit on them in turn, and shew
much anxiety for their safet}^, flying at and about all intruders.

Male; length, about nine inches, or nine and a half; bill,
dusky blackish, with a tinge of red at the base; iris, greyish

52 WHITE-WINGED BLACK TEEN.

black; in winter there is a black crescent-shaped mark. Head,
crown, neck, and nape, deep glossy black with a tint of green ;
in winter spotted with black and pale brown and grey, the
feathers beino: bordered with the latter colours; chin, throat,
and breast, black. Back, black, paler lower down, in winter
deep bluish grey, black between the shoulders.

The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they expand
to the width of two feet and half an inch; and reach about
three inches be^^'ond the end of the tail; greater wing coverts,
light grey, in winter dark grey, some spotted with black and
pale brown and grey, with which the feathers are edged; lesser
wing coverts, white, deepening into grey down the wing; of
the primaries, the first three or the first four or five, variously
according to age, are greyish black with a broad band of
white across on the base of the inner webs, the shafts white;
the remainder of the primaries are light grey, the tips and the
outer web of the first quill darker than the remainder; in
winter the primaries are slate-colour, the tips of some of them
dull white; secondaries and tertiaries, slate grey, in winter
paler — bluish grey; greater and lesser under wing coverts, deep
glossy black, but som.e of them dark grey. Tail, white both
above and below; upper and under tail coverts, white. Legs
and toes, coral red, in winter orange yellow^; claws, black; the
webs, which are also red, are very deeply indented.

The female resembles the male.

The moult begins at the end of July or beginning of August,
and the plumage is as follows:— Bill, dusky black, dull reddish
about the base; the space between it and the eye is white.
Head, crown, neck on the back, and nape, white with black
tips to the feathers; chin, white; the breast barred with black
and white, the feathers being broadly edged with the former
colour; back on the upper part, black; tertiaries, darker than
in summer. Legs and toes, dull coral red.

53

NODDY.

BLACK NODDY.

Sterna stolida, Jenyns. Gould.

Anous stolidus, Eyton.

Sterna— ? 5'toZi^— Foolish— hebid.

This species is only an occasional and rare wanderer to
Europe, but a few specimens have occurred on the French
coast. It belongs also to America, being plentiful in Carolina,
the Gulf of Mexico, along the coast of Florida, and the West
India Islands, Tobago, the Tortugas, the Bahamas, and others.
In South America, in Brazil and Cayenne. In India it is
seen in the Chinese seas.

In Ireland, two specimens were shot off the coast of Wexford,
in the summer of 1840.

They are very tame while engaged with their nests, alighting
on the heads of visitors, or suffering a hand to be placed over
them while sitting; indeed they appear to parmit a close
approach at all times, as suggested by their name: who has
not read of 'Boobies and Noddies?' who, that is to say, has
not read Captain Bligh's ever-memorable voyage in the open
boat? who that has read it, does not remember it, and will
not remember it with interest as long as he lives? These
birds frequently alight at night on the yards of vessels, as if
to roost. When taken they bite severely, snapping in a quick
manner, and so as to make a sound if the object is missed.
They have been seen more than a hundred leagues from land.

They fly in a buoyant and light manner, and swim with
ease and grace. 'When about to alight on the water, the
Noddy keeps its wings extended upwards, and touches it first
with its feet.'

54 ]S'ODDY.

They feed on small fish, on which they either swoop in their
flight, and so snatch up, or take while swimming about.

The note is harsh, but they also utter a low querulous
murmur.

The nesting-places of this bird are banks and rocks.

The nest, which is pla-^ed in low trees or bushes, is made
of twigs and dry grass, and that of the former year is often
repaired, being thus raised to the height of nearly a couple
of feet. Thousands of birds build together.

The eggs, three in number, are of a reddish yellow colour,
spotted with dull red and purple. They are thought very good
to eat.

The hen bird while sitting is fed by the male.

Male; length, one foot two and a half to one foot three
inches; bill, black; iris, dusky brown, a black line runs back
to the eye from the base of the bill. Forehead, white, the
crown yellowish grey, shaded backwards into greyish brown;
neck and nape, dark chocolate brown; chin, throat, and breast,
dark chocolate brown. Back, brown; greater and lesser wing
coverts, dark chocolate brown; primaries, brownish black;
greater and lesser under wing coverts, dark chocolate brown.
The tail is rounded, the middle pair of feathers being loDger
than the others. It is dark chocolate brown in colour; upper
and under tail coverts, dark chocolate brown. Legs and toes,
black; webs, black.

f f '^"''

55

SABINE'S GULL.

sabii^^e's xeme.

Larus Sahini, Jenyns. YarkeLL.

*• Subineif Temminck.

Xema Sabini, Leach. Etton. Gould.

Larus—,, ^ Sabini— SsLbme% or of Sabine.

This neat and graceful bird was first discovered as a new
one by Captain Edward Sabine, of the Eoyal Artillery, who
accompanied the expedition of 1818, in search of a north-west
passage: they were noticed July 18th. on the coast of G-reenland;
one subsequently in Prince Eegent's Inlet, and afterwards many
on Melville Peninsula; also in Felix Harbour, Behring's Straits,
Cape Garry, and Igloolik; as also off Newfoundland, and at
Halifax, in Nova Scotia. In Europe one on the coast of
Holland, one on the Ehine, and one in France, near Eouen.
They belong to Spitzbergen.

A specimen of this Grull was shot at Newhaven, in Sussex,
in December, 1853. In Cambridgeshire one, and one at
Milford Haven, in the autumn of 1839.

It is also an Irish species, the first recorded British example
having been shot in the Bay of Belfast, in September, 1822;
a second occurred in Dublin Bay; and a third in October, 1837;
which fell to the gun of H. H. Dombrain, Esq.

They feed on marine insects, which they stand and watch
and search for by the water's edge.

If the nesting-places of these Grulls be approached, they
dash with impetuosity at and about an intruder, in the
endeavour to scare or lure him away. Most birds, as has
already been so often shewn in the present work, resort to
every expedient for this object, if not in the way of attack,
in that of concealment; — a harmless ^suppressio veri,' which if

56 SAEJ^F S GULL.

the attempt sometimes fails, in far more cases snccessfullv bides
from the enemy the situation of the eggs or young.

This bird lays its eggs on the bare earth.

Thev are two or three in number, olive brown in their ground
colour," numerously spotted with darker brown. They are of
a regular shape, and not much pointed.

The young are hatched in the latter end of J^lj-

Male; length, one foot and nearly an inch; bill, black tipped
with yellow, the inside of the mouth brig:ht vermilion; iris,
dark brown surrounded by a rim of vermilion red: under the
eye is a small white speck! Head, crown, neck on the back,
sides, and front, dark slate-colour, below which is a collar of
deep black, followed by the white o the lower part of the
neck and nap chin and throat, dark slate-colour; breast,
white; back, pale bluish grey.

The wings extend rather more than an nch beyond the end
of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, bluish grey; the
first five primaries are black, tipped and edged on the inner
webs, nearly to, and sometimes quite to, the tips, with white,
namely, the first and second black or white at the ends; the
third, fourth, and fifth white; the sixth with a white shaft,
having the web more or less black, but principally white, with
sometimes a black spot near the end, the other primaries white,
the shafts black; secondaries and tertiaries, white; greater and
lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, white; the feathers
twelve in number, the outer ones narrower than the centre
ones, and about an inch longer, upper and under tail coverts,
white. The leofs, feathered nearly to the knee, and the toes,
black; claws, black.

The young, in the autumn the first ear nas the bill
black at the base, the tip yellowish white; the opace between
the eye and the bill, excepting a narrow liii*. v^. greyish black
around the lower part and in fron!3 of thw eye, is white; fore-
head, white crown, mottled with blackLh grey; neck on the
sides, white nape, darker blacki^li gi^j, ohaded olf into the
other tint; chin and throat, v/hitc^ breast above, pale grey
white; bacli; blackish grey tinged with yellovvii^h brown, the
extremity cf every feather varying from greyish white to white
as it approaches the tail. Grreater and lesser wmg coverts,
blackish grey tinged with yellowish brown, broadly tipped with
white the first five primaries have the shafts brownish black
at the base, becoming gradually darker towards their ends,
which m the first three are black tipped with dull white, but

sabixe's gull. 57

in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, assimilate to the feather at that
part, which is white; the whole of the outer wehs of the first
five black, the inner webs with a broad edging of dull white
to within from one to two inches of the end; in the sixth the
inner web is dull white, the outer black, excepting for about
a quarter of an inch from the tip, where it is white, and
again at about an inch from the end, where a white oval-
shaped spot appears; (the above description is compiled from
Mr. Thompson's, of Belfast.) Secondaries, broadly tipped with
white; tertiaries, grey; greater and lesser under wiiig coverts,
white. The tail, less forked than in the full-grown bird, is
dull white, the tip black; upper and under tail coverts, white.
Legs and toes, black; webs black.

58

EOSS'S GULL.

aOSS's EOST GULL. CI7NEATE-TAILED GULL.
WEDGE- TAILED GULL.

Larus Rossiiy Richardson. Nuttall. Audubon.

« « Macgillivray. Yarrell. Wilson.

*' roseus, Jardine. Selby

Rhodostethia Rossi, Macgillivray.

Larus— Rossii — Of Ross.

This species is named after Commander Eoss, E.N., by
whom the first specimen was obtained. Two were shot on the
coast of Melville Island, during Sir Edward Parry's second
expedition. Several were seen north of Spitzbergen, and the
species was also noticed by Lieutenant Forster, E.N., in
Way gait Straits.

A specimen of this beautiful Grull was shot in Yorkshire, by
Lord Howden's gamekeeper, in February, 1847, at Milford-
cum-Kirby, near Tadcaster, in the West-Eiding. Another is
reported in the ^Zoologist,' page 3388, on the authority of
Mr. J. B. Ellman, to have been obtained at Pevensey, in
Sussex, in the beginning of 1852.

Length, about one foot two inches; the male in winter
has the bill black, the inside o the mouth reddish orange;
the edges of the eyelids reddish orange; near and around the
eye are small black feathers; head and crown, white; the neck
has a collar round it of pitch black, it is otherwise white,
as well as the nape, chin, throat, and breast, the latter with
some grey and a deep tinge of *rich and rare' peach-blossom,
red or rose-colour — borrowed, as it were, in the hyperborean
regions, the native places of the bird, from the 'Aurora Borealis,'
the 'Northern Light,' which, as if to make up for the brief
day, transplants the gleam of the morning to gild the long
night of the Arctic year. Back, clear grey.

\l

\

/

I

boss's GTIIiL. 59

The wings reach an inch beyond the end of the tail;
underneath they are grey; the fifth quill feather is the longest;
greater and lesser wing coverts, grey; the primaries have the
outer web of the first blackish brown or dark grey to its tip,
which is grey, the shaft bluish grey, the others white; greater
and lesser under wing coverts, grey. The tail, which is wedge-
shaped, has the outer web of the first feather blackish; the
remainder rose-colour; the two middle feathers are the longest,
the others graduated; upper tail coverts, delicate rose-colour.
Legs and toes, vermilion red; claws, blackish or black; webs,
vermilion red.

60

LITTLE GULL.

'' atricHloides,

n a

Chroiocephalus minutuSt
Xema minutus,

Montagu. Bewick.
Gmeltn. Fleming. S =^lby.
Jenyns. Latham. Temminck.
Eyton.
Gould.

Larus— ?

Minutus — M i n ute— smalL

This diminutive and elegant species occurs in Europe in
E/Ussia, Finland, and Denmark, and individual specimens have
been obtained in Holland, Hungary, Italy, Germany, and
Switzerland. In Asia — in Tartary and Siberia, and about the
Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. In America a young bird
appears to have been seen.

In Yorkshire, two were seen about the 20th. of October,
1849, and one of them shot, at Auburn House, near Burlington
Quay, by Mr. Jones, of the latter place; several others near
there also at different times; another near Redcar, January
16th., 1850; one at Scarborough by Mr. Patrick Hawkridge,
in November, 1836; two were seen on Skip worth Common,
September 1st., 1856. A specimen of the Little Gull was
shot at Yarmouth, in Norfolk, on May 30th., 1849; others
have occurred, though rarely, most years; one was killed in
the middle of November, 1843, within the city of Norwich.
In Suffolk, one in 1832. In Northumberland, one at the
mouth of the Tyne, in September, 1835. One, in adult
plumage, near Lewes, Sussex, the 29th. of November, 1850.
In Soniersetshire one near Weston-super-Mare, January 7th.,
1851; it also was a mature specimen. In Derbyshire, one,
a young bird of the year, in the parish of King's Newton,
the 22nd. of January, 1851, by H. Orton, Esq. ; when first
seen, it was swimming in the Trent, near Weston Cliff. One
in Devonshire, near Exeter, the last day of January, .1851.

I

I*

i

\

LITTLE atTLL. Gl

In Cornwall, two shot at Swanpool, Falmouth, by T. Passingham,
Esq., January, 1847; and in the same month another was
captured at Ponsnooth. In Essex one. One, a young bird,
near London, at Chelsea. One in Kent, at Sheerness, in 1840,
Mr. CbaflFey, of Dodington, has informed me. Mr. Bullock
obtained two specimens in 1819.

In Scotland, one on the Eirth of Clyde; also one on the
Solway Firth, in the autumn of the year 1824. In Shetland
one, a female, was shot by Mr. Robert Dunn, on the 7th. of
April, 1853.

It has occurred in Ireland, but only yery rarely; two were
seen, and one of them obtained, in the Bay of Belfast, in
December, 1847; another on the Shannon — an adult bird in
summer plumage.

They frequent the mouths of riyers, lakes, and ponds.

They are migratory in their habits.

These birds seem to associate with the Terns; and are shy,
and difficult to-be approached.

This Gull flies in a peculiarly swift and airy manner, 'a la'
the Sea Swallow, one while hoyering oyer a spot that contains,
or seems to contain, some article of food, now wheeling about
in graceful sweeps, and now soaring aloft to a great height
in spiral moyements, and away the sea-fowl hies to the place
of its nightly rest.

They feed on insects, worms, caterpillars, and the young
fry of fish.

Male; length, a little oyer ten inches; bill, bright red, in
winter reddish black or brown; iris, very dark brown; behind
the eye is a small crescent-shaped spot of white; in winter a
small triangular black one before it. Head on the back, crown,
and the neck all round, deep black, in winter browmish grey
black; below^ white; in winter the forehead is white, the back
of the head and nape white, streaked with more or less of
greyish black; the sides white; the chin, throat, and upper
part of the back, white; a dusky spot under the eye, and an
oblong patch of dusky black rather behind it, going downwards;
chin and throat, deep brownish black, in winter white ; breast,
white, tinted with rose-colour; back on the upper part, clear
pale grey, coming forwards on the sides towards the breast;
below white.

The wings haye the first two quill feathers of nearly equal
length; they reach about an inch and a half beyond the end
of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, mottled with

62 LITTLE GFJ-fcL.

greyish black, and several slightly tipped with white; the first
primary is black on the outer web, except at the base and
tip, the others are dark greyish black, the tips and inner
margins of the webs white, gradually increased from the first,
which, as just said, has only a small speck of that colour at
the end; secondaries, pale bluish grey on the outer webs,
edged with dusky black towards the base, the inner webs
white, and the tips also white, with more or less black
towards the point close to the shaft; tertiaries, mostly greyish
black, slightly edged with white at the tips; greater and
lesser under wing coverts, grey in winter. The tail, white,
is quite square at the end, and the extremities of the feathers
black; upper and under tail coverts, white. The legs, which
are feathered nearly to the knee, and the toes, bright ver-
milion red; the inner one considerably shorter than the others,
the middle one rather longer than the outer; webs, bright red.

In the young bird, towards the close of the first year, the
bill is black; forehead and crown, white, tinged with grey, in
winter white; head on the sides and back, greyish black; neck
on the back, sides, and nape, blackish grey, tinged with brown,
the edges of the feathers fringed with greyish white, in winter
white; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, pale brownish
grey, a few blackish brown feathers interspersed.

Greater wing coverts, grey, deeply margined with white;
lesser wing coverts, brownish black, edged with grey; the
first four primaries, greyish black on the outer webs and tips,
in winter tipped with white; the inner webs greyish white, in
winter nearly entirely white; secondaries, greyish black, tipped
with white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail,
white, broadly tipped with black, widest on the middle part;
it is slightly hollowed in shape; the outermost feather on
each side entirely white; underneath, the other feathers are
white, with a narrow margin of greyish black; upper and under
tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, pale dull yellowish red.

\ ^^

II Vl

l!W/i*l

63

BUONAPARTE'S GULL.

BIJONAPAETIAIf GTJLL.

Larus Buonapartli, Thompson. Audubon.

Lams— ? Buonapartli — Of Buonaparte.

If I was writing a history of France, or rather a history
of the World, instead of a History of British Birds, I might
here enlarge, were my pen able to do equal justice to the
subject with the pencil of Landseer, on the contrast between
'Peace' and 'War,' the name of Buonaparte suggesting to the
eye of the mind a picture, which not even the touch of that
greatest of painters, ancient or modern, can equally convey to
it. Whether 'True Greatness' is most and best exhibited in
the life of the Prince, or in that of the Emperor, in the man
of science, or the man of the sword, whether the study of
all God's creatures for one's own instruction and that of others,
or the wholesale destruction of the last-made and best of
them all, for the sake of self alone, is most for the glory of
God or the good of man, I hope, I know, that even my
writings have largely assisted to spread in my country a right
spirit, which will enable many to return the true answer to
the question, and to make it tell so far with practical effect.

The present species, named after the Prince of Canino,
Charles Lucien Buonaparte, the eminent natm^alist, has in
America been noticed in different parts of the Union, and
throughout the Fur Countries in abundance, in Chesapeake
Bay, Passamaquody Harbour, Charleston Harbour, and about
the Great Slave Lake.

In Scotland, a specimen was shot by Sh George H. Leitli,
on the shore of Loch Lomond, in Dumbartonshire, the eni
of April, 1850.

64 BUOlsrAPAETE's GULL.

In Ireland, one of these Gulls was killed on the River Lagan,
near Belfast, on the 1st. of February, 1848. and the Hon. T.
L. Powys has favoured me with information of another having
been shot by a brother officer of his, near Skerries, north of
Dublin, C. W. Watkins, Esq., of Badby House, Northampton-
shire, who writes me word that this occurred in the winter of
1855-6, namely, February 14th. He shot it himself, and has
very obligingly forwarded the specimen for the use of this work.

These birds congregate in large flocks, and that so closely
together, that Audubon mentions his son's having shot seven-
teen at a single discharge, so to speak, of a double-barrelled
gun. They associate with the Terns. They are peculiarly
tame and gentle in their habits.

They feed on shrimps and other Crustacea, and fish — the
shad and old wife among others, beetles and other insects, and
portions of plants.

The note is described as shrill and plaintive.

Male; length, one foot three inches to one foot three inches
and a half; bill, shining black, the inside of the mouth bright
carmine red; iris, dark brown. Head on the crown and all
over, greyish black, in winter white, except an oblong mark
behind the eye on the side of the head, and a little of the
same colour before, below, and above the eye, and a spot on
the side of the head. Neck on the back and nape, greyish
black, in winter blackish mixed with white; chin and throat,
greyish black, in winter white; breast, white, with a faint
roseate tinge; back, pale bluish grey. Lesser wing coverts, in
winter bluish grey with brown markings; of the primaries, the
first has the outer margin black, the second black on the end
portion, the inner part white, the third less so in the same
way, and least on the outer margin. The others terminated
with brownish black, except at the extreme tip, ^on the third
the first indication of white appears in a mere line of that
colour; thence it becomes gradually larger in size and deeper
in shade to the seventh, when it assumes the pearl grey of the
lower portion of the same feather The black becomes more
and more tinged with brow from the first primary to the
last; the light-coloured tip, , on the contrary, becomes gradually
of a deeper shade from the third to the last Shafts of all the
primaries white, except the upper portion of the first, which
is dusky. Black appears on the inner web of the three longest
primaries, much lessening both in length and breadth from
the first to the third.' Underneath, the quills are white, except

buonapaete's gull. 65

below the black parts, where they are grey. The second-
aries are blackish brown towards the tip within the grey margins;
the tertiaries have more or less of blackish brown irregularly
disposed towards their tips; greater and lesser under wing
coverts, white. Tail, white, with a band of black near the
tip; upper tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, bright carmine
red.

The female is a little smaller than the male, length, one
foot two inches.

The young bird, in the first year, has the bill brownish,
pale at the base underneath; head, crown, neck on the back,
and nape, greyish brown, with paler tips to the feathers;
throat and breast on the upper part, white, faintly tinged
with buff. Tertiaries, blackish brown, the tips paler. Legs
and toes, pale yellowish brown.

\C»J. VIII.

66

MASKED GULL.

BEOWiq^-HEABED GIJLL.

Larus capistratua, Fleming. Jenyns. Temminck.

Chroicephalus capistrotus^ Eyton.

Lan^s— ? Capistratus, Capistrum—A halter, or headstall

We are chiefly indebted to continental naturalists for par-
ticulars respecting this species.

It belongs to North America, and is found in Baffin's Bay
and Davis Straits.

In Europe specimens have been procured in Italy, one in
Liguria, in the collection of the Marquis Durazzo. In Spain
too, it is said to occur.

In Berkshire, one in immatu. ^.. nage was obtained near
JSTewbury; another, also a young bird, near Sandsfield, in
Cumberland, on the 6th. of June, 1833. One near Nottingham,
in Januarj^, 1854, of which William Felkin, Esq., Jun., has
informed me; one by J. A. Drake, Esq., of Magdalen Hall,
Oxford, at Ashford, Kent, in the summer of 1853. He saw
another at the same time. In Suffolk, one at Aldborough, in
the early part of April, 1848; in Westmoreland, one was
captured near Kendal, the latter end of November, 1841. It
had alighted on the back of a sheep, and having got its feet
entangled among the wool, was injured by some means during
an effort to rise, and being disabled for a moment, fell to the
ground, and was quickly picked up by a boy. Another, a
mature bird, was caught off Brighton, Sussex, on the 25th. of
February, 1853.

In Ireland it has occurred, but is extremely rare. One was
shot in the neighbourhood of Belfast.

ijj.a s-ff

K-..

MASKED GULL. G7

In Wales, T. C. Eyton, Esq., of Ejton, has recorded one
shot near Bangror.

111 the Orkneys two individuals of this species were taken
at Westraj; another in 1831. In Shetland one in 1831.

They have heen known to breed in Orkney.

These birds appear to be easily kept in confinement.

In their flight they exhibit the 'esprit de corps' of the rest
of their family, and wing their way with characteristic ease
and grace.

The eggs are described as of a greyish green colour with
dark spots.

Male; weight, eight ounces and a quarter; length, one foot
two to one foot three inches; bill, brownish red. The dark
colour, that is to say, the blackish red brown on the head,
the lower part the darkest, is in front only, somewhat in the
way of a mask, and hence the name of the bird. In winter
the dark colour is lost, all but a few dusky grey lines and
a small dusky black patch under, and another behind the eye.
Crown, dark-coloured in front, the hind part white, as is the
neck on the back, and the nape. Chin, blackish brown;
throat, blackish brown, mixing with the white of the breast;
back, pale bluish grey. The wings expand to the width of
two feet eleven inches or three feet; greater and lesser wing
coverts, bluish grey; the first primary is white tipped with
black, a black line on the middle of the outer web, and a
greyish black border along the margin of the inner web, being
broadest at the base, the second and third without the bhack
line on the outer web; the fourth and fifth have a greater
portion of greyish black on the inner web, and all of them
except the first, with their extreme tips white, the shafts
white adjoining the white colour. Tertiaries, pale bluish grey,
passino- into white on the tips; greater and lesser under wing
coverts, greyish white. Tail, white; under tail coverts, white.
Legs and toes, reddish brown.

68

BLACK-HEADED GULL.

BEO^X-H^ADED GTJLL. BHOTVN GULL. LAUGHI^^G GULL.

RED-LEGGED GFLL. PEEWIT GULL.

SEA CEOW. BLACK-CAP. HOODED MEW. PICXMIEE.

Lams ridihnndus. Pennant. Montagu. Fleming.

** procellosus, Bechstein. Selby, Jeny^s. Bewick.

'•* erythropus, MoSTAGU. G31ELIN.

" cinerarius, Bewick,

Xema ridibundus, GouLD.

Larus — * ? Ridihundus. Rideo — To laugh; in allusion to one of

the vernacular names of the bird.

This graceful and lively bird is well known in many parts
of the world. In Europe, it is a native of Russia, Sweden,
Holland, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. In Asia,
of Siberia, Syria, Armenia, and Arabia. In America, of
Greenland and the shores of Baffin's Bay and 'Davis Straits.
In Africa, it is found in Egypt and along the northern
shores.

Many things, and many words expressive or descriptive of
things, seem strange when first observed or first heard, but
use soon reconciles the eye, the ear, or the mind to them,
and they quickly lose their novelty, and are then no longer
thought of or remarked. In 'Barring Out' the name of Archers,
the partizans of Archer, seems almost a matter of course; the
Greybeards, the followers of De Grey, soon appear equally
as it were of necessity so designated; but Fisher's 'Why not!
I and my nine Fishermen' being later in the field, jars upon
the ear at first, and seems for a time to want the 'prestige'
which the others have. Thus a Bookery is to all an accustomed
word, but to some a Gullery is not. The reason just touched
upon is, however^ the only one why both are not 'Familiar

\

m

BLACK-HEADED GULL. G9

in our ears as household words,' the one as much so as the
other: there are several G-uUeries, places so called where these
G-uUs breed, and I proceed to enumerate the principal of them.
A famous resort for these birds is Twigmoor, near Glandford
Brigg, in Lincolnshire, the estate of Sir John Xelthorpe,
Bart., where as many as from ten to twenty thousand may
be seen in the breedinor-season.

o

Dr. Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, gives a curious,
not to say strange or marvellous, account of their annual
visit to that county, for a copy of which, as follows, I am
indebted to Thomas George Bonney, Esq., of Churchdale
House, near Rugeley: —

*But the strangest whole-footed water-fowle that frequents
this county is the *Larus cinereus,' Ornithologi, the 'Larus
cinereus tertius,' Aldrovandi, and the 'Cepphus' of Gesner and
Turner; in some counties called the Black-cap, in others the
Sea or Mire Crow; here the Pewit; which being of the
migratory kind, come annually to certain pooles in the estate
of the Eight WorshipfuU Sir Charles Skrymsher, Knight, to
build and breed, and to no other estate in or neer the county,
but of this family, to which thev have belonsfed *ultra
hominum memoriam,' and never moved from it, though they
have changed their station often. They anciently came to
the old Pewit poole above mentioned, about half a mile S.W.
of Xorbury Church, but it being their strange quality (as
the whole family will tell you, to whom I refere the reader for
the following relation) to be disturbea and remove upon the
death of the head of the family, as they did within memory,
upon the death of James Skrymsher, Esq., to OlHey Moss,
near Woods Eves, which Moss, though containing two
gentlemen's land, yet (which is very remarkable) the Pewits
did disern betwixt the one and the other, and build only
on the land of the next heir, John Skrymsher, Esq., so wholj
are they addicted to this family.

At which Moss they continued about three years, and then
removed to the old Pewit poole again, where tliey continued
to the death of the late said John Skrymsher, Esq., which
happening on the eve to our Lady day, the very time when
they are laying^ their eggs, yet so concerned were they
at this gentleman's death, that notwitlistanding this tye of
the Law of Nature, which has ever been held to be universal
and perpetual, they left their nest and q^<j^^\ and tliough they
made some attempts of laying again at Ollley Moss, yet tbej

70 BLACK-HEADED GriL.

were still so disturbed that they bred not at all that year.
The next year after they went to Aqualat, to another gentle-
man's estate of the same family, (where though tempted to
stay with all the care imaginable,) yet continued there but
two years, and then returned again to another poole of the
next heir of John Skrymsher, deceased, called Shebben poole,
in the Parish of High Offley, where they continue to this
day, and seem to be the propriety, as I may say, (though
a wild-fowle,) of the Eight Worshipfull Sir Charles Skrymsher,
Knight, their present Lord and Master.

But being of the migratory kind their first appearance is
not till about the latter end of February, and then in number
scarce aboye six, which come, as it were, as harbingers to the
rest, to see whether the hafts or islands in the pooles, (upon
which they build their nests,) be prepared for them, but these
never so much as lighten, but fly oyer the poole, scarce staying
an hour; about the sixth of March following there comes a
pretty considerable flight, of a hundred or more, and then they
alight on the hafts, and stay all day, but are gone again at
night. About our Lady day or sooner, in a forward spring,
they come to stay for good, otherwise not till the beginning
of April, when they build their nests, which they make not
of sticks, but of leaves and rushes, making them but shallow,
and laying generally but four eggs, three and five more
rarely, which are about the bigness of a sm-all hen's egg.

The hafts or islands are prepared for them between Michlemas
and Christmas, by cutting down the reeds and rushes, and
pulling them aside in the nooks and corners of the hafts, and
in the valleys, to make them level, for should they be permitted
to rot on the islands the Pewits would not endure them.
After three weeks' sitting the young ones are hatched, and
about a month after are ready to flye, which usually happens
on the third of June, when the proprietor of the poole orders
them to be driven and catch'd, the Grentry comeing in from
all parts to see the sport; the manner thus, — they pitch a
rabbit-net on the bank side, in the most convenient place over
against the hafts, the net in the middle being about ten yards
from the side, but close at the ends in the manner of a bow;
then six or seven men wade into the poole beyond the Pewits
over against the net, with long staves, and drive them from
the hafts, whence they all swim to the bank side, and landing,
run like Lapwings into the net, where people standing ready,
take them up and put them into two penns made within the

BLACK-HEADED GTJLL. 7l

bow of the net, which are built round, about three yards
diameter and a yard length or somewhat better, witli small
stakes driven into the ground in a circle, and interwoven with
broom and other raddle.

In which manner there have been taken of them in one
morning fifty dozens at a di^iving.

But they commonly appoint three days of driving them,
within fourteen days or thereabouts of the 2nd. and 3rd. of
June, which while they are doing, some have observed a
certain old one that seems to be somewhat more concerned
than the rest, being clamorus, and striking down upon the
very heads of the men; which has given ground of suspicion
that they have some government among them, and that this
is their prince, who is so much concerned for its subjects.
And it is further observed that when there is great plenty
of them the lent corn is so much the better, and the cow
pasture too, by reason thev pick up all the worms and the
'Tern Fives."

Scoulton Mere, near East Dereham, in Norfolk, the property
of Major Wayland, is another breeding-haunt; as many as
thirty thousand eggs are taken every year, and in one season
as many as forty-four thousand were the produce. Kollesby
Broad, near Yarmouth, in the same county, is also a great
resort, as are others of the Broads; and the birds are seen along
the coast. In Cambridgeshire, they used to frequent the fens,
in some seasons in great plenty.

In Yorkshire, a great breeding-place for these Gulls is on
Hornsea Mere. They used to frequent Thome Moor. They
occur along the sea-shore, and individuals have been seen near
Wakefield and Huddersfield.

Many hundreds breed near the mouth of the Thames, both
on the Essex and the Kentish side, finding suitable situations
on the low islands near the banks, and the marshes of the
mainland.

Another interesting Gullery is on a lake in front of Pallinsbuni
Hall, Northumberland, the ancient seat of the Askews, of which
family was the never-to-be-forgotten Dame Anne Askew, the
martyr, of 'glorious, pious, and immortal memory.* My cousin,
Mrs. John Hincks, of Cowling Hall, near Bedule, being related
to the Pallinsburn family, I requested her to obtain for me
all the information on the subject she could, and her sister,
Miss Pulleine, being on a visit there at the tim or shortly

72 BLACK-HEADED GULL.

after, the following letters from Mr. Selby, and Mr. Mason the
agent, are the result:

'Twizell House, March 12th., 1856.

Dear Miss Pulleine. — My daughter, Mrs. Luard, has inti-
mated to me your wish to obtain for Mr. Morris, who is
ensfaged in a work on British Ornithology, an answer to some
queries respecting the Grull which resorts during the breeding-
season to the pond at Pallinsburn. The bird in question
belongs to the family of the ^Laridse,' and to the genus 'Larus.'
It is the 'Larus ridibundus' of Linnaeus, and is known by the
provincial names of the Laughing Gull, Peewit Gull, Black-
cap Gull, Pickmire, etc. During the autumn and winter it
is common on the coast, but destitute of the black head, which
it assumes periodically, as in many of the Terns and lesser
Gulls, immediately previous to departure for its breeding-
quarters. By the middle of March the great body that
annually resorts to the pond at Pallinsburn have made their
appearance there, and are soon engaged in the cares of incu-
bation, and by the end of July have again departed with
their young to the sea coast, the black hood being thrown
off, and the head white, with the exception of a few grey
spots behind the ears. As to number, they may be reckoned
in thousands, and of late years colonies have been thrown off,
which resort to ponds at Dunse Castle and at Paston, near
Tetholme. I can trace them to have resorted to Pallinsburn
for upwards of a hundred years, and probably their first
appearance was at a much earlier period. Any further
information you may wish I shall, if able, be happy to
supply, and

I am, with respect.

Yours truly,

P. I. Selbt.*

'Pallinsburn Cottage, Wooler, March 18th., 1856.

Madam, — Miss Pulleine, when here a week or two ago,
requested me to furnish you with some particulars relative to
the Gulls which annually visit our pond at Pallinsburn. This
I would have done sooner, but amongst other queries contained
in a paper she gave me, was one asking the ornithological
name of the birds. This I have been unable to make out,

ELACK-HEADED GULL. 73

at least satisfactorily; they have several local names, such as
Pick or Pit Birnet, Sea Maws, Sea Swallows, etc., but how
far these bear upon their proper denomination, I have found
no one sufficiently versed in the natural history of birds in
this neighbourhood to determine.

Whatever may be their proper name, it is, I believe admitted
that they first came to' Pallinsburn above eighty years ago,
at a time when a large bog or lake, something similar to
our own, was drained near the town of Kelso; how long
they had previously been known to visit there, I have heard
no one say.

An impression, though an erroneous one, has generally
prevailed, that they are so regular in their migrations as to
come and leave on a given day. Xow, although so constant
in their habits year after year, such is not the fact, as I have
known them vary as much as two weeks. The real state of
the case is, that their arrival depends entirely on the state
of the weather about the end of the month of February. If
that month is fine and open, they begin in small numbers
to hover about, in the neighbourhood of the pond, by about
the 20th.; they increase in numbers daily, each day drawing
nearer to it; in the course of a week they alight on the
water for about an hour in the forenoon, then stay on it,
also increasing perhaps an hour or two every day, until, if
the spring continues fine, about the end of the first week in
March they finally remain all night, and may be then said
to be permanently located for the season. This is, however,
not always so. I remember, about ten or twelve years ago,
after having begun to build their nests, a severe snow-storm
came on, and they at once went away for a week or two,
and we almost imagined they had forsaken the pond, but the
very first fresh morning that dawned, even before the snow
had disappeared, they were there as busy as ever.

Their nests are of course built on the little islands in the
pond, which are grown over with reeds and bulrushes, and
are made merely of little pieces of stick or straw, being
similar to that "of the Plover in a field. Their eggs also most
closely resemble those of that bird, both in number, colour,
shape^, and taste, being highly prized by some people for their
eating. The young ones, as soon as hatclied, take to the water,
where they are to be seen in thousands, and the sight at tliat
time of the year is most interesting. As they begin to take

74 BLACK-HEADED GULL.

wing, they follow the parent birds to the fields in search of food,
which entirely consists of worms and grubs of every description,
so that I have no hesitation in saying the benefit those birds
do to the surrounding neighbourhood is imlnense.

The colour of one of the birds in full plumage is a white body,
light grey wings, and a black head. The young ones are
quite mixed with brown, with no black head; and I observe
when they first return in the spring of the year, that nearly
half the birds have white heads, which gradually turn black
while they stay. This leads me to the conclusion that they
do not get the black head until about a year old.

The period of their departure is spread over most part of
the month of July, according as each pair has been soon or
late in hatching and rearing its young. Some solitary birds
may be found in the month of August, but these are the
product of such as have had their first nests destroyed, and
hatched a second time, and are almost certain to become a
prey to Hawks, etc. It is impossible to estimate their number,
but some idea may be formed from the fact that the lake
is seven acres, one rood, and twenty-four perches in extent,
which is covered as thick, when they are disturbed and on the
wing, as if a shower of snow were falling on it, while they
are so tame that they take not the slightest heed to the continual
traffic on the turnpike-road, which passes them within six
yards of the edge of the water.

I think I have given you all the information I can relative
to these interesting visitors of Mr. Askew. There is one other
place in the neighbourhood called Paston Lake, to which they
resort, but I think not in such numbers as ^Askew's Hens'
collect; but, bearing on the subject, I will take the liberty
of enclosing a copy of some verses which a cottager in our
village here, called W. Robson, gave me the other day. I
may state, as the lines shew, that the composer is quite
illiterate, but withal a turn about him for poetry; and with
the hope that the poor attempt I have made to meet your
wishes, and to shew the habits of what this neighbourhood is
so justly proud of may answer your purpose,

I have the honour to be. Madam,

Your very obedient Servant,

Thos. Masox.
To Mrs. Hincks.'

BLACK-HEADED GULL.

/O

ON SPRING,
ON SEEING THE GULLS RETURN TO PALLINSBURN LAKE,

NORTHUMBERLAND.

This day with joy my heart doth beat—

An emblem of the spring's return
1 saw by Genera] Askew's* seat,

The bonny House of Pallinsburn.

A pool is there, some acres wide,

Enclosed by trees, with water full ;
And, swarming on the rippHng tide.

We see the little cawing Gull.

The sixth of March we see them come,
Although at nights they do not stay,

Till floods subside and give them room
Where they may on the islands lay.

We see them soaring o'er our head,

We see them sailing on the lake,
Or following close the ploughman's tread,

The little creeping worms to take.

For five long months we see them stay,

But when the yellow leaves appear,
They take their wings and flee away —

An emblem of the fading year.

But here I do my rhyme forsake

Should poets view the scene,
Some better verses they may make
About the Gulls at yonder lake,

And fields and forests green. William Robson.

The Black-headed Gull occasionally visits Oxfordshire, singly
or in parties of three or four. In Cornwall, they are not
uncommon at Penryn river. In Surrey, the species has oc-
curred at Grodalming. In Northumberland, at Prestwiok Carr,
near Newcastle.

In Scotland, there are large colonies on the islets in Loch
Lomond, and several of the Lochs of Sutherlandshire. The
same in the Hebrides. In Orkney some breed about the
Loch of Stenness, in Sanday, and other localities there.

In Ireland, it is also a constant resident.

In Wales, also, in Carmarthenshire and Glamorganshire
especially about the mouths of rivers.

In spring and summer these birds dwell by marshes, rivers,

• Sir Henry Askew

7(5 BLACK-HEADED GULL.

lalres, and ponds, and for the remainder of tlie year resort
to the sea-shore and the mouths of the larcrer rivers.

They arrive at their summer quarters generally in the month
of March, but some about the middle or latter end of February,
and leave again the end of July or beginning of August.
Many must leave the country in the autumn, and return
again in the spring, the numbers of those seen in the latter
seasons and the summer being so very great.

These birds are easily kept in confinement in suitable places,
such as walled gardens, but continue shy and timid. T. E.
Wilkinson, Esq., of Walsham Hall, has written me word of
his having kept one of them alive and well for nearly a year,
and it was at last killed by a dog, having unfortunately
wandered out of its bounds.

They may be seen at times perched on low bushes, the top
of a boat-house, or the upright stump of a tree, in the places
where they build.

The young were formerly considered good eating, and some
proprietors used to make from fifty to eighty pounds a year
by their sale.

Their flight is easy, noiseless, and buoyant, and they some-
times hover for a short time over their prey, and then dash
on it into the water. They do not usually resort to swimming.
On the land they run about in a light and graceful manner.

They frequently hunt for insects in the twilight, and have
been seen so late as between nine and ten o'clock at night,
and heard returnins: from their forasre at still later hours.
In winter they become very shy.

They feed on small fish and insects — cockchafi'ers, May-flies,
beetles, and moths; as also on slugs, worms, shrimps, butts,
and other Crustacea, and, if need be, on water-plants. The
first-named, if of the fresh-water kinds, they hawk for at a
height of ten or twelve feet in the air, and on descrying the
object, they lower their course, and, skimming the surface,
pick it up. They almost always follow the course of the
stream, and in winter advance up rivers in the morning, going
downwards again towards night. In the spring months they
resort to ploughed lands, following the plough in quest of
worms and insects; and in summer repair to water. ^During
the heat of the day, many of them disperse up and down
throughout the corn, pasture, and fallow fields, in search of
food. These they beat with great diligence, traversing them
again and again, at a height of about ten feet as before.

BLACEI-HEADED GTJLL. 77

When any suitable object meets their eye, they immediately
round to, alight on the ground, and generally keeping their
wings extended upwards, seize it.' The ghost-moth is a
favourite object of pursuit on the still summer evenings, when
it hovers over the grass or swarms about trees.

^It is indeed a most amusing and interesting sight to witness
the elegant evolutions of these beautiful birds when in pursuit
of these large moths, oftentimes brushing the surface of the
ground with their downy breasts, and generally capturing
with facility the moth as it hovers at a distance of from one
to two feet from the earth. Occasionally, however, the bird
misses its aim, and the moth, by the rapid motion of the
Gull, is struck to the ground. The bird, however, nothing
dismayed, hovers for a few seconds over the retreat of its
fallen prey, and if it perceives it embedded in the grass, pounces
upon it, or if disappointed flies off in search of another prize.*
May-flies also they course after over the streams almost like
Swallows.

The same writer from whom I have made the above quotation,
Mr. Archibald Jerdon, adds, in the 'Zoologist,' page 2-16, 'I
have repeatedly seen numbers of them flying about long
after sunset, and lately I have remarked that they come abroad
in the evening apparently for the purpose of catching insects,
which they do on the wing, after the manner of the Swallow
tribe. On the 22Dd. of this month, I watched the proceedings
of a number of these birds by the banks of the Jed, between
nine and ten o'clock. There was a small grove of trees at
a short distance from the river, to which some of them resorted,
flving from one extremity to the other, and returning again,
all the while seemingly engaged in the pursuit of insects of
some kind. Their motions were much the same as tliose of
Swallows, although somewhat slower; they sometimes remained
hovering and suspended while catching an insect, so lonir and
so near the trees, that I thought they were going to alight
Others of them scoured the fields and the water-side, and
others a^ain followed the course of the river; but all appa-
rentlv intent on the capture of some winij:ed prey.' ^

The note is a hoarse cackle, *cack, eaek, cack, cack, which
has been likened to a lauL^h, from whence one of the trivial
names of the bird. Viheve large numbers dwoil to--tlu'r a
great din is produced.

Thev are verv anxious about their young, and st^..|. .....j

dash at an intruder a^ain and n-ain. As soon as the hrovd

78 BLACK-HEADED GULL.

are able to fly, they scatter about the neighbourhood, to feed
on moist meadows and such places; whence they are shortly
conducted by their parents to the nearest coast.

This pretty-looking bird resorts to fenny districts and the
sides of pools and inland waters and their islands to breed,
and vast multitudes congregate together for the purpose, as
well both near the sea as farther from it, and ou the lands
adjoining the sea itself, if low and marshy.

The nest is flat, and a composition of grass or the tops of
reeds and sedge, placed, perhaps, on a tuft of rushes or other
such herbage.

If the first set of eggs be taken a second is laid, and a
third if the second, but in such cases they are less each time
in size. They are valued as food, and in some places are
farmed for the purpose.

The eggs, two, three, or sometimes, it is said, four in number,
are laid the middle or end of April, or beginning of May,
chiefly at the latter season, and are hatched the end of May
or early in June. They vary exceedingly in colour and mark-
ings; some are light blue, others yellow, and others green,
red, or brown. Some have scarcely any spots, and others are
thickly covered with marks of different shades of brown and
reddish brown. One beautiful variety has been described, the
ground-colour a very light greenish white, blotted with two
shades of rich brown. In some instances they are found
entirely white.

The young birds leave the nest and betake themselves to
the water as soon as hatched.

Sir William Jardine writes, *They are particular in the
choice of a breeding-place, at least some w^hich we would think
suited for them, are passed or deserted, and others more
unlikely are selected. We possess a reedy loch which was for
many ^^ears a haunt of these birds, but the edges were planted
and they left it; ten years afterwards, and when the plan-
tation had grown up, a few pairs returned, and in time
increased to a colony, when an artificial piece of water was
made by damming up a narrow pass in an extensive muir,
nearly two miles distant; thither the Gulls resorted the
following spring, leaving their ancient ground; and they have
been increasing in numbers for some years past.'

Male; weight, ten ounces; length, one foot four to nearly
one foot five inches; bill, deep vermilion red; iris, dark brown;
the eyelids deep vermilion red, less bright in winter, a %w

BLACE:-HEikT)ED GULL. 79

white feathers nearly round them; behind the eye is a spot
of white, and in winter a crescent-shaped patch of black and
grey in front of it, and another on the ear coverts. Head,
crown, and neck all round on the upper part, dark brown,
in winter white, with only a dusky patch behind the eye;
the dark colour appears to be assumed again in the spring
very rapidly; the feathers are not shed, but their colour is
changed; in a bird kept in the garden of the Zoological
Society, the metamorphosis was completed in five days; it
began on the 11th. of March; nape, white; chiu and throat,
dark brown, in winter white; breast, white, with sometimes
a roseate tint; back, pale blue grey.

The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they are
upwards of three feet in extent; greater wing coverts, white;
lesser wing coverts, pale blue grey; the first primary is black
on the lower part of the outer web, the tip, and the outer
margin of the inner web, the rest of it white, the three next
are white on the shafts and the greater part of the outer
webs, but margined gradually with black; the ends, except the
extreme point, which is white, and half their inner webs black,
passing into blackish grey near the bases of the feathers; the
fourth is white on the outer web, grey on the inner, but
edged with black; the fifth and sixth grey on both webs, the
edge of the inner and the tip black; tertiaries, grey. Tail,
white; .upper t?^l coverts, white. Legs and toes, deep vermilion
red, all more dull in winter.

The female resembles the male.

The young are at first covered with down of white, grey,
and brown, and very soon become fledged.

In the young bird of the year, the bill is yellowish brown
with a tin^e of red, the tip darker; the head on the crown
and back is yellowish brown with some white, iu winter
white streaked" with grey, and before the eye is a crescent-
shaped spot of deep brown, and another upon the ear coverts.
Throat and breast, white, with a faint blush of pink; back
on the upper part, bluish grey, on tlie lower white. Greater
wing coverts, bluish grey; lesser wing coverts, bluish grey,
motded with yellowish brown; the primaries have their outer
webs and tips dusky black, the inner ones white; secondaries,
yellowish grey, edged with white; tertiaries, yellowish grey,
edeed with white. Tail, grreyish white on the inner part with
a broad bar of dusky black at the end, narrowed in winter.
Lec^s and toes, yellovvish brown; webs, yellowish brown.

8(>

LAUGHING GULL.

ELACK-WINGED GTJLL. HOOrED GULL.

Larus atricillaf Pennant. Montagu. Fleming.

" " JeNYNS. TEMMI^CK.

Xema atricillay Gould.

Zarus — A ravenous sea-bird. Atricilla. Ater — Black. Cilia — .?

This species has occurred m Europe in Kussia, Spain, Italy,
Sicily, and the Islands of the Grecian Archipelago, and the
Mediterranean generally. In Africa, about the Straits of
Gibraltar. In America, at the Tortugas, Tobago, Texas, and
New Jersey.

Catesby, the author of the well-known ^Natural History of
Carolina,' gave the present species its name, and Colonel
Montagu made known its occurrence as an English bird. He
first noticed five, two old, and three young ones, near Win-
chilsea, in Kent, in the month of August, 1774: one of them
was shot. He also saw two others near Hastings, in Sussex.

These birds feed on small fish, insects, and Crustacea.

The present species builds in marshy places near the sea-
shore. Meyer asserts that during fine weather this bird sits
on the eggs only at night, leaving the breeding-place early in
the morning for the purpose of feeding, but that, when the
weather is wet or cold, she remains on the eggs, and takes
care of them also during the day.

The nest is made of dry grass and sea-weeds, arranged to
a height of two or three inches, the interior being from four
and a half to five inches wide, and one and a half deep.

Audubon mentions a curious instance of two fiests being
built as it were into one; each pair of birds, both male and
female, living in the closest companionship, in both senses of
the word. In some cases the sand alone is hollowed into
a nest. Many pairs build near together.

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LATIGHrN-a GULL. 81

The e^gs are tliree in number at the most; their usual
colour is brownish olive, spotted and blotted with dull reddish
brown, the said markings being most numerous about the
larger end. Thej are considered very good to eat.

The old bii'ds exhibit much care for their charge. The
young ones quit the nest soon after being hatched; namely,
in abouu six weeks, when the parents leave them to themselves;
and they keep in separate flocks through the winter.

Male; length, one foot five to one foot six inches; bill,
deep lake red; iris, very dark brown — nearly black. Head,
crown, and neck all round on the upper part, dark bluish
leaden grey; the remainder of the neck and the nape, white,
with a pale tinge of red in the living bird. In winter, *per
contra,' the forehead is white, and there are some white spots
about the eye, the remainder of the head and upper part of
the neck, white, with some grey marks. Chin and throat,
dark leaden grey, in winter white; breast, white, with a tinge
of pale red, in winter silvery white; back, greyish blue on
the upper part, on the lower white: in winter the upper part
is silvery grey.

The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they
reach, when closed, two inches beyond the end of the tail.
G-reater wing coverts, greyish blue, tipped with white in winter;
lesser wing coverts, greyish blue, in winter dusky brown. The
primaries are slightly tipped with white; the first is black,
with a tinge of grey on the inner web at the base, the second
and third similarly marked, but with the grey more extended,
the fourth is grey for two thirds of its length, the fifth is
all grev, except an inch and a half, which is black, and the
sixth, all but two spots of black; the rest of the primaries
are greyish blue. In winter the first is brown, the next live
are also brown, but each with one white spot, the four next
have the shafts brown, the webs white. Secondaries, largely
tipped with white; tertiaries, also tipped with white; greater
and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, white, in winter
the outer feather on each side is white, the others with a
broad band of brown at the end; upper and under tail coverts,
white. Legs and toes, deep lake red; webs, deep lake red.

The female is rather less than the male, and the head is
of a lighter shade of leaden grey.

In the young the head, crown, and neck all round, are
slate grey; chin and throat, slate grey.

vou viru ^

82

IVORY GULL.

SNOW BIED.

Larus ehurneuSf Gmelin. Latham. Selby.

" *' Jenyns. Temminck. Gould.

" candidus, Fleming.

Larus — A ravenous sea-bird. Eburneus—JAke ivory.

This snow-white Gull belongs naturally to the high latitudes,
and is accordingly found in the American portion of the
north, about Davis Straits, Baffin's Bay, Port Bowen, Hecla
Cove, Greenland, Labrador, Hudson's Bay, Behring's Straits,
and Newfoundland; on the European side, in Spitzbergen.

In Holland one was shot on the coast, by M. Temminck;
and on the French shore a specimen also occurred.

A specimen of the Ivory Gull was shot on the 18th. or
19th. of January, 1853, at Livermead, near Torquay, Devon-
shire. In Yorkshire, one at Scarborough. One in Norfolk
at Yarmouth. In Sussex one was shot at Hastings, in 1848.
In Cornwall a specimen which had been seen on the 13th. of
February, 1847, at Bar Point, Falmouth, was shot at
Penzance the following Monday.

In Scotland one, a female, was shot near Banff, Aberdeen-
shire, on the 29th. of January, 1847; one, a young bird, in
the Firth of Clyde.

In Ireland it has occurred on the west coast, near Tralee,
one having been seen there in a field about four miles from
the sea, by Thomas F. Neligan, Esq.; in allusion to which,
Mr. Thompson in his 'Natural History of Ireland,' states that
Mr. K. Chute, in writing to him, supplied the following
satisfactory information: — 'After the storm that occurred in
the beginning of February, 1847, there were several Ivory
Gulls about here, I heard of three being seen near Dingle;

h

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/■

I

ITOET GTJLL. 83

— one of them I saw myself. During my absence from home,
two of them for a few days in succession alighted in my yard;
my servant thought they were tame birds, and did not
frighten them. However, one was shot on the third day, and
when I came home I found it to be an Ivory Gull in rather
immature plumage: the other bird they said was pure white:
— though frequently seen since, I was not able to procure
it. I have the bird that was shot now in my collection.'

In Shetland one of these birds was obtained on the 13th.
of December, 1822, at Balta Sound, by Laurence Edmonston,
Esq.

In Orkney one in 1832; a second was shot in the Bay
of Firth, by Mr. Strang, during the winter of the same year;
a third subsequently.

These birds are generally seen out at sea, often in company
with the Fulmar, except of course during the breeding seasons.

Some migrate southwards at the advance of winter.

Tarties numbering from thirty to fifty associate together
on the open sea.'

Their flight is easy and graceful.

The Snow Bird, according to Captain, now the Eev. Dr.
Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic Eegions, rarely alights
on the "water, but often sits on the ice, preferring the most
elevated situations.

Thev are ravenous in their habits, and eat all that comes
in their way in the shape of food; any thing and every thing
that presents itself in this form is a 'bonne bouche' to the
maw of the Gull.

The note is harsh and strong.

This Gull builds on cliffs and rocky shores in the extreme
north; and the nest is said to be a layer of sea-weed.

The e^gs are reported to be two or three in number; they
are of a^cream-white colour, spotted with grey, reddish brown,

and brownish black. -r i i • i

The spotless purity of the plumage of this beautiful bird

rivals the whiteness of the enduring snows of the nortliern

lands to which it belongs, the whole being, however sutlused

with a rosy tinge. , ir . r 4.

Male; length, one foot five inches and a half to one toot
eight inches; bill, pale yellow, at the tip darker, greenish
grev towards the base; iris, brown, the eyelids red at the edge.
Head, crown, neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, and hack pure
white. The wings, which, are longer thaii the tail, reach to

84 IVOET GrLL.

the width of three feet three inches and a half when extended,
greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries,
greater and lesser under wing coverts, tail, and tail coverts,
pure white. The legs, which are feathered nearly to the knee
joint, and the toes, black, the latter very rough beneath; the
webs are also black, very rough beneath, and deeply scalloped.

In the young the bill is olive yellow; iris, dusky; a greyish
black bar, more or less complete according to age, extends
from the bill to the eye. The head, crown, neck on the back,
and nape, have more or less greyish brown specks and spots;
chin and throat, white; back and greater and lesser wing
coverts, white, studded with well-defined dusky brown spots.
The primaries are tipped with dusky brown, the first feather
F staining the mark the longest. The tail has a uniform dusky
brown line across the end; upper tail coverts, white, with
dusky brown spots at the tips of the feathers; the legs, which
are short, and the toes, dull blackish; webs, dull blackish.

The portrait of this bird is from a drawing by J. Gatcombe,
Esq., of Wyndham Place, Plymouth,

4

^

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1

Eli '

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W/^

85

COMMON GULL.

SEA MEW.
Larus canus, Linn2eu3.

Larus—A ravenous sea-bird. Canus — Hoary.

This Gull is not so common, as compared with other British
species, as its name imports.

In Europe, it is plentiful on the shores of Lapland, Norway,
the Ferroe Islands, Holland, France, Italy, and Spain. In
Asia, in Persia and about the Caspian Sea; and in America,
in the northern resrions.

These birds breed in great numbers in Yorkshire, about
Flamborough Head; individuals are shot almost every year
in the neighbourhood of Leeds, in the West-Ridins:, and a
few have occurred at Barnsley, Hebden Bridge, York, and
Sheffield; on the coast they are numerous. In Cornwall, they
are common at Penryn Eiver and other parts of the shore;
so also in Kent and Essex, by the sides of the Thames. In
Norfolk, about Yarmouth and along the sea-board, commonly;
thus too in Lincolnshire, Sussex, Dorsetshire, and in fact all
round the island. Some are seen in Northamptonshire nearly
every winter; the same remark applies to Oxfordsliire, as
also to Cambridgeshire. In Derbyshire, they occur occasionally
along the Trent side. In Surrey near Godalming, and one
at Fair Mile Common, near Cobham, December 2Gth., 1S36;
one also on the River Mole, near Hampton Court.

In Scotland, about St. Abb's Head, in tlie county of
Berwick, in vast quantities; so too in Sutherlandshire Mr.
Selby mentions several breeding stations, namely, on Loch
Shin, Loch Laisfal, and various smaller lochs. It is common
in Orkney, Shetland, and the Hebrides. So likewise in
Ireland, and also in Wales.

They frequent the sea-coast, especially near the mouths of

86 COMMON GULL.

rivers, but in the autumn, winter, and spring wander far
inland, to feed on ploughed and pasture lands, returning,
however, always to the coast for the night.

It would appear that some migrate southwards, towards
the approach of winter, from the frozen regions.

These birds, like the others, are readily kept in confinement,
and will live for years in a walled garden, where they are
very useful in devoui'ing insects. One belonging to the Eev.
Dr. Thackeray, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and
kept in the garden of the College, laid one or more eggs
for several seasons. They are quiet in their habits, and
associate with poultry. In the autumn, parties of them may
be seen in clear weather high aloft in the air, wheeling
about in circles; and this is said to be a sign of stormy
weather.

They are admirably expert on the wing, and fly about
with great lightness and ease.

They often pick up beans, wheat, and other grain sown
in the fields, as well as worms, larvae, and insects, which they
search for in the ploughed lands many miles inland. Their
food is also fish, as likewise Crustacea and mollusca, and, in
fact, anything eatable that floats on the surface. ^For this
kind of food they watch with a quick eye, and it is curious
to observe how such as are near the breakers will mount upon
the surface of the water, and run splashing towards the summit
of the wave to catch the object of their pursuit.' They are
voracious birds, and one has been known to swallow an eel
a foot long.

The nest of this Gull, which is rather large, is only a slight
comminglement of grass, if placed on the turf, or a larger
assortment of this material and sea- weed, if built upon the
rock; precipitous places are used, as well as the lower ground,
and in one instance Sir William Jardine mentions his having
known several nests placed on the walls of an old ruin. Both
the sea-coasts and the shores of inland lakes and marshy
islands are resorted to for nidification. These birds appear
to keep aloof in their building as much as may be from
their congeners. Large numbers breed together in many cases,
and in others a few pairs, or even a single pair by themselves.

The eggs, two or sometimes three in number, are of various
shades of colour — light blue, yellowish white, pale yellow, green,
brown, and dark olive brown, spotted and blotted irregularly
with deeper brown, grey, and black.

COMMON GULL. 87

Male; weight, about one pound; length, between one foot
five and one foot six inches and a half; bill, pale yellow towards
the tip, tinged with bluish or greyish green near the base;
iris, dark brown, the edges of the eyelids are red. Head, crown,
neck, and nape, white, in winter streaked with brown; chin,
throat, and breast, white; back, fine pale bluish grey.

The wings are three feet in extent; of the primaries the
first two are black, with a pretty large white spot near the
tips; the next four tipped with black. The following is Mr.
Yarreirs description of them: ^primaries, black on the outer
web, with a small portion of pearl grey at the base of the
inner web, the proportion of grey increasing on each primary
in succession; the first and second primaries with a patch of
white on both webs near the end, but the extreme tips of
both are black; the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, have white
tips.' Secondaries and tertiaries, grey, largely tipped with
white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail,
white; upper tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, dull greenish
grey, with a tinge of dull yellowish red.

The female is rather less in size; length, about one foot
four and a half to one foot five inches.

In the young bird for the first year the bill is blackish
brown at the tip, the base dull yellowish red brown; iris,
dusky brown, in front of the eyes is a patch of deep brown;
the eyelids yellowish brown. Head on the siJe^?, crown, and
back, streaked with dusky greyish brown spots, the white
through giving the bird a sort of 'bien poudre* appearance;
in the second year the head and neck become white in spring
and summer, but in the autumn and winter are streaked and
spotted with greyish brown. Chin and throat, white; breast,
greyish white marked or mottled with pale brown, chiefly
in the form of a band across the upper part of the breast,
and continued over the sides and flanks the first year, more
white the second. Back on the upper part, in the first year,
brownish grey, each feather being edged with greyish white;
on the lower, white, bluish grey feathers gradually become
interspersed.

The wings, when closed, reach two inches and a half beyond
the end of'^the tail; greater wing coverts, bluish grey, with
a brownish grey bar, and ended with dull white; lesser wmg
coverts, bluish grey, some of the feathers with dusky centres
and yellowish brown and white edges. Primaries, blackish
grey on both the shafts and the greater part of the ^.Ji,

88 COMMON GULL.

with white at the tips till the second year, all but the first
being tipped with brown: secondaries and tertiaries, brownish
grey, the feathers edged with paler yellowish brown and white.
The tail white, with a broad dusky black bar on the outer
half to the end, the bar continued through the second year,
the extreme tip greyish white, namely, all but the outside
feather on each side, which has the outer web white with the
least portion black; upper tail coverts, dull white; under tail
coverts, white. Legs and toes, dull greyish white, with a tinge
of dull yellowish red, the joints pale bluej claws, black*

m

ifii

W?

89

ICELAND GULL.

WHITE-WII^^GED SILYEET GTJLL.

Larus leucopterus, Faber. Eyton. Temminck.

" Icelandicus, Fleming. Selby.

" *' Jenyns. Gould.

** glaucoides, Temminck.

** arcticuSf Macgillivray.

Lnrus—A ravenous sea-bird. Leucopterus. Leucos-Uucon— While,

Pteron — A wing.

This Gull occurs plentifully in North America, in Greenland,
Davis' Straits, Baffin's Bay, and Melville Island. In Europe,
it has been noticed in Iceland at times in great numbers,
Sweden and the Ferroe Islands, Belgium, and Holland.

Young birds of this species are occasionally killed on the
coast of Yorkshire; an adult specimen in one instance; another
in the possession of John Malcolm, Esq. A few stray along
the Northumbrian coast. One of these Gulls was^ shot in
Norfolk, in December, 18^7, at Blakeney; one about the 10th.
of the same month in the previous year. In the year 1S30,
three were killed on the 14th. of January, and several others
were obtained about the same time, one of which was in
adult plumage; another at Yarmouth, November 2i)th., 1851.
Immature birds are not unfrecpently met with late in the
autumn; adult ones are very rare, in Oxfordslnre, a specimen
was shot on Port Meadow, near Oxford, in the spring of
1836. One, an immature bird, at Soilly, in Cornwall, the cud
of May or begiiuiing of June, 1832. In Devonshire, one at
Laira, near Plymouth, January 30th., 1855; one previously.
In the London market a specimen was obtained in the winter
of the year 1838.

In Scotland, two, both immature, were seen near Banff,
Aberdeenshire, in Januai^, 1817. In Shetland, the young

90 ICELAND GTJLL.

occur every winter in Unst and the other islands. Mr. Eohert
Dunn shot an adult specimen at the end of the year 1847,
and another on the 22nd. of November, 1852. In Orkney
one or two have been obtained.

It is a very rare species in Ireland; but two have occurred
there.

In their natural habits they are not so shy, and Faber has
mentioned one which used to come to his door at a certain
time every morning to be fed. They also follow the boats
of the fishermen to pick up what they can.

They soar at times high in the air. They swim well. They
often sit together by hundreds on the ice.

They feed on fish, Crustacea, mollusca, and anything else
that is eatable. They are, in fact, equally indiscriminate as
the rest of their congeners in their choice, or rather their
taking of their food without choice, *fish, flesh, and fowl/
being all alike to them.

The Iceland Gull builds on the face of a precipice or cliff,
but at a rather low height. It shares the place with other
species.

The eggs are of an olive green colour, spotted with two
shades of brown.

Male; length, one foot ten inches; bill, yellow, the tip and
base deeper-coloured than the rest, the angle on the lower
side of the under mandible red; iris, pale yellow, the eyelids
red. Head, crown, neck, and nape, white, the former in the
winter months spotted with grey; chin, throat, and breast,
white. Back, very pale bluish grey. The wings, when closed,
reach about or nearly two inches beyond the end of the tail;
greater wing coverts, very pale bluish grey; lesser wing
coverts, also pale bluish gyej, the tips white; primaries, white,
pale greyish towards the base, the shafts white; secondaries,
white; tertiaries, white; greater and lesser under wing coverts,
white. Tail, white; upper tail coverts, white. Legs and toes,
pale yellowish red.

The female in the second year is white, mottled all over
with yellowish brown, each feather having a central mark or
that colour, most so on the primaries, tertiaries, and tail.

The young are of a pale fawn-colour. Bill, pale yellow at
the base, the front portion blackish horn-colour; iris, dark
brown at first, afterwards pale greyish yellow. Head, crown,
neck on the back, and nape, dull white, clouded with pale
greyish yellow brown; chin, dull white. Throat and breast,

ICELAND GULL. 91

dull white, streaked across with pale hrown. Back, dull white,
clouded with pale greyish yellow brown.

Greater and lesser wing coverts, dull white, crossed with
angular-shaped pale brown streaks; primaries, greyish white,
with a slight tinge of brown, or fawn, or cream-colour:
secondaries and tertiaries, dull white, crossed with pale brown
angular-shaped streaks. Tail, greyish white, marked across
wuth rather broad lines of pale brown, most so on the inner
half; upper tail coverts, greyish white. Legs and toes, yel-
lowish red brown.

The full plumage appears not to be attained till the fuurth
summer.

92

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.

YELLOW-LEGGED GULL.

Larus argentatuSf Montagu.

" fuscusy Bewick. Fleming. Selbt.

** " Jenyns. Gould. Temminck.

Larus— A ravenous sea-bird. Argentatus. Argentum — Silver.

The Gull thus called is, in Europe, common in Norway,
and generally on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, and is found
in Holland, Belgium, France, Dalmatia, and throughout Italy.
In Africa, it occurs in Egypt, and thence to Barbary, and
so on to the Cape of Grood Hope; and in Asia, in Syria,
Asia Minor, and Arabia, along the shore of the Red Sea;
also in North America, coming south to Carolina.

This species breeds on Romsey Island, in Pembrokeshire,
Wales; the Fern Islands, ojff the coast of Northumberland;
as also inland on the moors, by the Cumberland Border, and
is likewise known along the shores of Sussex, Hants, Suffolk,
Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, in which last-named the species
is not uncommon about Falmouth, Penryn River, Swanpool,
Gwyllyn Yase, and the coast generally.

In Scotland, they also build on islands in Loch Awe, Loch
Shin, Loch Laigal, and others in Sutherlandshire, and at the
Sol way Frith; also in the Hebrides.

Individuals have occurred in Yorkshire, at Leeds and Sheffield,
young birds; on the coast it is not uncommon. In Norfolk,
two were shot in Yarmouth Roads, October 7th., 1827: they
occur along the coast, but not in large numbers. A solitary
individual has sometimes been seen in Oxfordshire, near AVitney,
and the species occurs not very unfrequently in different parts
of the county. Some visit Northamptonshire nearly every
winter.

LESSEB BLACK-BACKED GULL. 93

It is indigenous in Ireland, but local; likewise in several
parts of Scotland, both on the inland lakes and the sea-shore,
in Dumfriesshire and other counties; and in Wales has been
noticed in the Isle of Anglesea. It is also a constant
inhabitant in Orkney, but in winter is the most plentiful; so
too in Zetland.

When engaged with their nest and young, these Gulls are
very bold and daring, and wdll dash about and at an intruder
in the most fearless, intrepid, and impetuous manner, not
demeaning themselves to the 'suggestio falsi,' — the expedieot
of birds of a more gentle nature: at other times they are
far from shy. The old birds will not allow the younger ones
to inhabit their breeding stations. They are capable of being
kept in confinement, like the other species. They often follow
the course of rivers a long way up. They associate with and
build in the same places as the Herring Grulls.

They fly well, skimming over the sea, and not high when
over the land.

They feed on fishes; also on insects, caterpillars and worms,
which they search for several miles inland in the fields. One
kept by Mr. Selby used to swallow young birds.

The present species builds on bare and barren islands, both
those of the sea-coast and those of inland lakes, as well as
on the margin of the mainland. Steep and precipitous clifl's
are used, as well as low marshy moors and sandy places a
little way inland.

The nest is a tolerable quantity of grass, with occasionally,
though rarely, some sea-weed placed loosely together in some
slight hollow in the rock or the adjacent herbage, the latter
least frequently.

The eggs, which are two, three, or four in number, are of
almost every variety of shade of green and brown, olive green,
olive brown, and stone-colour, thickly spotted with grey, brown
of two shades, and brownish black.

The first or second week in June is the time of building.

Male; weight, about thirty-six ounces, or sometimes more;
length, one foot and eleven mches, to two feet; bill, yellow,
the angle on the lower part red; iris, pale yellow; the eye-
lids vermilion red. There is a dusky spot before the eye iii
winter. Head, crown, neck, and nape, white, in winter streaked
with dusky brown; chin, throat, and breast, white; back, dark
slate grey.

The wings extend to the width of lour ieet and a half,

94 LESSEE BLACK-BACKED GULL.

and reach two inches beyond the end of the tail. Greater
and lesser wing coverts, dark slate grey; primaries, dark slate
grey, the six first tipped with white, namely, the first with
a broad bar, and the extreme tip white, the others with only
the tips white, in a triangular form. Secondaries, dark slate
grey, the ends white; tertiaries, dark slate grey, the tips of
some of them white. Greater and lesser under wing coverts,
white. Tail, white; upper and under tail coverts, white.
Legs and toes, yellow; claws, dusky.

The youDg are at first covered with down of a grey and
brown colour, and become full-fledged in a month or five weeks.
When a year old the bill is dark horn-colour, the base pale
brown; iris, dark brown, a dark spot before the eye. Head,
crown, neck, and nape, white, streaked with dusky brown;
chin and throat, w^hite; breast, white, mottled with dusky
brown; back, greyish brown, the shaft of each feather deep
brown, and the tips and edges of the feathers greyish white.
Greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, margined
with yellowish grey or white; the shafts deep brown; primaries,
blackish brown; secondaries, blackish brown, with narrow
greyish yellow tips; greater and lesser under wing coverts,
white. The tail has a blackish brown bar at the end, edged
with white, the middle feathers varied with most of the former,
and the outer ones with most of the latter colour; upper
tail coverts, white; under tail coverts, white, mottled with
dusky brown. Legs and toes, pale brown.

The full plumao^e is not arrived at till the third year.

95

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.

WAGEL. COB.

Larus marinnst Pennant. Montagu, Selp,t.

" " Bewick. Fleming. Jenya's.

" *' Gould. Temminck.

" ncBvius, (young,) Bewick,

" nigerf Brisson.

Lcrus — A ravenous sea-bird. Marinus — Belonging to the sea — marine.

This fine bird occurs in Europe, in Sweden, the Ferroe
Islands, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Norway,
and Iceland. In America, in Greenland, Baffin's Bay, Labrador,
and as far south as Florida. In Asia, in the vicinity of the
Caspian Sea.

It is with us a not uncommon though not numerous
species; seen throughout the year on the shores of the island,
but for the most part singly or in pairs.

They breed abundantly in the Orkney and Shetland Islands,
also on the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, and one or
two other stations on the Scottish coast, and the northern
islands of the same; so to on Lundy Island and Steep Holme,
in the Bristol Channel; Souliskerry in the Orkneys; and in
Shetland; as also, according to Mr. Yarrell, on the low lands
of the estuary of the Thames.

In Yorkshire, I have seen the Black-backed Gull near
Burlington, and it is not uncommon on the coast. So in
Norfolk, at Yarmouth, and along the shore; as likewise in
Suffolk, Durham, and Northumberland, also in Devonshire,
and Dorsetshire. In Surrey it has occurred at Godalming.

In Cambridgeshire one was bought at Cambridge, in the
market. In Oxfordshire, small parties of four or five have
been frequently noticed. In Cornwall the species is not un-
common at Falmouth, Penryn Eiver, and other parts. In
Kent and Essex along the banks of the Thames.

It is a tolerably common species in Ireland, and a resident

96 GEEAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.

throughout the year So, too, in Scotland, as in Sutherlandshire
on the friths. In Wales, in Caermarthenshire, near Tenby
and Laugharne.

In Orkney it is described by Dr Baikie and Mr Heddle
as being pretty widely distributed. Also m Shetland

These birds seldom advance tarther inland than the estuaries
of the sea.

It IS curious that this Gul) should be very shy, while the
Wagel, the same bird, so called at a different and younger
period of life, is not by any means so much so. It woaJd
seem as if, like other kinds, they find 'sero sed serio' the
danger of any but a distant acquaintance with man. So
again, as remarked above, the old ones go for the most part
singly or in pairs, while the young assemble m companiesi
more than eight or ten are seldom seen together

These are powerful bh'ds, and at the same time bold and
daring, and stout opponents. They may be kept m confinement,
and Mr Yarrell has furnished an account of one as sent to
him by the Rev Robert Holdsworth, which was hatched
successfully from an egg taken by the crew of H,M Revenue
Cutter Vigilant, and lived for many years quite tame, neai
Dartmouth. It swam m the river every day, and looked oat
for the fishermen returning from sea, who were in the habit
of feeding it.

The eggs are eaten and considered good by the inhabitants
of the northern islands.

These birds float aloft at times on almost motionless pinions,
wheeling round and round in a chain of circles Their ordi
nary flight is rather slow, but powerful, and they wing their
way along without much seeming effort They sail buoyantly
on the water, and swim well

They feed on fish, and anything that is capable ol being
fed upon, and are said even to attack and destroy iambs.
One has been seen to drop on a Guillemot which had just
been shot, and begin to devour it. Smaller birdi are therefore,
as might be hence supposed, not objected to. They drive
away the Lesser Gulls from any prey they may have discovered.

The note is a mere 'kac, kac, kac,' uttered in j. loud, rough,
and harsh tone, capable of being heard at a great; distance.
It is uttered most in the spring-time.

The Great Black-backed Gull builds chiefly .n marshes ^nd
low undrained moors, as also in and on the chtfs and rocky
islets of the sea-coast and of inland lakes, making its nest of

GEEAT BLACE-lsACKED GULL. 97

dry grass, sea-weeds, and sticks. Many resort to the same
place. The nest is of large size. Both male and female
assist in its construction.

The eggs are three in number. They are considered very
good to eat, and great numbers are taken for the purpose,
the first and second clutch being removed, and the bird then
laying a third time. Their colour is yellowish brown, with
a tinge of green, a little spotted with bluish grey and dark
brown.

Male; weight, nearly five pounds; length, two feet six
inches or over. The bill, which is large and very strong, is
pale yellow, the lower angle of the under mandible orange
red, with a dusky black spot in the middle on each side; the
tooth of the upper bill dusky in winter. Iris, pale yellow;
the eyelids bright red; there is a dark mark before the eye
in winter. Head, crown, neck, and nape, white; in winter
the former streaked with a little grey; chin, throat, and breast,
white ; back, dark leaden grey.

The wings reach in extent to the width of five feet nine
inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, leaden grey; primaries,
nearly black, the first and second ending with a triangular-
shaped w^iite patch, longest in the /former, the second with
a black spot in the white near the tip, the third with a short
wdiite tip, the fourth with a short white tip, succeeded by
black, and this followed by a narrow clouded bar of greyish
white, the others tipped with white, the inner webs being
leaden grey; secondaries, leaden grey, ending in white, forming
a bar across the wing; tertiaries, leaden grey, also endiiiu^ in
white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail,
white; upper tail ccvirts, white; under tail coverts, white.
Legs and toes, pale yellowish red.

Female; length, two feet three or ibur inches.

In the young the bill is black; iris, dark blue; head, crown,
neck, and nape"^ dull white, mixed with greyish brown; clun,
throat, and breast, also dull white, but paler m the marKings.
Back, grevish brown, the feathers dark m the middle, the
edcres grevish white. Greater and lesser wing coverts, mottled
and spotted with pale grevish brown and greyish white;
primaries, black, greater and lesser under wing coverts dull
greyish white, with some pale brown marks. Ihe tail has
the middle feathers black, tipped with white, the side fe^it hew
mixed with black and white. Lejs and toes, dull greyish
white, with a red tint.

n

VOL. VIII.

98

HERRING GULi..

SILTERY GULL.

Larus argentatus, Bewick. Fleming. Gould.

** " JttKYNS. Selby.

** fuscus. Pennant. Montagu.

** glaucuSf Temmi^CK.

Larus— A ravenous sea-bird. Argentatus. Argentum — Silver.

This bird has an extensive European range, occurring in
Iceland, the Eerroe Isles, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark,
Holland, France, Italy, and Turkey. It belongs also to Africa,
and is seen at Madeira; so too in Asia, in Asia Minor and
along the shores of the Black Sea; and is also an American
species, observed in Gri'eenland and at Melville Island, Mexico,
and thence to Labrador, and on Whitehead Island, in the
Bay of Eundy, also about New York and Philadelphia.

The Herring Gull is common on our coasts, and remains
throughout the 3^ear.

The present species breeds abundantly at Flamborough Head,
in Yorkshire, the well-known promontory on which a light-
house has for ages been placed, from whence its name,
originally, no doubt, Elameborough ; also on the Eern Islands,
off the Northumbrian coast; North Berwick Harbour, in Scot-
land, and the Solway Erith; Sumburgh Head, in Shetland;
and on an island near St. David's Head, in Wales.

In Yorkshire, it is a common species on the coast, and,
inland, specimens have been procured at Hebden Bridge and
Barnsley, and at Sheffield, young birds. In Suffolk, they are
not uncommon; and in Norfolk, about Yarmouth and along
the coast. In Hampshire, they are exceedingly common about
Lymington; also in Dorsetshire and Devonshire, and are not
uncommon in Cornwall, about Ealmouth and Penryn River.

€)

(

a

M

^

HEREIKG GFLL. 09

One, of which Mr. Thomas Willmot has written me word,
was captured between Windsor and Maidenliead, Berkshire, on
or about the 25th. of January, 1855. A few are seen in
Northamptonshire most v/inters. In Worcestershire, on- was
shot towards the end of February, 1843, at Lower Wick, on
the banks of the Eiver Teme, near Worcester. The species
is frequently observed in Oxfordshire. Parties of them oc-
casionally visit the Hiver Trent, in Derbyshire, for a few d;ivs.
Two were believed by the Eev. Leonard Jenyns to have been
shot at Overcote, near Swavesev, Cambridsreshire.

It is a common Irish species, and frequents also the coast
of Wales in abundance. It is extremely numerous in many
parts of Orkney and Shetland.

I have received several particulars respecting this species
from John Dutton, Esq., E.N. He writes — 'The Herring
Gull is exceedingly common on the coasts of Hampshire and
in the Isle of Wight. They build in great numbers in
Scratchell's Bay, and in the cliffs under the Needles lighthouse.
It is a fine sight to see them from the tops of those grand
old cliffs, towering aloft in graceful circles, their beautiful
snow-white necks contrasting finely with the blue of their
backs. They build on the ledges of the cliffs, and frequently
in the beds of samphire, which grows in abundance there.'

The Herring Gull, which is readily tamed to a certain
extent, so far as to follow a gardener while digging, to i)ick
up any dislod^fed insects, has been known to breed in con-
finement, namely, near Fermoy, in the county of Cork, as
recorded in the 'Zoologist,' page 1395; another pair at
Walthamstow, for three successive years; also at Quig Hall,
the sat of J. T. Martin. Esq., two"^ eggs were laid, and one
young bird reared: one kept in a garden made a great friend
of a terrier doo*. Montas^u mentions one which thus lived in
confinement for thirteen years.

Mr. Hewitson gives the following, as commuiucatL'.i t.) him
bv the Eev. W. D. Fox:— 'At Colbourne, in the Isle of Wight,
a" Herring Gull made its escape about thirty years ago from
a garden^where he had been kept a prisoner. From that
tim.e, however, to the present, he has returned all hut daily
to visit the place of his former captivity, though at the
distance of six or seven miles from tliat ])art of the oast
where they resort. Here he is regularly led, and is so tamo
with the man who has recrularlv attended to his wants, tha«;
he would eat out of his hand,' but will not allow any further

100 HEEEIlS-a GTJLL.

familiarities. In the breeding season he is accompanied by his
mate, who will not venture to descend, but remains hovering
and screaming over him whilst he is feeding below.'

These birds utter loud cries at the approach of danger, and
so become sentinels for other species.

They fly rather slowly, and at a low height, sweeping down,
and catching up any prey from the water. They walk about
much on the sea-beach in search of food.

This species is very indiscriminate in its choice of food,
swallowing alike small fish, small crabs, shrimps, Crustacea,
and mollusks generally, starfish, the eggs of other sea-birds,
wheat, small birds, rats, mice, cockchaffers, worms, in fact any
thing eatable. It gives preference, however, when it has a
choice, to fish, and is very bold in approaching boats and
nets, so as to have acquired in Italy the name of Fisherman
■ — 'Pescatore del onda.' It is said also to trample the soft
sand, to bring its prey to the surface.

In the ^Naturalist,' vol. iii, page 23, George Donaldson,
Esq. writes of one kept in a garden: — *At this period, how-
ever, he acquired a taste for Sparrows, and scarcely a day
passed on which he did not regale himself with four or five
of them. His system of catching them was this: — He was
on the best terms with a number of Pigeons which this
gentleman had, and as the Sparrows fed along with them, he
mixed in the group, and by stooping assumed as much as
possible their appearance, and then set at the Sparrow as a
pointer dog would do his game; the next instant he had his
prey by the back, and swallowed it without giving it time
to shut its eyes. The sporting season began with him about
the middle of Julj^, as the young birds were leaving their
nests; and as numbers of them were produced in Mr. Kemp's
garden, and others came to practise there, they found it very
slippery ground, for the enemy was upon them in a moment.
At the expiration of three years, his plumage was assuming
a lighter shade, although the grey feathers on the under part
of his body were quite apparent. He pursued his old system
of snatching and swallowing with great success, and arrived
at so much perfection in the art that he caught his prey
often while flying past, and occasionally sprang from the ground,
and struck a bird down with his wing, which he had nc
difiiculty in afterwards capturing. On one occasion, while
standing near a pump well in the garden, he pounced upon
a rat, which had come there for the purpose of drinking; it

nEEEIXG GULL. 101

squeaked on being caught, and Mr. Kemp, who was standing
close by, looked immediately, and had scarcely time to see it
suddenly disappear head foremost, — a rule whicli he had strictly
observed, with both the living and the dead.' Anotlier, kept
by the same gentleman, devoured successively two clutclies of
young ducks; the first nine in number, and the second five.

The note is very loud and piercing, and is frequently
repeated in the spring.

The Herring Gull makes a nest of dry grass and sea-weed
on the ledges and small grassy or stony spaces that occur
along the side of a cliS*, and towards tlie top.

G-reat numbers of these birds breed together, and in close
neighbourhood also with other species.

The eggs are two, or more properly three, in number.
They are of a light olive brown colour, spotted over with
darker brown of two shades; some deep olive green, blotted
over with blackish brown. They are laid about the middle of
May, and the young take wing about the 20ch. of July.

The male bird keeps watch about the female when sitting,
and comes to her assistance and defence it' occasion requires.
Male; weight, from thirty to thirty-three ounces; length,
up to two feet and half an inch; bill, pale dull yellow, the
angle of the lower one dark orange red; iris, pale yellow, the
edi^es of the evelids oransre red. Head on the crown, wdiich
in winter is streaked with greyish brown, neck, and nape, white;
^hin, throat, and breast, white; back, delicate bluish grey.

The wings expand to the width of four feet four inches;
greater wing coverts, fine grey, the tips white; lesser wing
coverts, fine grey; primaries, mostly black on the outer webs
of the two first, the inner webs grey on the half towards
the base; the first has a rounded triangular-shaped white mark
at the end, the second and third also, but less in size. Selby
gives the following description of these feathers: — *The six
greater quills crossed by a black bar, which in the first occupies
three fourths of the feather, but becomes rapidly narrower
through the rest, and is scarcely an inch broad upon the
sixth; the first quill with a white tip, marked witli a small
black spot on each web near the extreme point, the second
with two spots on each side of the shaft, its tips, and those
of the next four quills being white; the colour of^ the sliatt
corresponds with the part of the feather adjoining it.*
Secondaries and tertiaries, tipped with white; greater and
lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, white; upi'cr tail

102 HEEEI^^a GULL.

coverts, white; under tail coverts, white; legs and toes, palo
yellowish grey, with a tinge of light red.

The autumnal moult begins about the middle of August,
and a partial spring moult about the middle of February,
when the mottled feathers of winter are discharged, and the
pure white of summer restored.

The female is less in size than the male, her measurement
being about one foot ten inches or over, to one foot eleven
inches.

The young are at first mottled with brown and dull white;
the quills dusky, with no white at the tips, the tail with
a dusky bar at the end, the bill horn-colour, the iris dusky,
and the legs dark. Subsequently in the first year the bill
is blackish grey at the tip, the remainder pale yellowish red;
iris, dark ; head, crown, neck, and nape, greyish white, streaked
and mottled with pale brown; chin, nearly white; throat and
breast, greyish white, streaked and marbled with pale yellowish
brown. Back, a mixture of different shades of grey and pale
yellowish brown, the feathers being edged with pale rufous;
primaries, greyish black. Tail, marked at its base with white
and brown, more white in the second year, the rest brown,
but the tip a pale rufous yellow. Legs and toes, pale yel-
lowish red.

They do not arrive at maturity till the third year; the
following account of their change of plumage is from Montagu;
— 'In the second year the colours continue the same, but
rather lighter; in the autumnal moulting the back becomes
ash-colour, the iris gets lighter, inclining to yellow, the bill
the same. In the next change we find the wing coverts still
mottled with brown, the head and neck streaked with dusky
brown, the bar m the tail broken by numerous white undu-
lated streaks running down the webs; ii'is and bill yellowish.'

\\

! ! I

iiri(i'!iiiif

1-

103

GLAUCOUS GULL.

BTJEGOMASTEE. LARGE WHITE-WINGED GULL.

Larus glaucusy Bewick. Fleming. Sklrt.

" ** Jenyns. Gould Temminck.

Larus— A ravenous sea-bird. G^mcms— Grey— sky-coloured.

As appertaining to Europe, the Glaucous Gull builds in
Iceland and Spitzbergen, and specimens have occurred in the
Baltic, in Sweden and Norway. It is common in Kussia, and
individuals have been met with in Germany; Belgium, as
mentioned by M. DeSelys Longchamps; at Dunkirk, in France;
Italy, at Genoa, a single specimen in the winter of 1817.
In America, in Greenland, about Baffin's Bay, Davis' Straits,
Felix Harbour, and in various regions among the Polar seas,
as also in the United States.

A mature specimen was obtained in Yorkshire, at Scarborough,
in December, 1853; one at Eossington, in the West-Riding;
considerable numbers of old birds were seen on the coast in
the year 1830; the young occur every year. The Rev. Leonard
Jenyns recorded one met with in Cambridgeshire. In Norfolk,
one was killed at Horsea, and one at Blakeney, in December,
1847; the former was shot while perched on a Coot which
had just before fallen to the gun, and on which it had then
pounced; four were taken at Cromer, in January, 1850, two
of them adult birds, but most of the specimens that have
occurred have been in immature plumage; another, also an adult,
at Yarmouth, November 29th., 1851; others also there, and
three at Thornham, in the winter of 1S3G. Two were seen,
and one of them obtained, at Ramsgate, in Kent, in I^^IG;
both were young birds. In Sussex, one was caught near Sea-
ford about ^the 20th. of December, 1S52. In Devonshire, some
have been obtained near Plymouth. Others in Cornwall. One

104 GLITJCOIJS GTJLL.

occurred in Gloucestershire, on the Severn, near Eristol, in the
winter of 1840. A young hird was purchased in the London
market in the winter of 1838.

In Scotland, Bobert Gray, Esq., of Southcroft, Govan,
Glai=igow, has written me word of his having shot this species
at Dunbar. It occasionally occurs, he sa3"s, in severe weather,
on the East Lothian shore. One was met with on Loch Lomond.
One in the Firth of the Clyde, in December, 1822. Sir
William Jardine says, 'We possess a specimen killed in winter
in the Firth of Forth, and for the last two winters a Gull
with white wangs has occasionally travelled up and down the
Hiver Annan for fifteen miles, but has been so shy as to
baffle all endeavours to procure it.'

In Ireland it is an occasional visitant.

In Shetland, many were observed at different times by Mr.
Lawrence Edmonston, in 1809, Xovember, 1814, and subse-
quently, chiefly in Uist, the most northerly of the group. A
few immature birds occur every winter, and in the latter part
of l^ovember, and up to the middle of December, 1847, four
adult specimens were procured by Mr. Robert Dunn; he also
obtained in January, 1848, four more, and in February one
other. Three or four others, also adult, the end of 1852.

In Orkney, two were shot in Sanday, by Mr. Strang, in
the winter of 1844-5. The species has since been known to
occur frequently.

The present bird frequents both the open sea and the
entrances of the more exposed bays, though at times seen
inland in quest of food.

They are here only winter visitants, coming in the autumn
and going in the spring, in or about October and April.

These birds are fearless and daring, though disposed to be
shy when not attracted by food. They, like some others,
bite severely if taken, and all the more so, as may 'a fortiori'
be supposed, from their size and strength. They are generally
seen singly or in small parties of three or four, that is to
say in the most northerly of our islands; but as many as
one hundred were seen together on one occasion in Shetland,
by Mr. Edmonston, and in still more northerly regions they
assemble in large numbers. They rest on the higher parts
of floating masses of ice, and, when not feeding, are of grave
and inactive habits.

They .fly with the wings widely extended, and in an easy,
measured, and buovant manner.

GLArCOIJS GTJLL. 105

They are ravenous birds, and devour indiscriminately any-
thing eatable, not only fish, shell-fish, and Crustacea, but
even snaall birds and their eggs and young. They feed their
nestlings with the same. Two Little Auks were found in
one, and Faber saw another chased. They also rob other
species of prey they may have captured, even the Fulmar,
the Ivory Grull, and the Kittiwake, as mentioned by Captain
(afterwards the Eev. Dr.) Scoresby, the Arctic voyager. They
sometimes advance a little way inland for food.

The note is a loud and harsh scream.

This bird is said to build upon the sea-beach, just above
high-water mark, as well as on the ledges of steep clifls,
and island rocks in the sea. The nests are composed of
dry sticks and sea-weeds, with some lining of grasses, the
whole laid together to the depth of about half a foot, the
width being about two feet. They are tolerably strong,
thouo^h inartificiallv constructed.

The eggs are stated to be of a pale purple grey colour, with
scattered spots of brown, and pale bluish purple.

The young are hatched after an incubation of four weeks,
and leave the nest about the end of July.

Male; weight, between four and five pounds — different mdi-
viduals vary, as might naturally be supposed of any predatory
birds, several ounces in weight; length, two feet eight or nine
inches; bill, yellowish white, the angle of the lower mandible
reddish orange, more red in winter; iris, pale yellow, the eyelids
reddish orange. Head, crown, neck, and nape, white, slightly
streaked in winter with bluish grey or pale brown, but the bird
would seem to be less changeful in its plumage at the dilTerent
seasons of the year than the other kinds; chin, throat, and breast,
pure silky white; back, white, with a tinge of light bluish grey,
in winter deeper grey.

The wings, when closed, scarcely reach to the end of the tail,
and extend to the width of five "feet ?i^Q inches; greater and
lesser wing coverts, white, with a pale tinge of bluish, in winter
fine bluish grey at the base; secondaries, tertiaries, greater
and lesser under wing coverts, tail, and upper and under tail
coverts, white, with a silky lustre. Logs and toe?, diill yel-
lowish red; claws, dusky, and rather blunt.

The young are of a i)ale grey fawn-colour m xv.vw - .

appearance; the bill is dark horn-colour, the base pale vc.. •-
ish brown; iris, dark. Head, crown, neck, and nape, dull white
and pale greyish bulT brown; chin, throat, and breast, dull

106 GLAUCOUS aULL. -

white, mottled with pale yellowish brown; back, dull white and
pale yellowish brown intermixed.

The wings barely reach to the end of the tail; greater and
lesser wing coverts, dull white mixed with pale yellowish brown;
primaries and secondaries, greyish white, the shafts white;
tertiaries, barred across with pale brown, the tips greyish white.
Tail, yellowish brown, irregularly spotted; upper and under
tail coverts, dull white, barred with pale brown. Legs and
toes, dull yellowish red.

After the second moult the spots and bars decrease in size,
the white advancing upon them; in the half-yearly change
the upper part of the back acquires a few of the grey feathers,
and the under parts and tail become white. The adult plumage
is taken after the next moult, namely, at three years old.

107

KITTIWAKE,

Larus

Rissa,

tridactylus.

Temminck.
Larus — A rayenous sea-bira. Rlssa — .

Montagu. Plemixg. Sflpy.

Gould.

Pennant. Bewick. JiiNYNs.

The Kittiwake is plentiful in many parts of Europe, as
Norway, Sweden, the Ferroe Islands, Iceland, Nova Zembla,
and Spitzbergen, in the north, and on the French coast: in
Italy it has also occurred. It is common in Greenland, and
on the continent of America, from the United States to Labrador,
and the farthest north, inconceiyable numbers congregating,
Captain J. Boss, R.N., observed, in suitable places. In Africa,
specimens have been procured at Tripoli, and on the west
coast; and in Asia, near the Caspian Sea, and on to
Kamtschatka in the north.

They breed in immense numbers on the northern coasts of
Scotland, the Bass Eock and that of Glass, St. Abb's Head,
in Berwiclvshire, Fowls-Heugh, near Stonehaven and Montrose,
Aberdeenshire, Troup Head, the Isle of May, in the Frith
of Forth, and other places; so too in the Shetland Islands.
Also in Yorkshire on the cliffs about Fhunborough, and so
formerly at Scarborough and the Fern Islands oti' the coast
of Northumberland. In Hampshire, at the Isle of Wight;
and in Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Cornwall.

The Kittiwake is common along the Yorkshire coast, and
some have been seen about Sheffield, Huddersfield, and York.
In Cornwall it is not uncommon about Falmouth, Swanpool,
Gwyllyn Yase, and other places; as too in Norfolk, about
Yarmouth, and along the coast. One, of which William
Brooks Gates, Esqt' has informed me, was killed at P;ittisliall,
in Northamptonshire, during the severe frost in Janu.irv. Is3t;

1U» KITTIWAKE.

and one the second week in February, 1S55. The bh^d is
seen on the Eiver Xene in that county ahnost every winter;
so likewise in Oxfordshire the bird is a common visitor at
that season. In Surrey one was shot on Wandsworth
Common, in February, 1851; and another at Hatch, near
Godahning. In 1846, March 30th., one was caught near
King's Xewton, Melbourne, Derbyshire. It is more or less
common on the coasts of Durham, Xorthumberland, Devonshire,
Dorsetshire, Hampshire, both the mainland and the Isle of
Wight.

It is a common species in Ireland. In Orkney it is very
abundant, and in Shetland equally so.

They are summer visitors here, but some have been seen,
though sparsely distributed, in winter. A young one was
shot in Devonshire, in the month of November; and Montagu
mentions three washed up on the shore in the month of
March, 1806. Meyer also mentions his having obtained an
adult bird, in perfect winter plumage, on the 19th. of
January, 1837; and an immature bird on the 22nd. of
February. Mr. Yarrell speaks of some seen by him at that
season on the Dorsetshire and Hampshire coasts; and Sir
William Jardine writes of the species as being seen also in
winter, though rarely, in Scotland, on the coasts; sometimes
too in the Frith of Forth; and of one as shot near Edinburgh,
in January, 1843. The greater part of our native birds of
the present kind would seem to retire to the eastern parts
of Europe for the winter. . This species has been kept in
confinement, but requiring, as it does, a fish diet, it is more
difficult to be preserved than the others which are of an
omnivorous character.

They are naturally fearless birds, and far from shy, and
are readily kept in confinement. A Gull, believed to be
one of these, and which lived for twenty-seven years, used to
go away in summer, and pair with another of the wild birds,
in the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, returning alone afterwards,
and spending its time either on a small piece of water, or
sitting on the railings of some cottage, or else flying about
the country, so tame withal that it would come into the
houses and eat from the hands of persons whom it knew,
thouo;h not from others. Great numbers are shot in some
places in the north for the sake of their feathers.

They both swim and fly well and easily, but are indifferently
able to walk or run on the land, owing to the shortness and

KITTIWAKE. 109

position of the legs. Thej feed on sea productions — fish,
shrimps, and other Crustacea, and the like.

The note of this Gull is considered to be expressed by its
name, and is verj often uttered. All the sea-birds' cries are
in themselves harsh and discordant, but no doubt they sound
'most sweet voices' in one another's ears, as much so as those
of the Xigh tin gale or the Thrush are supposed by us to do
to those of their own kinds.

The Kittiwake lays its eggs upon or in any small ledge
or cleft on the side of a steep and rocky cliff by the sea.
These are often so narrow and apparently insecure, that Selby
says the young seem instinctively aware of their perilous
situation, whence sometimes the least movement would pre-
cipitate them into the waves beneath, and are observed seldom
to change their attitude in the nest till sufficiently fledged
to be able to provide for their own safety. Immense numbers
of these birds build together, so much so as completely to
whiten the places where they assemble for the purpose, and
to give them the appearance of being covered with snow.

The nest is a mixture of grass and other dry herbage, with
sea-weed.

The time for layinor is the latter end of May, or the
beginning of June.

The eggs are usually two, but occasionally, though very
rarely, three in number. They differ much in their colouring
and markings; the prevailing tint is stone-colour with a tinge
of olive, much spotted with grey and brown of two shades;
or greyish white, faintly tinged with brown, and blotted with
dark brown and purple grey.

Male; weight, about fourteen ounces; length, one foot two
to one foot three inches and a half or even four inches; bill,
pale yellow, greenish yellow at the tip, the upi)er mandible
rather arched, the inside of the mouth reddish oran2:e colour.
Iris, dark dusky brown, the edges of the eyelids reddish
orange; head on the sides, crown, neck, and nape, white: in
winter the sides around the eye and tlie back of the liead
are streaked with dark grey, the nape with bluish or blackish
grey. Chin, throat, and "breast, white; back, pale bluish irrey.

The wings reach in extent from three feet two to ll^ree
feet four inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, pale bluish
grey. Of the primaries, the first has the whole of the outer
marcrin black, the second with the end and the great.T part
of the outer web the same, the third with its end and ^u\\

110 KITTIWAKE.

less of the onter web the same, the fourth and fifth with s
black patch near the end, but the extreme tips white. Second-
aries, bluish grey, tipped with white; tertiaries, bluish grey,
tipped with white; greater and lesser under wing coverts white.
Tail, white; upper tail coverts, white; under tail coverts, white.
The legs, which are rather short and slight, and somewhat
far back, are, as the toes, dusky greenish black or olive.
The hind toe is only rudimentary, and hence one of the
specific names of the bird. It is without any claw; webs, dusky.

The young at first have the bill black; a spot before the
eyes and also behind the ears deep blackish grey; back, deep
bluish grey. The tertiaries with part of their outer webs
black; the tail, except the outermost feather on each side, with
a broad black bar along its end.

In the young after the first autumnal moult the bill is yellow,
tinged with blackish green at the tip, the mouth inside pale
red; iris, dusky brown, there is a blackish grey spot in. front
of and behind the eyes, the eyelids grey. The back of the
head is blackish grey; on the nape is a broad patch of black,
the edges shaded ofi" into bluish grey; chin, throat, and breast,
white; upper part of the back, deep bluish grey. Grreater
and lesser wing coverts, spotted with blackish brown and grey.
The three first primaries are black, with the exception of a
band of white on the inner webs; the tertiaries are black on
the outer webs, the inner paler bluish grey and edged with
white. The tail is considerably forked, the outermost feathers
on each side are white, the others have a blackish brown bar
at the tips about three quarters of an inch widej under tail
coverts, white; legs and toes, deep dull green.

ill

SKUA.

COMMON SKTJA. SKUA GULL. SQUAW GULL. BROWy GL'LL.

BONXIE.

LeMris cataractes, Jenyns. Gout.d. Temminck.

Larus cataractes, Pennant. Montagu. Bewick,

Cutaractes vulgaris^ Fleming. Sklby.

Lestris — A pirate vessel. Cataractes. Katarasso — To drive headlong,

to dash down.

This stout bird belonsfs to the colder refjions of the north
and south, as in Europe to Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland,
the Ferroe Islands, Norway, and Scandinavia generally; in
North America, to Labrador, Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay,
and the adjacent parts towards the United States; in South
Anierica, to the Straits of Magellan, Terra del Fuego, the
Falkland Islands, the New South Georgian Islands, and Ker-
guelin's Land; also to Africa, at the Cape of Good Hope.
Specimens have, however, been obtained in more temperate
parts, as on the coasts of Germany, Holland, and Franco.

In Yorkshire, they are occasionally seen on the coast in the
autumn and winter, but are never numerous; one a young
bird, was shot in December, 1853, near Scarborough. Sir
William Jardine has noticed them at times on the Sol way
Firth, and far up the Firth of Forth. They similarly appear,
wandering southwards in the autumn, on the coasts of North-
umberland, Durham, Norfolk, four shot in the Yarmouth K
October 7th., 1S27, Essex, Kent, one at Greenwich, and an«-
at Sandwich, in the winter of the year 1800, and Sussex. In
Cornwall the species occurs, but not commonly, at Falmoulh,
Penryn lliver, and other places. Also in Devonshire; in April,
1850^ one of these birds was caught near Plyiiunitli in a not,
by some fishermen, as K. A. Julian, Esq., Jun., of Lair.i IIouso,
has informed me. One, too, on the Klver Severn. One on

112 SKUA.

the Cumberland coast, which allowed itself to be seized when
in the act of killinof a Herring: Grull.

The Skua breeds in Shetland, and has three principal stations
there, namely, Foula, the Hill of Eona, in Mainland, and the
Isle of Unst. In Orkney it is but an occasional visitant.
A specimen was shot near Kiikwall in the winter of 1845-6,
and another has since been killed near Stromness.

It is likewise an Irish species, but rare. One in Dublin
Bay.

These birds are valued by the inhabitants of the places
where they build, as scaring away the Eagles from their flocks;
a pair have been seen to drive one from their nest. They
are preserved in some of the northern islands on this account.
They dash with extreme courage and boldness at any intruder,
increasing in the vigour of their attacks as the nest is more
nearly approached. Meyer thus writes, *While the breeding-
season lasts, this Skua is exceedingly ferocious, for every
intruder, whether man, bird, or beast, is attacked by it, and
driven from the locality that it has chosen. Men, when
attacked, are obliged to defend them.selves stoutly; dogs and
foxes are driven off the ground, and the Eagle itself is
obliged to take proper warning.'

They have been kept in confinement ; one for a period of
ten years or more. Many are killed in the north for the
sake of the feathers.

The Skua soars at times at a great height, and flies both
strongly and rapidly, in an impetuous dashing manner.

They may be considered as a sort of sea-hawk, and feed
on fish, and at times on other smaller birds and their eggs.
*They rarely, however, take the trouble to fish for themselves,
but watching the Gulls when thus employed, they no sooner
observe one to have been successful, than they immediately
give chase, pursuing it with fury, and obliging it from fright
to disgorge the recently-swallowed fish, they descend after it
to catch it, and are frequently so rapid and certain in their
movements and aim, as to seize their prize before it reaches
the water. It is on this account these birds have been called
Parasitic Gulls, because they are supported by the labours of
others.' Hence also their other nam.e of Pirate, as shewn above;
'Might versus Kight' being their only motto, and that upon
whose principle, or what we should call want of principle,
they act on every occasion that happens, but still following
only the proper instinct of their nature. With reference how-

SKITA. * 113

ever, to this name Bewick observes, speaking of one of the
other species, ' It may admit of doubt whether the character
of parasitic belongs to any of this tribe, least of a^^ to the
present bird. What it obtains from other birds is not by
fawning or cunning, but by courageous open assault.' They
thus attack even the Gannet. They hold their prey in their
claws, and so tear it to pieces. They have, however, been
known to swallow a herriug whole. They are great favourites
with the fishermen, 'frequently accompanying their boats to
the fishing-ground, which is considered a lucky omen.'

The nest of the Skua is of a large size, as well as somewhat
carefully constructed; the materials used being grasses, lichens,
moss, and heath. The bird places it on the tops of the
mountains or cliffs in the neighbourhood of the sea, but not
on the rocks themselves. They build separately in pairs.

The eggs are only two. They are laid towards the end
of June.

Male; weight, about three pounds; length, two feet, to two
feet one inch. The bill, which is much hooked at the tip,
is dark brownish black. Cere, black; iris, dark hazel brown.
Head, crown, neck, and nape, dark umber brown, with slight
streaks of yellowish or reddish brown. The feathers of the
neck, which are of a pointed shape, are raised by the bird
when excited. Chin, throat, and breast, uniform brown; back,
dark reddish brown, with lighter coloured oblong spots.

The wings extend to the width of betw^een four and five
feet; greater and lesser wing coverts, dark reddish brown; of
the primaries, the first has its outer web and tip blackish
brown, the others the same on the tips only, and very pale
rusty brown at the base of the feathers; the shafts of all of
them white and strong. Tertiaries, margined with pale reddish
brown. The tail, which is dark brown, is rounded at the
end, the two middle feathers a little longer than the others,
and darker in colour; the base white. It consists of twelve
feathers. Legs, black, strongly and irregularly scutellated in
front, and reticulated behind; toes, Uack. The claws are
black, strong, much hooked, and grooved beneath, the mncr
one the most so.

The female is much less in size than the male, but otlier-

wise similar.

VOT. VITI.

114j

POMEPvIXE SKUA.

POMERINE GULL. P0MERI5fE JAGEB.

Lestris pomerinuSy Jenyxs. Gould. Temminck*

" striatus, Eyton.

Cataractes vomarintUj Selby.

Lestris— A pirate ves8cL Pomerinus — ..., ?

The Pomerine Skua visits the shores of France and Holland,
and one or two are seen every year on the Swiss lakes in the
winter. It comes from the north, and is known in Denmark,
Sweden, and Norwa}^, where it breeds, Iceland, and in the
Faroe Islands.

In America it is not uncommon in Hudson's Bay, New-
foundland, Greenland, and the Arctic regions generally.

A specimen occurred in Derbyshire near the village of
Burnaston, September 23rd., 1854: it was driven about, and
knocked down by some Books. Others in Norfolk, at Blakeney,
in December, 1847. The species is of occasional occurrence
along the coast, but mostly in the autumn, and generally in
the immature state of plumage. One was taken in Sussex
in the village of Ovingdean, in October, 1844. 'It had struck
down a White Grull, which it w^ould not quit; it was kept
alive about a fortnight, and then died. The very first day
of its captivity it (is said to have) devoured twenty- five
Sparrows. Once it escaped, and immediately attacked a Duck,
which it held till re-captured.' Another was obtained at
Brighton; one in Kent, at Dover; and one in Lancashire,
at Liverpool. In Cornwall, an adult example of this species
was killed near Penzance, in Mount's Bay, the beginning of
October, 1851.

In Oxfordshire, one occurred near Oxford in February, 1854,
and another in November, 1848. One in the collection of the

<'

rOMERTTSTE SKIT A. 115

Kev. Dr. Thackeray, of King's College, Cambridge, is stated
by the Eev. Leonard Jeiiyns to have been shot near Cambridge.
Two at Hastings, in Sussex, in the early part of October,
1851. In Yorkshire they have sometimes occurred near
Scarborough and along the coast in considerable numbers, that
is, young birds, but their visits are very uncertain; three
were obtained there by W. H. Eudston Eead, Esq., in October,
1831. One has been shot near York.

In the year 1837 many were on sale in the London markets,
and eight^ or ten of them had been caught alive. Two were
captured in 1831 in Devonshire; others have been taken on
the Suffolk coast. One was shot in Hackney Marshes, near
London.

In Scotland, Sir William Jardine has noticed them in the
Firth of Forth, and several as high up as Newhaven.

In Ireland they are of occasional occurrence.

They are seen also in the Hebrides. In Orkney one wat
obtained in, I believe, the year 1832.

They advance southwards in the autumn, and return towards
spring.

This ■ bird, like the others, lives a life of rapine, and thrives
on robbery, paying no regard to the principles of *meum'
and *tuum,' but, guided solely by self-interest, avails itself of
the labours of others, and plunders them without scruple of
their hardly-earned food, which it thus makes its own. It is
pugnacious and formidable in the same way, though not in the
same degree, as the other species. Only a few are seen together,
except in the breeding-season.

Its flight, says Sir William Jardine, is very swift and rapid,
as befits one that is of so piratical a character.

This Skua Grull builds by the margin of lakes in marshy
places, as well as in more rocky ones.

The nest is composed of different grasses and moss.

The eggs are two or three in number, and of a yellowish
grey colour, spotted with blackish brown.

Male; bill, dark greenish grey, black at the tip, and bluish
at the base, the inside of the mouth orange red; iris, dark
brown. Head on the crown and hack, neck on the back,
and nape, deep blackish brown, with a sHght tinge of grey,
the neck on the sides yellowish. Chin, throat, and br: \
white, the last-named with a collar of gn-yish brown s|
and marked on the upj)er part and sides with yellowish and
greyish brown. Back, dark purple brown.

IIG POMEEINE SKUA.

Greater and lesser wing coverts, dark purple brown; the
primaries, dusky, have the shafts white. The tail, of twelve
feathers, is dark parple brown, the shafts of the feathers
white, except the extreme ends. The two middle feathers
are three inches longer than the others, but of an equal
breadth throughout; the tips rounded; under tail coverts,
white, dashed with greyish brown. Legs, bluish black; the
toes, black, the hind toe very short, and with a strong nail.

The young of the first year have the bill bluish, the upper
mandible rounded, and bent down at the point, which is
black; a groove runs along the cere to the base of the bill,
and there is also a groove from the base of the lower man-
dible for half its length; iris, hazel. Crown, neck on the
back, and nape, brown, tinged with grey, the feathers mar-
gined with pale brown. The feathers of the breast are
white at the base, the remainder mottled with brown and
yellowish brown — as the bird gets older the white prevails.
Back, deep rufous brown, the tips of the feathers yellowish
brown, looking like a spot on each side of the shaft.

The wings, when closed, reach an inch beyond the end
of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, deep rufous
brown. The primaries have their shafts and inner webs at
the base white, the outer webs and tips black; the second-
aries are tipped with yellowish brown. The tail has part of
the shafts and the base of the inner webs white, the rest
black; the two middle feathers about three quarters of an
inch longer than the others, but of the same breadth
throughout, and rounded at the ends; upper and under tail
coverts, barred across vdth pale brown and reddish white.
Legs and toes, bluish black; the claws much hooked and
black.

In another stage the bill at the base is greenish brown,
the point, which is curved, black; cere, greenish brown; iris,
very dark brown. Head on the crown, the neck, and nape,
brown, the feathers, margined with lighter brown; chin,
throat, and breast, brown, with narrow transverse waves of
paler buff-coloured brown. Back, umber brown, with broad
margins to the feathers of a lighter shade, broadest on the
lower part. Primaries, blackish brown, the shafts and a
considerable portion of the inner webs white; tertiaries,
umber brown, broadly margined with paler brown. Upper
tail coverts, umber brown, each feather broadly margined
with a lighter shade, the middle feathers about half an inch

pomeei:ne skua. 117

longer tban tlie next to them; under tail coverts, broadly
margined across with two shades of brown. Legs, yellowish;
Sir William Jardine remarks that the legs of this specie*
are sometimes pied black and yellow; toes, black, yellowish
at their bases; webs, black.

So again the bill is dull black, the point the darkest;
cere, dull black. Head, crown, neck, and nape, dull rusty
black; chin and throat, rusty black, but paler; breast, with
narrow alternate stripes of dark and light brown ; back, rusty
black, the feathers margined with brown, which markin^^s
gradually become broader as they go down to the tail
coverts, whereon they are darkest. The primaries have the
shafts white. Tail, rusty black, the central feathers elon-
gated; underneath, whitish at the base, increasing to dark
lead-colour; under tail coverts, mottled with brown bars.
Lesfs, dark lead-colour, with a tinge of vivid blue, toes, black.

118

RICHARDSON^S SKUA

AECTIC SKTJA. AKCTIC GULL. ARCTIC BIRD.
BLACK-TOED GULL.

Lestris JRichardsonn,

" crejyidatus,
Cataractes parasiticus,

'5

Larus parasiticus,

" crepidatus,
Stercorarius Cepphus,

longicaudus,

JeXTXS. GrOULD.

Temmtnck.
Fleming. Selby.

LTXX.EUS.
MOXTAGr.

Pexxaxt.
Stephe>'s
Bmssox.

GmELIX. PEXiS-AXT.

Bewick.
[MoxTAGU. Bewick.

Lestris — A pirate vessel.

Richardsonii — Of Richardson.

This Skua Gull, which, as will be seen on a reference to
the synonymic names, was formerly supposed, in different stages
of its plumage, to compose more than one species, is common
in Europe — in Sweden, Xorway, Denmark, the Feroe Islands,
Spitzbergen, Scandinavia, and other parts of the north. Some
have occurred on the coasts of Holland and Belgium, as
reported by M. De Selys Longchamps. In Asia — in Siberia
and Kamtschatka. Also in Xorth America — in Greenland, and
on the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Hudson's Bay.

With us they breed in several of the Orkney and Shetland
Islands, as Hoy and the Holm of Eday of the former; j^oss,
Unst, and Eoula, of the latter; so too in the Hebrides, Islay,
Jura, Uist, and Bum.

Several examples have occurred on the shores of various
counties in England, also inland. In Norfolk a young one
was shot at Lynn, in the estuary of the River Ouse, about
the 1st. of October, 1851^; one also, in the plumage of the
second year, near the same place, September 16th., 1852. Two
at Hunstanton, on the 11th. of the same month. One at

EICHAEDSOX'S SKUA. 119

rarmouth, in immature plumage, about the 24th. of October,
1844, and in 1847 four, two adult and two immature ones,
on different parts of the Norfolk coast. In Oxfordshire
several individuals have occurred, at different times, in the
neighbourhood of Weston-on-the-Green. One adult bird was
seen there on the 27th. of June, 1837. The Hon. T. L.
Powys has informed me of one of these Skuas, an immature
specimen having been obtained near Oxford. In Sussex, one
was shot near Brighton, on the 23rd. of January, 1851. In
Worcestershire, one on the Severn, near Worcester, about the
beginning of November, 1849; and one in Lancashire, the
same year, near Fleetwood, on the 20th. of August. In York-
shire, one was picked up in the town of Halifax, in the West-
Kiding. This species is noticed occasionally on the coast,
and sometimes in considerable numbers, namely, young birds
for the most part; so also in Durham, Hampshire, Devonshire,
and Lancashire. One at Battersea, near London, and four
at Kingsbury, in Middlesex, in the autumn of the year 1842.
In the county of Xoi-thumberland Mr. Selby records the
occurrence of two at the Fern Islands, in the month of May.

In Scotland Sir William Jardine observed this species in
Sutherlandshire, on the Firth of Durness, in the month of
June, 1834. He also states that it is frequently observed,
late in the autumn, in the Frith of Forth.

In Ireland individuals have occurred, but rarely, as near
Belfast and Dublin; one in May, 1847.

In Orkney two, in the plumage formerly described as a
different species, w^ere shot in Sanday, in the winter of 1849-50;
one subsequently. These birds are very abundant in summer,
and breed in Hoy and several parts of the islands; as also
in like manner, as already mentioned, in the Hebrides and the
Shetland Islands.

They are migratory, some of the young birds advancing
southwards in the autumn. They arrive in Shetland in M;iy.

When anxious for the safety of their nest or young, th."*e
birds exhibit the greatest solicitude, ilying, running, and
fluttering about with obvious care, or pretending to be lame,
and endeavouring to decoy intruders away. They appear to

do well in confinement. They are said to ^''v ..»].. f^

sometimes among themselves.

The Arctic Skua is also amazingly swift and |H.werUil on
the wing, a necessary qualification in such a pirate^ Mrver
says that occasionally it flics as slow, and that there is Imrdly

120 Richardson's skua.

a bird whose flight is more varied, or kept up for a greater
length of time without taking rest. On the shore it runs
about briskly, and occasionally rests itself on the sea by
swimming.

They plunder other sea-birds of their eggs, like the kindred
species, pursuing the owners thereof in the air when they see
any food procured by them, forcing them to drop the prey
they have captured, and then seizing it themselves, their
motto being ^Le droit de plus fort.' They thus attack and
rob even the great burgomaster, as well as the inferior Kittiwake
and the Terns. They also pick up insects, small birds and
their eggs, and other food.

The note is a loud harsh cry or squall, the origin, I
should suppose, of the name of the bird.

These birds build both separately and in companies — twenty,
thirty, or forty pairs together. They make their nests on some
raised part of a marshy place, or the top of an upland moory
w^aste; the heath, moss, lichens, or grass thereon being embedded
into a nest.

The eggs are two in number. They are laid early in June.
They are of an olive brown colour, spotted with dark brown.

The Arctic Gull is a bird of very neat and even elegant
appearance.

Male; length, one foot ten inches; bill, bluish pt the base,
which is broad, and nearly black at the tip, which is hooked,
and black also on the under mandible, which is slightly angular
and grooved on the sides for two thirds of its length. Cere,
bluish; iris, chesnut brown. Forehead, pale yellowish; head
on the sides, pale yellowish, on the crown, dark dusky brownish
grey; neck on the sides and nape, pale yellowish, the feathers
on the back part of the neck being stiff and pointed, and
forming a sort of collar around it; chin and throat, pale
yellowish; breast, yellowish white, passing on the lower part
and sides into greyish brown; back, dusky grey.

The wings reach only a little beyond the side feathers of
the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, dark dusky grey;
primaries, dark dusky grey, the tips the darkest, the shafts
almost white nearly to the tip. Tail, dark dusky grey, the
shafts almost white nearly through their whole length; the
central feathers, which are pointed at the ends, are three
inches longer than those next on either side; under tail
coverts, dark dusky grey. Legs and toes, blackish, blotted
with yellow. The fronts are scutellated, the hinder parts

EICflAEDSON*S SKUA. 121

reticulated with small pointed scal^-s. Webs, blackish, blotted
with yellow.

The female is as the male.

The young are at first covered with down, of a beautiful
light brown colour, spotted and barred w4th black, the former
gradually wearing out. In the first year's plumage the bill,
which is curved at the point, is black on that portion, and
the remainder brownish grey, as likewise the cere; iris, dark
brown. Head, crown, neck, and nape, pale yellowish brown,
streaked with dark brown, the most so on the hinder part
of the sides of the head, and of the neck. Chin and throat,
pale yellowish brown, streaked and mottled -with darker brown;
breast, pale yellowish brown, barred across with darker brown.
Back, deep brown, the feathers tipped with yellowish. Greater
and lesser wing coverts, deep brown, margined wish pale yel-
lowish brown; primaries, dusky brownish black, tipped with
pale brown, and part of the inner webs white, as also the
shafts; tertiaries, brown, margined with paler brown. Tail,
deep dusky brown at the base, the remainder brownish black,
and the two middle feathers half an inch loui^^er than the
others; the whole number of feathers is twelve. Under tail
coverts, pale yellowish brown, barred with darker brown. The
legs, at first black, become yellowish white and blue; the toes,
also at first black, tiirn to yello^vish white at the base, the
remainder black; webs, yellow at the base, aud the front black,
■whence the name to the species of the Black-toed GulL

122

BUFFON'S SKUA.

AECTIC JAGEE.

BOATSWAIN.

Lestris Buffonii,

u u

" parasiticus,

" crepidatus, (young)
Cataractes parasiticus,
Jtercorarius Cepphus,

'' longicauduSj

Larus p)arasiticus,

" crepidatus, (young)
Cataractes Cepphus,

BoiE. Meyer.

Buonaparte.

Je^^yns. Eyton. Gould,

Temmixck.

FLEMINa.

Shaw.
BmssoiT.
LiNN^us.

Gmelin. Latham,
Brunnich. Ray.

Lestris — A pirate vessel.

Buffonii— Of Buffon.

This species has been named after M. Buffon, the
celebrated French naturalist.

Many of these birds are seen in North America, about
Baffin's Bay, Melville Peninsula, and the North Georgian
Islands.

Specimens have been procured in different parts of France
and Belgium, and they occur also in Norway, Iceland, and
Spitzbergen.

In Yorkshire an individual of this kind was taken near
Eedcar, on the 20th. of July, 1849; another, I believe, near
Bridlington Quay, and another at Flamborough. One in
Devonshire, near Plymouth, as John Gatcombe, Esq. has
written me word. Another was shot by George Dawson
Eowley, Esq., at Wintringham, St. Neots, Huntingdonshire,
on the 20th. of October, 1848; it was sitting in an arable
field, and was very tame. The remains of a dead bird,
apparently its mate, were also found not far off. In Norfolk,
a specimen was picked up dead at Hockham, in September,
1847. In Durham, an adult bird was found near Whitburn,

/

■MA/

^■^'^^.

bupfon's skua. 123

at the end of October, 1S37, and young ones on other
parts of the coast and the banks of the Tvne.

In Scotland one of these birds was obtained at IJonar
Bridge, in August, 1S41.

In Ireland they have Hkewise occurred, but as rare
visitants; one in 1839, near Dublin.

They also are seen in Orkney.

This is another very elegantly-shaped species, its whole
form and contour giving evidence of its character as a sort
of predatory Sea Swallow, a very Harpy of the deep, but
one which, unlike the pests of that name described by Virgil,
reverses the order of things as to the 'dapes,' and does not
spoil the morsel so as to hinder its being swallowed by
those among whom it comes unbidden and unwelcome, but
pounces on the spoil all the more eagerly, for that the
others have first made it their own by what would naturally
be thought the most secure mode of appropriation.

It flies no doubt in the same free and easy manner as
the other species.

So likewise as to the manner of taking its food.

This Skua Gull breeds on the shores of the sea, and those
of the larger rivers, as also on barren heaths at some dis-
tance inland: many birds build together. The nest is com-
posed of dry grass.

The eggs"^ are in number two, of a pale olive green colour,
with irregular blots of grey and dark reddish brown.

Male; length, one foot one inch and a half; the bill, cur^^ed
at the point, is black at the end, the base dark greenish
brown; cere, dark greenish brown; iris, brown. Head on the
crown, black; neck on the sides and nape, pale yellowish
white; chin, throat, and breast on the upper part, white,
below light brownish grey. Back, brownish grey; greater and
lesser wing coverts, brownish grey; primaries, nearly black;
tertiaries, brownish grey. Tail, nearly black; upper tail coverts,
brownish grey; under tail coverts, light brownish grey. The
middle feathers, which are very long and pointed at the ends,
extend nine inches beyond the others. Legs and toes, black
with a tinge of yellow; webs, black.

124

CINEREOUS SHEARWATEIi.

GEEATEB SHEARWATEII. BTJSKT SHEARWATER.
HACKBOLT. HAGDOWN.

Puffinus cinereus, Selby. Eyton. Gould,

" fuliginosus, Eyton.

" major, Temminck.

Procellaria pujfinus, Jenyns.

" fuliginosus^ Jenyns.

Puffinus— ..,.,.? Cinereus. Cinereous — Ash-coloured.

This species has been noticed in Iceland, and appears to
be common on the coast of Spain, and in other parts of the
Mediterranean. In America it is very abundant at Newfound-
land, where it breeds. It has been procured also in Africa,
on the southern coast.

In Yorkshire one of these birds was taken alive in a fishing
net, at Robin Hood's Bay, near Whitby, in the North Riding.
One was shot by Mr. George Marwood, Jun., of Busby Hall,
in Cleveland, at the mouth of the River Tees, in the middle
of August, 1828. Another also near Robin Hood's Bay, and
one or two near Burlington Quay. One was taken alive in
Leeds, October 6th., 1854, as recorded by Dr. Hobson, in
*The Naturalist,' volume v., page 144. In Northumberland
one, a young bird, on the coast. W. P. Cocks, Esq. has
recorded this species as rare in the neighbourhood of Falmouth,
Cornwall, in 'The Naturalist,' vol. i., page 140. He also
writes me word of two he saw at St. Ives, in the year 1843.
Many were seen in Mount's Bay, and three taken; one at
Newlyn, near Penzance, in November, 1839; one the previous
year. Thousands are seen some autumns off Looe and Polperro.
Several specimens have occurred at different times on the
Devonshire coast.

Mr. Thomas Southwell has informed me that one of these

CINEEEOUS SHEAETVATEB. 125

Shearwaters, in immature plumage, was caught by a boy at
the mouth of the Kiver Ouse, near Lynn,^ on the 2.jth. of
July, 1851.

In Orkney one was procured from the Island of Foula, in
the year 1853, as related in a note to me from Dr. liaikie,
supplemental to the Natural History of Orkney by himself
and Mr. Heddle. Mr. J. J. Watters, Jun., in his 'Catalogue
of the Birds of Ireland,' mentions it as occurring, but rare.
Two were taken in the autumn of 1839, off Dungarvan Bay.

These birds are of crepuscular or twilight habits.

They are kept in confinement without difficulty, if supplied
with suitable food and w^ater. On the ground they walk and
run about with the body near the ground. In tli^'ht tliey
skim close over the surface of the water, whence their
appropriate name.

They feed on fish, sea- worms, and other marine insects.

This Shearwater is of very plain and dull plumage, and
even in the summer season, when all birds put on their best,
the gayest apparel that it dons, 'la haute toilette,' is sober
and unpretending. Male; length, one foot six inches; bill,
dark brown, the under mandible paler at the base: there is
a double tube on the upper one, from whence the bill rounds
slightly upwards, and then tends down in a deep hook, the
points of both mandibles being bent downwards. Iris, dark
brown; head on the crown and back, dark ash grey; neck
on the back, and nape, greyish white; chin, throat, and breast,
white, the latter on the lower part varied with dull greyish
brown. Back, ash grey, the margins of the feathers lighter.

Greater and lesser wing coverts, ash grey, the edges of
the feathers paler; primaries, blackish brown; tertiaries, ash
grey, the edges lighter coloured. Tail, blackish brown; upper
tail coverts, a mixture of dull white and greyish brown. The
legs, which are placed far backwards, are much compressed
laterally, they, as the toes, are browmish yellow; bin! * "-
rudimentary; webs, brownish yellow.

In the female the length is a little over one foot five
inches; bill, dark brown, the base of the lower mandible paler;
iris, dark brown; head, crown, neck, and nape, dark brown;
chin and throat, greyish brown. Breast, greyish brown, the
feathers darker on \\\e edges. Back, dark dusky brown.
Greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky blackish brown; pri-
maries, dusky blackish' brown; tertiaries, dark brown, the
edges paler. Tail, blackish brown; legs, deep greyish brown

126 CINEREOUS SHEARWATER.

on the outer part, paler on the inner, and of a yellowish
hue; toes, yellowish brown; webs, yellowish brown.

Young; length, one foot five inches; bill at the tip, dark
brown; iris, dark brown; head, crown, and neck on the back,
dark brown, the feathers rather darker on the margins than
in the centre; chin, throat, and breast, greyish brown, the
feathers much darker on the margins than in the centre;
back, dark brown. The wings have the first quill feather the
longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, brown; primaries,
blackish urown; tertiaries, brown. Tail, blackish brown.
Legs, on t;ie outer surface, dusky, inner surface, light brown j
toes, light brown.

127

MAXX SHEARWATER

MA>'X PETEEL. Z^A^X PUFEiy. SHEARWATER PETi:i:L.
SKEABE. LTEE.

Pvrffinus Anglorum, Flemin-g. Selby. Gould.

Frocellaria pujimis, Pe>-xaxt. Montagu.

" Anglorum^ jENYJfS. Temminck.

Puffimis — ? Anglorum—Oi the English.

The present, as a European species, has occurred in the
Mediterranean, Norway, the Islands of Denmark, the Faroe
Islands, Iceland, Holland, Italy, and France. In America
it extends in its range from Labrador, down by Newfound-
land to the south, through the States. In Asia, it has been
noticed in Asia Minor. It is included also among the birds
of Madeira.

This bird was formerly very plentiful in the Isle of ^lan.
whence its name.

The Manx Shearwater breeds in the Hebrides, at St. Kiida
and Soa; also in Zetland, at Foula and Unst. In Orkney,
in the Islands of Papa Westray and Waas.

In England, on Annet, one of the Scilly Islands, and
on the coast of Wales. Many which are on sale in Lead-
enhall market in the sprin^^ of the year, are taken in
rabbit-warrens in Wales, Mr. John Diitton writes me
word.

In Yorkshire specimens of this bird are occasionally found
along the coast in the autumn. It has also occurred near
Yarmouth, but rarely. One or two otf the Northumbrian
coast, near the Fern Islands. Specimens have been seen off
the shores of Dorsetshire and Devonshire. In OxfordJure

128 MAJs^X SHEAEWATEE.

one was taken alive near Chipping Norton, September, 1889.

In Ireland they are summer visitants, near Dublin and
other parts, but locally.

They occur, as just mentioned, in the Orkneys, but not
very numerously; also in the Hebrides.

They are migratory birds, arriving in the north in Feb-
ruary and March, and departing in the autumn.

In their habits they are somewhat addicted to the twilight,
flying abroad when the * stars glimmer red,' to take their
pastime, and seek their daily food.

They roost with the head turned back, and the bill buried
in the feathers. They are altogether birds of the sea, except
when drawn to land for the purpose of breeding. Flocks of
as many as three hundred have been seen together, and they
appear to be easily approached. Meyer writes, speaking of
their mode of feeding, *It is very amusing to watch a flock
of these Petrels thus employed; the birds are seen swimming
on the waves with their heads in the water, all in the
same direction, and moving on very rapidly, the hindermost
bird always flying up and settling in advance of the fore-
most, like rooks following a plough. Fishermen, when in
pursuit of their calling, watch carefully the movements of
these birds, and when they see them thus employed, lower
their nets with a tolerable certainty of finding the shoals,
of w^hich they are in search, near the surface.'

The eggs and young arc in considerable request in the
places where they occur, but the natural consequence is, or
rather has been, a great decrease in their numbers in places
where they used formerly to abound.

They swim low in the water, and have the same habit
as the other, of seeming to run along the top of the waves,
scudding lightly over them, and at times, as it were, sup-
porting themselves on their feet to pick up food.

They feed on fish — sprats, anchovies, and others, shrimps,
cuttle-fish, worms, and other marine productions, and with
these converted into an oil the young are fed. It is also
made use of as a means of defence, blown from the tubular
nostrils.

These birds resort for the purpose of incubation to the
highest grassy parts of small rocky islands and the kindred
shores of the mainland, as also to sandy places, where they
breed in burrows, going to the depth of about two feet. The
excavating of these appears to occupy a considerable time.

MANX SHEAEWATER. 120

Both birds sit, and that so closely, as to allow themselves
to be taken in the hand.

They seem to be very variable in the time of laying, from
the end of May to the end of June.

The nest is at most and best but a slight collection of
fern leaves and withered stems of other plants: frequently
none is formed, but the sand alone suffices the bird.

Only one egg is produced; it is large in size in proportion
to the bulk of the bird, perfectly white, and of an oval
form, but both ends obtuse.

Male; weight, seventeen ounces; leng^th, one foot two to
one foot three inches. The bill, which is furrowed above
with a double tube, is blackish brown, the base lighter
coloured and of a yellowish brown tint, the tips of both
mandibles much hooked downwards; iris, dark brown. Head
on the sides and crown, neck on the back, and nape, dusky
brownish black, with a slight tinge of grey and a glossy
lustre, the sides of the neck mottled with grey and white.
Chin, throat, and breast, white, below on the latter behind
the- legs is a brownish black streak. Back, dusky brownish
black, with a slight tinge of grey, and a glossy lustre.

The wings, when closed, reach nearly to the end of the
tail: they expand to the width of two feet seven inches.
Greater and lesser under wing coverts, white; primaries,
black; tail, brownish black; under tail coverts, white. Lec^s,
brown behind, in front dull yellowish red; they are laterally
compressed; the outer toe brown, the remainder dull yel-
lowish red; the webs rayed with brown.

The young bird is at first covered with greyish black
down, except a stripe along the centre of the breast, which
is white.

In the bird of the first year the breast is of a deep ash
grey, the upper plumage dusky brown, which becomes bj
degrees darker.

VOL. Mil.

130

DUSKY PETREL.

Puffinus ohscurus, Gould. Temmtnck.

*' '' Buonaparte. Degland.

Frocellaria obscurOf Temminck.

Fuffinus— ? Oisc::7'z: J— Obscure.

The present species is common on the western coast of
Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, and occasionally occurs on
the coasts of the Mediterranean. It belongs also to the Canary
Islands and to Madeira. A breeding-place is on the Dezertas,
a group of small islands near it, as stated by Edward Yernon
Harcourt, Esq. A few have occurred in France and Italy.
It was obtained by Captain Cook, at Christmas Island. In
America it is given by Nuttall as belonging to Canada, and
on by the States to the Grulf of Mexico, Florida, and Georgia,
and other parts; also in Bermuda.

A specimen of this Petrel flew on board a small sloop,
near the Island of Yalentia, off the south-west coast of Ireland,
late in the evening of the 11th. of May, 1853.

They are very tameable birds.

They are able in flight, and skim low over the sea in search
of food, and, says Audubon, on approaching a mass of weeds,
raise their wings obliquely, drop their legs and feet, run as
it were on the water, and at length alight on the sea, where
they swim with much ease and dive freely, at times passing
several feet under the surface. Whenever an individual settles
in a spot, many fly up directly and join it.

They appear to make use of the bill to assist them in
climbing up rocky places. They roost in the daytime in
crevices and under stones, namely, when on the land, reposing
otherwise on the bosom of the deep, and coming forth
towards evening to prowl and prey, the dim light of the

DUSKY PETEEL. 131

^cold pale moon' being more suitable to their habits than the
bright glare of the sun.

They feed on fish, and almost any kind of food.

The egg, for one only is laid, is pure white.

Male; length, eleven inches; bill, bluish black; the tootli
curved and shining black; iris, brown. Head on the sides,
below the level of the e3^es, white towards the back, where,
and on the sides of the neck, the black and white commingle
in grey, slightly in the form of bars. Head on the crown
and sides, neck on the back, and nape, black. Chin, throat,
and breast, white; the last-named somewhat dusky behind the
legs. Back, black.

The axillary plume is white. Greater and lesser wing coverts,
white; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, black; the pri-
maries are blackish grey underneath, darkest near the shaft
of each feather, being lighter in colour over the outer part
of each broad inner web. Tail, black above, underneath
uniform leaden grey; upper tail coverts, black; under tail
coverts, white. Legs, much flattened at the sides, blackish
grey J toes and claws, blackish grey; webs, reddish brown.

132

CAPPED PETREL.

WHITE-HEADED PETEEL.

Procellaria hcssitata, Forster. Kuhl. TE3onNCK

Procellaria, Procella — A storm. Hcesitata — A fictitious word

from hcBsitOy to doubt— doubted about.

This Petrel has occurred occasionally in different and
widelv-sepai'ated parts of the world, the Azores or Western
Islands; the Australian Seas, the Indian Ocean, and the South
Seas.

]\Ir. Yarrell's account of the first British specimen of this
bird, taken from the source presently mentioned, is as follows:
— ^The Petrel represented above, was observed by a boy on
a heath at Southacre, near Swaffham, in Xorfolk, flapping
for some time from one furze bush to another; at length it
got into one of the bushes, and was there secured by him.
Mr. Newcome, of Hockwold Hall, near Brandon, fortunately
happened at the time to be hawking in the neighbourhood
of Swaffham, and his falconer, John Madden, observing the
boy with the dead bird, procured it from him, and brought
it to his master. This was in the spring of 1850, either in
the month of March or April.'

The food of all the Petrels appears to be any thing that
can possibly be eaten. 'Chacun a son gout;' and theirs is to
have no taste for any one thing in preference to another.

Female; length, about one foot four inches; bill, black;
iris, hazel brown. In front of and below the eye are a few
greyish black feathers, the latter spreading backwards, the
orbits surrounded with a rinof of lis^ht brown. Forehead and
sides of the head, greyish white; head, crown, neck on the

CAPPED PETEEL. 133

back, and nape, white at the base of the feathers, the remainder
broadly tipped with brown, the latter colour alone shewing,
except at the base of the patch. Chin, throat, and breast,
white, the latter has a few dark feathers on the flanks; back,
a mixture of blackish brown and brownish grey, the feathers
white at the base.

The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they reach
when closed beyond the end of the tail. Greater and lesser
wing coverts, blackish brown, bordered with a Hghter shade
of the same, the edges of the middle and lower ones forming
two light-coloured bars across the wing; primaries, blackisa
brown, the shafts of the same colour. Greater and lesser
under wing coverts, white. The tail, which is rounded or
wedge-shaped, consists of twelve feathers, the outer pair white,
edged and broadly tipped with blackish brown, the next four
pairs like these, but only slightly edged, the tips of each pair
being darker as they approach the middle; the shafts of
all white, except the middle pair, which are brownish black
except at the base, and have the shafts of the former colour.
Upper tail coverts, white, and elongated; under tail coverts,
white, with a little grey. Legs, dusky yellow; toes, dusky
yellow at the base, the remainder black; claws and webs,
black.

The above account is compiled from that given in the
'Zoologist,' page 3691, by Alfred Newton, Esq., of Elvedon
Hall, near Thetford, Norfolk.

134i

FULMAR.

PITLMAB PETEEL. PETREL ETJLMAE. ISTOETHEEI?' FULMAE.
MALLEIIOKE. MOLLY.

Procdlaria glacialis, Linn^US. Gmeltn.

'* Latham. Sabine. Fleming.

" cinerea, Brisson.

Fulmarus glacialis, Stephens.

Procellaria. Frocella—K storm. Glacialis — Belonging to ice.

As regards Europe, these birds are plentiful in Iceland,
the Ferroe Islands, and Spitzbergen, and have occurred also
on the coasts of France and Holland. In America, they are
found about Davis' Straits, Baffin's Bay, Hudson's Bay.
Newfoundland, the Bay of Fundy, and Greenland, at Grimsey
Island.

The Fulmar breeds on Barra, Borrera, and Soay, in the
Hebrides, as also at St. Kilda's ^lonely isle,' where they abound
in almost incredible numbers, and are said to be the most
important to the inhabitants of all their natural productionSc
Pennant remarks, 'No bird is of such use to the islanders as
this: the Fulmar supplies them with oil for their lamps, down
for their beds, a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their
wounds, and a medicine for their distempers.' The inhabitants
frequently risk their lives in order to obtain their eggs also,
as well as the birds themselves.

In Norfolk, the Fulmar has been occasionally shot in
Yarmouth Roads; two were taken twenty miles at sea, Decem-
ber 18th., 18M. Some few specimens on the coast of Durhame
In Essex, one was obtained at Saffron Walden. In Yorkshire,
one was shot at Burlington, in 1849; the species was said
not to have occurred there before for forty years. Some

FULMAE. 135

have been shot in Cornwall. In the county of Derby, one-
was killed October 25th., 1847, in a field near a pool at
Melbourne; it had first alighted on an island in tho middle
of the water. In Oxfordshire, one was found alive in Weston
wood, in the parish of Weston-on-the-Grreen, on the 20th. of
February, 1829; another killed on Port-meadow, near Oxford,
in May, 1836. It has occurred occasionally also on the Welsh
coast. So also in Ireland, but considered extremely rare.

In Orkney, it appears but rarely; a specimen was shot on
the loch of Grsemeshall in Holm, in the month of September,
1846; one at Scalpa, near Kirkwall, in the year 1849.

It is said to be a regular winter visitant in Zetland.

The Fulmar migrates southwards in the autumn.

They are sometimes eaten, but are only indifferent food.
They are pugnacious among themselves when assembled to-
gether in countless flocks, as they are seen sometimes to prey
on any common food, and also very fearless at such times,
as for instance, when a whale has been struck, mingling among
the men, so as even to require to be thrown out of the way.
They are partly nocturnal in their habits, like the others.
If in danger, they defend themselves with their powerful bill,
and also forcibly eject from it an oil which acts as some
protection.

*They are strong and graceful on the wing, flying almost
in the teeth of the strongest gale, without any seeming
movement of their beautifully-rounded pinions; now swooping
along in the troughs of the sea, now skimming on the snowy
crests. They are almost constantly on the wing night and
day, never alighting on the water except during calm and
moderate weather, and then but rarely. They are very bold,
flying close to the side of the ship, almost within reach of the
hand.' They walk in an ungainly manner when on the
land or the floating masses of ice.

They feed voraciously on anything in the shape of food
that floats on the water, and when satisfied, sleep on the
ice till again called by their appetite to seek for more. The
young are fed on an oil, into which these different substances
are converted.

The noise that a large flock makes is described as almost
deafening, 'something between the cackle of a hen and the
quack of a duck.'

The Fulmar builds on the small grassy shelves that occur
on the front of high and inaccessible precipices, tho resulL of

136 FTJLMAE.

the dilapidations that time works in even the hardest rock.
Numberless pairs of these birds build close together.

A slight hollow in the turf, lined with grass and tufts of
the sea-pink, form the nest.

The single egg is of very large size, white, and of a
brittle texture.

The young are hatched about the middle of June, the
the eggs having been laid the beginning of that month.

Male; weight, about twenty-two ounces; length about one
foot seven inches; bill, whitish on the sides, the upper part
of the upper" mandible greyish white, the tip of the lower
one yellowish: it is much and strongly hooked, and also
toothed; iris, pale yellow. Head, crown, and neck, white;
nape, greyish; chin, throat, and breast, white, with a tinge
of pink; back, bluish grey.

Greater and lesser wing coverts, fine bluish grey; primaries,
slate grey; secondaries and tertiaries, fine bluish grey; greater
and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, grey, with white
edges to the feathers, rounded at the end, which is paler;
tail coverts, white, and reaching beyond the end of the tail.
Legs and toes, brownish yellow, tinged with red; the hind
toe is very short; claws, slender, curved, and pointed; webs,
brownish yellow.

The young in the second year have the tip of the bill
yellowish, the remainder greyish; iris, pale dusky; there is
a dark spot before it. Head, crown, neck, and nape, greyish
brown, the edges of the feathers lighter-coloured; back, darker
greyish brown, the edges of the feathers paler. Primaries,
secondaries, and tertiaries, greyish brown. Tail, greyish brown,
the edges of the feathers paler. Legs and toes, pale brownish
or greyish yellow j webs, pale brown.

^^7

BULWER'S PETREL.

Procellaria Buhverii, Jardine. Selby.

Thalassidroma Buiwerii Go ULD.

Procellaria. Procella—A. storaa. Buiwerii— Of Biilwer. Bulwer's

This species appears to have been discovered as a new one
by Mr. Bulwer, when a resident in Madeira. It inhabits that
and the adjacent small islands.

As a British Bird, it takes its place on the authority of
the occurrence of a specimen on the banks of the liiver *Ure,
or Tore, near Tanfield, and which was placed on record by
Colonel Dalton, of Sleningford Hall, near Eipon. Meyer speaks
of having been informed of another obtained near York, and
a third taken on a ship off Scarborough.

In flight it may readily, from the nature of its habits, be
supposed to excel.

Its note is, no doubt, of the same 'leggiardo' character as
that of the other species.

Male; length, from ten and a half to eleven inches; bill,
black; iris, dark brown, nearly black. Head, crown, neck,
nape, chin, and throat, sooty black; breast, sooty black, with
a slight tinge of greyish brown; back, nearly uniform sooty
black. Greater wing coverts, sooty black, tlie ed^^es rather
paler; lesser wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiarios, and
greater and lesser under wing coverts, sooty black. Tlie tail
is also sooty black, and consists of twelve feathers arrai !
in a wedge-shaped form, the centre plumes beinc: two uu -
longer than the outside ones; tail coverts, sooty black. L
toes, and claws, dark reddLsh brown; webs, dark brown.

13«

vVILSON'S PETREL.

Procellaria Wihoni, Jknyns.

TJmlassidroma Wihoni^ Temminck,

Procellaria. Procella—A. storm. Wihoni—O^ Wilson.

This Petrel was first described as an European one by the
Prince of Canino, Charles Lucien Buonaparte. One was ob-
tained from the Azores or Western Islands; it is said to have
also occurred on the coast of Spain. In America, it is seen
on the coast of Florida, and is plentiful about Charleston, in
the United States, and breeds in ^ova Scotia; it is also
common on the coasts of Chili and Brazil. It is stated by
Meyer to have been found at the Cape of Good Hope, and
on the coast of North Africa.

Two specimens were captured in the British Channel by
the captain of a ship. Another is said to have been taken
at Salthouse, in Norfolk, some years since. One was found
dead in a field near Polperro, in Cornwall, in the month of
November, 1838. The occurrence of another was recorded by
T. C. Heysham, Esq., of Carlisle; and one in Sussex, by Mrc
F. Bond.

*Like the other Petrels, this species remains in or near its
nest or bmTow during the day, and goes in search of food
on the approach of evening.'

The present, like some of the kindred kinds, follows in the
wake of ships in stormy weather, either for the sake of what
small shelter may there be afi'orded, or to pick up any chance
morsels of food thrown overboard.

Sailors, always, as it would seem, prone to superstition, deem
Mother Cary's bewitched Chickens to forerun a storm ; ^but,'
says Wilson, 'as well might they curse the midnight light-
house that, star-like, guides them on their watery way, or the

A

m

pfv

4

M ! d

\\\

Jl'IliH

w

Wilson's petbel. 189

buoy that warns them of the sunken rocks below, as this
homeless wanderer, whose manner informs them of the approach
of the storm, and thereby enables them to prepare for it.'

It is quick and lively in flight. Audubon says, 'It keeps
its wings nearly at right angles with its body, and make?,
considerable use of its feet, particularly during calm weather,
when it at times hops or leaps for several feet, or pats the
water, whilst its wings are extended upwards with a llutterins^
motion, and it inclines its head downward to pick up its food
from the water; and I have observed it immerse the whole
head beneath the surface to seize on small fishes, in which it
generally succeeded. It can walk pretty well on the deck of
a vessel, or any other flat surface, and rise from it without
much difficulty.'

Its food consists of small fish, moUusca, Crustacea, and sea
plants.

'Its notes resemble the syllables 'kee-re kee-kee,' uttered
^tempo eommodo.' They are more frequently emitted at night
than by day.'

These birds appear to build in numbers, about the be-
ginning of June, on sandy islands, in which they burrow
small holes to the depth of two feet or two and a half: the
oecessary bedding provided is a little grass.

The egg is a single one, and its colour white.

The young are able to go to sea by the beginning of

August.

Male; length, seven inches and a half; bill, black; iris, dark
brown. ' Head, crown, neck, and nape, dark brownish black:
chin, throat, and breast, sooty black, the latter towards thu
tail' white on the sides; back, dusky black, on the lower
part, uniting with the tail coverts, white. Greater wmg
coverts, dark rusty brownish black; primaries, dark brownish
black; secondaries, dark rusty brownish black, lighter colounHl
near the end, and the extreme edges and tips white, lail,
dark brownish black, the base of the three outer fe:r
white; upper tail coverts, white; under tail coverts, sooty 1.
but some of them tipped with white. Logs, long and slenaer,
and, as the toes and claws, black; webs, black with an
oblono-.shaped greyish yellow patch on each.

The female resembles the male m appearance.

140

LEACH'S PETREL.

rOEK- TAILED PETEEL. EOEK-TAILED STOEM PETEEL.
bullock's PETEEL.

Procellaria Leachit,
Thalassidroma Le/jchiif
BuUockii,

Bewick. Jentns. Temmixck.

Gould.

Selby. Eytow.>

Procellaria. ProceVa—k Storm.

Leachii — Of Leach.

The For"k-tailed Petrel was formerly esteemed a very rare
bird, but many have since occurred to reward habits of
attention and observation.

A few have been obtained in France, Holland, and Belgium.
In America, it is common on the banks of Newfoundland
and some parts of the coasts of the north.

Several examples of this species were procured in England
in the autumns of 1823, 1825, and 1831; in the first-named
of these years, one, said to have been caught on the Essex
coast, was bought in Leadenhall Market, London. In Dor
setshire, I once obtained one found dead near Charmouth
In Worcestershire, where one had been found before, a speci
men was shot near the city of Worcester, November 12th.
1849. In Warwickshire, one, a male, was found dead on the
estate of J. E. West, Esq., of Alscot, near Stratford- on- A von
five others in the same county in previous years. In Norfolk
three were seen near Lowestoft, on the 28th. of November
1849, and one, a male, shot at Yarmouth a day or two after,
as another had been in the middle of October; a specimen
was found on the beach near that town, December 25th., 1823
another, a female, on Caistor beach, near there, on the 4th.
of December in the same year; also one found dead on a
warren. In Devonshire, a Fork-tailed Petrel was picked up

leach's peteel. 141

on the shore near Tor Abbey, in December, 1849; one near
Plymouth, in December, 1856, of which John Gatcombe, Esq.,
of Wyndham Place, has written me word; on January -Ith.,
1850, one was taken alive, but in an exhausted state, on the
highroad between Edgware and Stanmore. One of these birds
was found on one of the high downs near Seaford, Sussex,
of which B. y. Dennis, Esq. has informed me, and of four
others about the same time near Brighton; another picked up
dead on or about the 6th. of Novenaber, 1850; one at Rotting-
dean, taken alive, December 14th., 1848. In Oxfords! lire, one
was found dead in the winter of 1850-51, at Blenheim Park,
near Woodstock, the seat of His Grace the Duke of Marl-
borough; another in the parish of Weston-on-the-Green, in
February, '1838, others also; one shot near Henley, in the year
1847; one also at Chipping Norton. In Durham, one, obtained
by the Bev. A. Shafto. One in the county of Hereford. In
the county of Cumberland, one was taken in a net in the
Solway Birth, in November, 1841; also in Derbyshire; and
in Cambridgeshire one at Bassingbourne.

In Hampshire, one was found dead in the year 1850, at
Luccombe Chine, in the Isle of Wight. Several near London ;
Mr. Yarrell bought one in the Leadenhall Market, alive at the
time. In Shropshire one, recorded by T. C. Eyton, Esq., of
Eyton, near Shrewsbury. In Cornwall, one was obtained near
Penzance, in November, 1852; others at Falmouth, Gwyllyn
Yase, Carrack Boad, and Swanpool, but rarely. One was
picked up on Hindhood, near Liphook, Surrey; one in the
neio-hbourhood of Haslemere, in the same county, 2 1st. of
November, 1840; several near Dunswold, February 2nd., 1841.
Another in Gloucestershire; and four or five near Bristol,
Somersetshire. In Yorkshire, an individual was foiua at
Kirkhammerton; another in one of the streets of Hahlax,
December 16th., 1831; anotlier on Sutton Common, near
Doncaster; three or four near York; one shot near Sprotborough,
on the Biver Don, in 1837; a few near Leeds.

In Scotland the first British specimen was obtained near
St Kilda, one of the Hebrides, in the summer of 1818. Since
then one was obtained in Dumfriesshire, in the lower part of
Annandale, bv Sir Patrick Maxwell Bart.; it was found dead
Another bv John Jardine, Esq.; and a fourth on bt. BoswoU s
Green, in Boxburghshire. ^ , ^ . . .,

It has occurred in Ireland, but only occasionally

These birds appear to be more shy than the other kmUs.

142 leach's peteel.

and seldom follow ships in the same manner, sheering off after
they have approached them, and taking another and wider
range, rambling over the seas both in the dark and the light.
They, like the others, discharge oil from their tubular nostrils.

They fly in a different manner from the allied species,
wheeling more widely, and with firmer beatings of the wings.
They also alight less frequently on the water, though they
often drop their legs over it, and patter with their feet.
They swim well, if necessary, but are not often seen 'naiant.'

They feed on small fishes, Crustacea, and mollusca, and in
search of these immerse the head underneath the surface without
inconvenience a not inconsiderable time.

The note, heard both by day and night, is a shrill and
querulous plaint, and is described by Audubon as resembling
the syllables *pewr-wit, pewr-wit.'

They breed in burrows, among stones, or the clefts of huge
wave-worn rocks, remaining within them at this season until
towards sunset, when they wander abroad in search of food,
returning to their mates or young, as the case may be, in
the morning, and feeding them then.

The egg is white — only one is laid. It is of large pro-
portionate size.

Male; length, seven inches and a quarter; head, crown, neck,
and nape, sooty black; chin, throat, and breast, sooty black,
the last-named tinted with brown, "and having a white patch
behind each thigh, continued, as presently mentioned. Back,
dark sooty greyish black, white on the lowest part.

The wings expand to the width of one foot seven inches,
and reach, when closed, a little beyond the end of the tail;
greater and lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, some of them
tipped with grey, shewing a pale bar across; primaries, black;
secondaries, black, the tips greyish; tertiaries, sooty black,
tipped with white. The tail, of twelve feathers, is sooty black,
and forked, the side feathers being half an inch longer than
the middle ones; upper tail coverts, partly white; under tail
coverts, sooty black, with an elongated patch of white on each
side. Legs, toes, claws, and webs, black.

The female is like the male.

143

STORMY PETREL.

STOEM PETBEL. COMMON STOEM PETEEL. LITTLE PETEEL.

stoe:\i eixch. mothee caeey's CHICKKX.

Procdlaria pelagica, Penxant. Montagu. Bkwick.

" " Fleming Jknyns. Tlmminck

Thalassidroma pelagica^ Selby. Gculd.

Prorellaria. Frocella—A storm. Pelagica— 0{ or belonging to the sea.

Pelagus — The sea.

This is the smallest web-footed bird known, the last and
least in the latter half of this my ^History of British Birds.*

It has received its name of Petrel from its habit of walking
or running on the water, as the Apostle St. Peter did or
essayed to do.

In Europe, some have been obtained on the lakes of Swit-
zerland, others in France, Holland, and Italy; so, too, in
Madeira and in South Africa, as likewise in America, in
Newfoundland.

They breed in the Faroe Islands and at Iceland.

With us they build at Scilly; so, too, in the Hebrides, on
St. Kilda and Soa; also on the western coast of Irehmd; and
in Scotland, on Dunvegan Head, in the Isle of kye; also
at Staffa and lona, in Orkney; pretty abundantly on the small
islands near St. Margaret's Hope; at Fouhi, Papa, Oxua, North
Ronaldshay, in the Green Hohns, in Ellar Holm, and in
Hunda, and the islets lying off Scalloway, and other parts of
Shetland; so, too, in the Isle of Berhon, olf Alderney. The
late William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, has mentioned several
Irish breeding stations; and Sir William Jurdine saw small
parties off Douglas Harbour, in the Isle of Man, in June.

In Yorkshire, one was taken at Wentworth, the seat of Lord
Fitzwilliam, in the West-Riding, about the year IS-IG; as Mr.

144i STOEMT PETEEL.

J. Lister, postmaster of Barnsley, informs me; one on the
beach at Redcar, November 13th., 1851; another near Knares-
borough, the latter end of October, 1846; one at Hahfax,
picked up in Broad Street in that town at about the same
date; one was found dead in a field near Bipon, and sent
to Bewick, by Lieutenant-Colonel Dalton, of Sleningford, of
the 4th. Dragoons; one was observed swimming in the river
in the town of Shefiield; it flew up and settled on a house,
and was then shot; some few individuals have occurred near
Leeds; others near Huddersfield and Hebden Bridge; one at
Keighley. In Norfolk, some of these birds are generally killed
every w^inter; in the month of November, 1824, between two
and three hundred were shot after severe gales; considerable
flights have occasionally been seen on the coast; one bird
flying over the River Ouse, near Lynn, on the 6th. of October,
1852. In Cambridgeshire, a specimen was found at Whittles-
ford, November 15th., 1852; one at Bottisham, October 6th.,
1855; another near Newmarket, October 17th., 1855. In
Surrey, several specimens have been obtained near Godalming;
one on the banks of the Thames, near Richmond, about the
end of January, 1835. In Sussex, one was blown against the
spire of the parish church of Hailsham, on the 26th. of
February, 1848, and was picked up in the churchyard; one shot
near Seaford, in October, 1856. One was found dead near
Buckingham, as James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College,
Oxford, has informed me. One also in Northamptonshire, near
Barton Segrave. In Derbyshire, it has occurred near Melbourne;
and Bewick mentions that the late Marmaduke Tunstall, Esq.,
of Wyclifi'e, had one sent to him which was shot near Bake-
well. In Oxfordshire, one near Oxford; another killed by a
boy near Chipping Norton, in November, 1S46; other two
occurred there in the winter of 1846-7; two shot out of a
flock of five, near Ensham, in December, 1837. In Cornwall,
one was captured on the night of the 1st. of October, 1856,
at the house of Mr. Hamilton, Wood Lawn, Falmouth; others
near there, and at Carrick Road, and about Marazion and
Penzance, but rarely; many occurred near Looe in the autumn
of 1852. In Somersetshire, one near Bath. Several vreie met
with on the Hampshire coast during severe weather in Jan-
uary, 1857. In March, 1825, one w^as shot from a barge in
the River Thames, in the very centre of London, between
Blackfriars' Bridge and Westminster Bridge. In Warwickshire,
three or four are noticed as having been caught in the streets

STOEMT PETEEL. 145

of Coventry, and three near Birmingham. In Berkshire one
was taken near Newbury.

In Ireland, as already mentioned, it is indigenous, but is
usually found, when found, dead inland.

These birds are made use of by the inhabitants of the
Ferroe and other islands, to serve for lamps, a wick of cotton
or other material being drawn through the body, and when
lighted it continues to burn till the oil in the bird is con-
sumed. The quantity of oil yielded decreases as the summer
advances, and at last it fails altogether, probably from their
falling off in condition, and the supply given to their young,
they being fed with the same.

The Stormy Petrel has been kept alive in confinement for
several months, feeding itself with oil spread for the purpose
on its feathers. The young have been brought up in con-
finement.

They are crepuscular and nocturnal in their habits, and
towards night wander forth accordingly over the ocean.

This tiny sea-bird, ever on the wing, as well in the serenest
as in the most tempestuous weather, finds equally its home
in each and every quarter of the globe. Many are the sad
tales it could tell of what it has heard and seen, by day and
by night, in the north, the south, the east, and west. Let
the imagination, aided by what others have seen and said, set
the picture faintly before us in its different points of view.

Now in the north, a thousand miles from land, alone in
its wanderings over the vast abyss of the unfathomable ocean,
the depth below as pitchy black as the murky night-cloud
overhead that will soon enshroud the face of the deep with
its darksome mantle till the two elements shall be, as it were,
mingled together in one common gloom, the Petrel careers
along the driving waves, and revels in the advance of the
coming storm. Could we be there while not there — for the
very presence of man must take off from the dread solemnity
which can only in its fullness belong to perfect solitude— how
utterly lonely the scene, even in the height of a summer*3 day!
and what must it be in the 'wild midnight' of the end of the
year, when the short-lived glories of tlie arctic solstice, that
have only gleamed *too soon to lleet,' have withered and waned
into the long and dreary night of the winter of winters? It
is indeed in itself the same by day and by night, and yet how
great the difference. The 'Northern Lights* themselves are
hidden behind a black starless sky, and cutting winds that freeie

VOL. VIII. L

346 STOEMT PETREL.

the life-blood s^eep over the wilderness of waters, as if the very
Furies were let slip, whirling along the driving snow, or thick
showers of heavy rain, whose drops, mixed with spray, sleet,
and hail, seem part of the squalls themselves; 3^ou hear — even
if you are not there you hear — the loud shrieks of each gust
of wind, and are aware of every coming blast. Whither is the
stray bird to wing its way? Where is it to 'flee away and be
at rest?' Where is it now gone? Where is it next to be seen?
Change the scene, and in the low latitudes how impressive
the stillness of the glorious main! 'how awful is this place!'
What must it, too, be when there is none there on the bosom
of the great deep to hear the sounds that are there to be heard,
and see the sights that are there to be seen? Now the Petrel
follows in the wake of some gallant ship sailing on in mistaken
security, and on a sudden a white squall, typhoon, or tornado
sweeps across her course, and in an instant she is upset, founders,
and goes down among the gurgling waves, it may be not to
the bottom, for there is in the lowest deep a lower and deeper
still, and a fathomless abyss which the plummet has never
sounded, whether it be that its depth is so profound, or whether
that there is far down below a current so strong that nothing
can sink through it, but must be whirled adown this true and
potent 'Gulf Stream' round and round the world. How is the
ship borne along this 'Race?' Is she dashed to pieces by the
terrific eddies of some 'Maelstrom?' and, if so, where, how, and
when, if ever, will her shattered fragments re-appear? or does
she, righted again, glide on once more, with masts standing and
sails set, and perform, year after year, in some 'under current,'
her 'vovao^e round the world?' Where is the 'Eeturn of the
Admiral' to be welcomed again? There stands the captain on
his quarter-deck, and there are his crew 'those for whom the
place was kept at board and hearth so long,' 'loved and lost,'
but still expected perhaps by those at home, looking out in
death with glazed eyes, now on the valleys, and now on the
hills and mountains that bound the scene on either side, now
on the 'dark unfathomed caves' that lie hid in the solitudes of
the ocean bed, and now on the coral banks that rise far above
to the surface. Now they overtake or now are passed by some
other 'Phantom Ship,' a terror neither of them to the other;
now overhead pass and re-pass the vessels of the naval nations
of the world, the noble man-of-war, the stately merchantman,
the fast and the slow, squadrons and convoys, the pursuers and
the pursued, the 'Homeward' and the 'Outward-bound:' nothing

STOEMT PETREL. 147

do they reck or wot of one another, nor ever will again in this
life.— ^The wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place
thereof shall know it no more/ Still the Petrel, who once
toUowed m their wake, flits and flies on with untired win^r.
The sudden gust that crossed the path has gone as suddenly
as it came— all is once more as quiet as it was. Now the
little bird flickers forwards in the calm stillness of the tropics,
and under the flaming sun of the south, which seems to have
as it were, molten the sea itself into a silver mirror, or, as
you might fancy, of glass, were it not for the rising from it
every here and there of the flying-fish, and the dash upon it
of the restless Sea-mew. One while a perfect calm broods over
the whole; at another, Hght baffling winds, gently laden with
the rich perfume of the land, arise to mock the sailor with hope
of the 'haven where he would be,' hope to be broken again and
again. Now the sun sets, and the whole western horizon is
glorious with his departing rays; now he rises, a ball of fire,
from the east, and runs again his daily course. But, a^^ain,
even the long day of the tropics wanes on to its end, the
eventide sky takes new and changing tints, and then the 'Great
Light' of the earth sinks majestically into his gorgeous couch,
while the whole of the wide expanse glows with soft hues, from
which the rainbow and the pearl borrow their beauty, and
gradually all subside into repose, and after heaving in long slug-
gish swells, the ocean is again left to sleep in its cool and
quiet rest.

How great the contrast between the unutterable dreariness
of a northern winter and the blaze of glory of the 'Sunny SoutlL^
But on again from one to the other the bird travels, and no%
as it were driven on the wings of the tempest, the gentle breez%
of the hot climate turned into the icy hurricane of the north,
the Stormy Petrel, whose name betokens the habitual current
of its life, nears the land, and skirts and skims along the iron-
bound coast. Wild is the scene on many a 'winter's evening,*
each storm difierent from every other that has gone before it,
and yet one and all alike : here are low dense clouds laden with
the coming gale, and there lurid skies pregnant with tem-
pestuous blasts; to seaward an endless desert of waters; towards
the land, and brooding over the watery waste, spray, foam,
and air, mingled as in one, and over all the blackness of
approaching night. There is a brief lull, as if the tempest wero
taking breath, and girding up its strength for a stronger elFort,
and a frightful stillness prevails for a short space, the sky

148 STOEMY PETEEL.

scowls and blackens more angrily, and low clouds whirl and
wheel about in uncertain eddies, all betokening a savage burst
of the outpoured fury of the elements; but while other sea-
birds scuttle off to seek shelter, if any may be found, the
Petrel still stays, and awaits the utmost violence of the storm.

In the offing there rises up the weather-beaten hull of some
doomed ship, 4ean, rent, and beggared,' which in vain struggles
and strains to keep of the fatal lee-shore. She drifts nearer
and nearer; you would see at once that her hour has come,
and that no human power can save her. Now the darkness
lowers still deeper, the mournful sighings of the air tell of the
awaking of the winds from their snatched and fitful slumber,
and warn that they will soon be sweeping on again with re-
doubled force, like a troop of gaunt and famished wolves greedy
of their certain prey. The black hull looms larger and larger
as the tempest-tossed vessel rises on the high wild seas outside,
and the only barriers between her and the rocky cliffs, half-
way up which the billows are breaking, and recoiling again
in boiling surf, are the sunken rocks, *over which stupendous
breakers, lashed into fury by the angry gusts, run riot,
mingling the hissing of their seething waves with the furious
ravings of the blast.'

It is as nature has foretold, and the signs of the vast
power of the air, which she has ushered in with many sublime
portents, are quickly fulfilled. The sky above assumes a
fierce and fiery appearance, and to windward a huge bank of
black cloud rises up and up from the distance, and, as it
comes on nearer and nearer, the *mighty and strong wind,' in
the language of Scripture, is driven, as it were, out of its
dark depths to carry all irresistibly before it. With every
fresh burst of the tempest a harsh screaming sound, as the
howl of a legion of evil spirits let loose and borne on its
ominous wings, warns of the mischief too late, the cries of
the uncaged wind gather strength and wax louder and louder,
as if never to be calmed again. Now, for an instant, the
vivid lightning lightens up the scene, and reveals the darkness
around, above, and below, to leave all still more awful than
before; and following it, ^Heaven's artillery,' the thunder-clap,
rolls over and echoes away among the clouds, peal upon peal
and crash upon crash. And, last, night comes on with its
gloomy grandeur, and the blackness of the black depth below
is taken into the blackness that comes down upon it — all is
black. The sea closes over the fated ship, and the wail of

STOEMT PETEEL. 149

the Petrel is the dirge for those who have perished with
her.

But He who ^rideth upon the wings of the wind,' Svho
stilleth the raging of the sea and the noise of his waves/
*the LoED who sitteth on high, — is mightier.' He says unto
the sea, 'Peace! be still;' *He speaks the word,' and * there ig
a great calm.'

So yet once more in milder climates, leaving the dreariness
of high northern latitudes for the glory of the serene night
of the south, and the ceaseless breaking of the sea on an
iron-bound coast for its soft moanings while gently laving
the golden sands, *on fine calm evenings, after the smooth
surface of the deep has put off the fiery glow imparted by
the setting sun, and begins to assume the dull leaden tint
of night, then the little Petrel may be seen scouring along
upon the face of the sea; now he darts past the fisher's boat
as it is rowing along upon its homeward course; is seen for
a moment as he flits among the lagging oars, and instantly
disappears among the increasing gloom of approaching night.
His motions are so rapid, his appearance so sudden, and he
looks so extremely diminutive, that it is only a quick eye
that will detect his approach at all.'

Soon the bright and glowing tints upon the distant hill
tops shade into the gathering gloom; *now fades the glimmering
landscape on the sight;' and the fanciful outlines of the far-olf
clouds, gilded for a brief space longer with a gorgeous light
given back from the ebbing glory of the setting sun, 'too
bright to last,' melts away in like manner into the subdued
hues that foreshadow the coming dusk; and then again, in
her turn the shining moon enlivens the face of the deep, and
a shimmering path along the rippling eddies of the tide, the
true pattern of the 'Field of the cloth of gold,' marked off
by the darkened waters on either side, shews the ^oml>ro
figure of the Petrel as it flits across.

Such are the scenes in which the Stormy Petrel ulU hs
part.

These birds rise with difficulty from the ground, owing to
the great length of their wings, and run along some distance
before they can get fairly under weigh. They use their hooked
bills to assist them in climbing. They fly very swiftly, and
in the most buoyant manner imaginable, and are olton seen
skimming from the top of one wave to another, dipping the

INDEX.

VOL.

PAGE

VOL.

PAOB

Accentor, Alpine .

iv

5

\ Crow

ii

35

Auk, Great

vii

172

Crow, Hooded

ii

39

Avocet .

V

173

Cuckoo

ii

98

Bee-eater .

ii

21

Cuckoo, Great Spotted ii

93

Bittern .

V

101

Cuckoo, Yellow-billed

ii

95

Bittern, American .

V

112

Curlew

V

133

Bittern, Little

V

107

Curlew, Esquimaux

V

137

Blackbird .

iii

196

Dabchick

vii

123

Blackcap

iv

94

Dipper

. iii

160

Black start

' iv

45

Diver, Black -throated

vii

135

Blnebreast

iv

36

Diver, Great Northern vii

128

Bullfinch .

iii

126

Diver, Eed-throated

vii

139

Bunting

iii

29

Dotterel .

V

25

Bunting, Black-headed iii

33

Dotterel, Kentish

V

37

Bunting, Girl

in

43

Dotterel, Little Ringed v

35

Bunting, Lapland .

iii

25

Dotterel, Ringed

V

30

Bunting, Snow

ui

20

Dove, Rock .

iv

167

Bustard, Great

V

1

Dove, Stock

iv

164

Bustard, Little

V

6

Dove, Turtle

iv

172

Bustard, Macqueen's

V

9

Duck, Buffel-headed

vii

91

Buzzard

i

30

Duck, Eider

vii

35

Buzzard, Honey

i

44

Duck, Ferruginous

vii

65

Buzzard, Kough-legged i

38

Duck, Harlequin

vii

83

Capercaillis

iv

185

Duck, King .

vii

44

Chaffinch

iii

52

Duck, Long-tailed

vii

/ (

Chifi" Chaff

iv

125

Duck, Red-crested

Chough

ii

27

Whistling

vii

56

Coot . . • .

vi

97

Duck, Stcller's Western

Cormorant

viii

1

vii

42

Cormorant, Green

viii

9

Duck, Tufted

vii

73

Courser .

V

15

Duck, Wild .

vii

10

Crake, Baillon's

vi

80

Dunlin

vi

56

Crake, Little

vi

76

Dunnock

iv

8

Crake, Spotted

vi

72

Eagle, Golden

i

14

Crane

V

65

Eagle, Spotted .

i

21

Creeper

ii

69

Egret, Little .

V

89

Crossbill

iii

133

Erne .

i

6

Crossbill, American

1

Falcon, Jor

i

»»2

White-winged

iii

140 I

Fieldfare

iii

171

Crossbill, Parrot

iii

138 '

Finch, Mountain .

iii

63

Crossbill, Two-barred

iii

143

Firecrest

iv

150

154

INDEX.

VOL.

PAGE

VOL.

PAGE

FlycatcTier, Pied .

ii

1

Gull, Little .

viii

60

Flycatcher, Spotted

ii

5

Gull, Masked

viii

66

Fulmar .

viii

131

Gull, Ross's .

viii

58

Gadwall .

vii

1

Gull, Sabine's .

viii

55

Gannet

viii

12

Harrier, Hen .

122

Garganey

vii

20

Harrier, Marsh .

, 1

117

Godwit, Bar-tailed

V

184

Harrier, Montagu's

127

Godwit, Black-tailed

V

180

Hawfinch

iii

98

Goldcrest

iv

143

Heron

V

72

Golden-eye .

vii

87

Heron, Buff-backed

V

92

Goldfinch

iii

103

Heron, Great White

V

86

Goosander

vii

104

Heron, Night

. V

97

Goose, Bean

vi

122

Heron, Purple

V

81

Goose, Bernicle

vi

131

Heron, Squacco

. V

94

Goose, Brent

vi

135

Hobby .

i

76

Goose, Canada

vi

146

Hobby, Orange-legged i

81

Goose, Egyptian .

vi

140

Hooper .

vi

150

Goose, Grey-lag

vi

112

Hoopoe

. ii

24

Goose, Pink-footed

vi

125

Ibis . . .

. V

129

Goose, Red-breasted

vi

138

Jackdaw .

ii

46

Goose, Spur-winged
Goose, White-fronted

vi

144

Jay

. ii

56

vi

128

Kestrel

i

92

Goshawk .

i

103

Kingfisher

ii

13

Grebe, Dusky

vii

116

Kingfisher, Belted

ii

18

Grebe, Eared .

vii

120

Kite . . .

i

52

Grebe, Great Crested

vii

109

Kite, Swallow-tailed

i

59

Grebe, Eed-necked

vii

113

Kit ti wake

viii

107

Greenfinch

iii

93

Knot

vi

34

Green shank .

V

169

Lark, Crested .

iii

18

Grosbeak, Pine

iii

130

Lark, Shore

iii

1

Grouse, Black

iv

190

Lark, Short-toed

iii

5

Grouse, Red

iv

196

Lark, Sky

iii

11

Guillemot

vii

144 i

Lark, Wood

iii

7

Guillemot, Black

vii

154 ;

Linnet .

iii

111

Guillemot, Brunnich'j

3 vii

149 i

Magpie .

ii

49

Guillemot, Ringed

vii

151

Martin

ii

152

Gull, Black-headed

viii

68 ,

Martin, Purple .

. ii

148

Gull, Buonaparte's

viii

63

Martin, Sand .

ii

157

Gull, Common

viii

85

Merganser, Hooded

vii

97

Gull, Glaucous

viii

103

Merganser, Red-breasted

Gull, Great Black-backed

vii

100

viii

95

Merlin

i

85

Gull, Herring

viii

98

Moor-hen

vi

86 ?

Gull, Iceland

viii

89

Nightingale

iv

82

Gull, Ivory

viii

82

Nightingale, Thrush

iv

89

Gull, Laughing .

viii

80

Nightjar . .

ii

115

Gull, Lesser Black-backed

Noddy .

viii

53 j

viii

92

Nutcracker

ii

52

INDEX.

155

Nuthatch

VOL.

. ii

PAGE

62

Oriole, Golden

iv

1

Ortolan

. iii

48

0 spray

i

23

Ouzel, Eing

iii

210

Owl, Eagle

i

138

Owl, Hawk

. i

174

Owl, Little

i

163

Owl, Long- eared

. i

134

Owl, Mottled .

i

170

Owl, Scops-eared

. i

143

Owl, Short-eared ,

i

130

Owl, Snowy

. i

146

Owl, Tawny .

i

151

Owl, Tengmalm's

. i

167

Owl, White .

i

155

Oyster-catcher .

. V

61

Partridge .

. iv

210

Partridge Barbary

iv

223

Partridge, Eed-legged iv

220

Partridge, Yirginian

iv

225

Pastor, Eose-coloured iii

145

Peep .

. vi

47

Peewit

v

44

Peregrine

. i

67

Petrel, Bnlwer's

viii

137

Petrel, Capped .

viii

132

Petrel, Dusky

viii

130

Petrel, Leach's .

viii

140

Petrel, Stormy

viii

143

Petrel, Wilson's .

viii

138

Phalarope, Grey

vi

103

Phalarope, Eed-necked vi

108

Pheasant

iv

178

Pigeon, Passenger

iv

175

Pigeon, Wood .

. iv

153

Pintail .

vii

5

Pipit, Meadow .

. ii

182

Pipit, Eed-throated

ii

186

Pipit, Eichard's

. ii

180

Pipit, Eock .

ii

193

Pipit, Tree

ii

189

Plover, Golden

V

21

Plover, Great

V

17

Plover, Grey .

V

40

Pochard

. vii

59

Pratincole

V

12

Ptarmigan .

. iv

203

Puffin ,

VOL.

vii

PAOB

164

Quail .

. iv

229

Quail, Andalusian .

iv

234

Eail, Land .

vi

65

Eail, Water

. vi

82

Eaveu

ii

31

Eazor-bill ,

vii

169

Eedbreast

iv

14

' Eedpole

iii

116

Eedpole, Mealy

iii

120

Eedshank .

. V

147

Eedshank, Spotted .

V

144

Eedstart

iv

39

Eedwing .

iii

178

Eegulus, Dalmatian

iv

142

Eoller

ii

9

Eook .

. ii

42

Eotche

vii

157

EufF .

V

188

Sanderling .

. V

57

Sandpiper, Bartram's

vi

38

Sandpiper, Broad-billed vi

42

Sandpiper, Buff-breasted

vi

40

Sandpiper, Common

V

162

Sandpiper, Curlew

vi

3«J

Sandpiper, Green .

V

153

Sandpiper, Pectoral

vi

r4

Sandpiper, Purple .

vi

61

Sandpiper, Schinz's

vi

52

Sandpiper, Spotted
Sandpiper, Wood .

\-

167

v

157

Scaup .

Wi

(19

Scoter, Common

vii

51

Scoter, Surf

vii

:4

Scoter, Velvet

vii

47

Shearwater, Cinereous viii

124

Shearwater, Manx .

viii

127

Shieldrake .

vi

169

Shieldrake, Euddy .

vi

167

Shoveler

vi

173

Shrike, Great .

17-

Shrike, Ecd-backed

Lv2

Siskin

iii

107

Smew .

vii

93

Snipe, Browu

vi

27

Snij)e, Common

vi

14

Snipe, Great

vi

K'

156

INDEX.

VOL.

PAGE

Snipe, Jack

. vi

21

Snipe, Sabine's .

vi

25

Skua

. viii

111

Skua, Buffon's

viii

122

Skua, Pomerine

. viii

114

Skua, Richardson's

viii

118

Sparrow

. iii

74

Sparrow, Tree

iii

69

Sparrow-Hawk .

i

109

Spoonbill

V

125

Starling .

. iii

149

Starling, Red-winged iii

155

Stilt ...

V

177

Stint, Little .

vi

44

Stint, Temminck's

. vi

49

Stonechat

iv

51

Stork, Black

. V

122

Stork, White

V

114

Swallow

. ii

132

Swallow, Spine-tailed ii

130

Swan, Bewick's

vi

157

Swan, Mute

. vi

160

Swan, Polish .

vi

165

Swift .

. ii

121

Swift, Alpine .

ii

127

Teal ....

vii

24

Tern, Arctic

viii

34

Tern, Black .

viii

47

Tern, Caspian

viii

20

Tern, Common

viii

30

Tern, Gull-billed

viii

41

Tern, Lesser

viii

44

Tern, Roseate .

. viii

27

Tern, Sandwich .

viii

23

Tern. Sooty

viii

37

Tern, Swift .

viii

43

Tern, Whiskered

viii

39

Tern, White-winged

Black

viii

51

Thrush .

iii

182

Thrush, Gold-vented

iii

192

Thrush, Missel .

iii

165

Thrush, Rock

iii

194

Thrush, White's

iii

190

Tit, Bearded

i

219

Tit, Blue .

i

202

Tit, Cole

i

194

Tit. Crested

. i

198

VOL. PAGE

Tit, Great . . i 190

Tit, Long-tailed . i 214

Tit, Marsh . . i 210

Turnstone . • v 50

Twite ... iii 123

Vulture, Egyptian i 3

Vulture, Griffon . . i 1

Wagtail, Grey . . ii 170

Wagtail, Grey-headed ' ii 174

Wagtail, Pied . . ii 160

Wagtail, White . ii 166

Wagtail, Yellow . ii 177

Warbler, Dartford iv 130

Warbler, Garden . iv 101

Warbler, Grasshopper iv 68

Warbler, Great Sedge iv 91
Warbler, Melodious Willow

IV

Warbler, Orphean iv

Warbler, Reed . . iv
Warbler, Rufous Sedge iv

Warbler, Sari's . iv

Warbler, Sedge . iv

Warbler, Willow . iv
Warbler, Wood . iv

Wax wing . . ii
Wheatear . iv

Whimbrel . , v

Whin chat . . . iv
Whitethroat . . iv
Whitethroat, Lesser iv
Wigeon . . vii

Wigeon, American vii
Woodchat . . i

Woodcock . . vi

Woodpecker, Black ii
Woodpecker, Great Spotted

ii 80
Woodpecker, Green ii 76
Woodpecker, Hairy ii 87
Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted

ii 84
Woodpecker, Three-toed ii 90
Wren . . . iv 133
Wryneck . . ii 65

Yellow-hammer . iii 37

Yellowshanks . . v 151

123

99
78
92
72
74
118
114
59
61
139
56
105
110
29
33
187
1
72

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