British birds

Upper parts, neck, and head dark brown mottled with brown of a darker shade; tail marked with twelve transverse bands; beak lead-coloured; cere, irides, and feet yellow. Length: male, twenty inches; female, twenty-two inches.

It is impossible for anyone who loves wild bird life to write about the buzzard without a feeling of profound melancholy. For this hawk, too, like the harriers, although once common, and still called in books the common buzzard, is a vanishing species. Howard Saunders writes: ‘Fifty years ago it used to breed in Norfolk and in other counties abounding in partridges and ground game, without being considered incompatible with their existence; but with the increase of pheasant-worship the doom of the buzzard was sealed, for, the larger the “hawk,” the worse it must necessarily be!’

My one consolation in this sad portion of my work, which tells of the noble and useful species whose ‘doom is sealed,’ is, that I am not writing for grown men, but for the young, who are not yet the slaves of a contemptible convention, nor have come under a system which has been only too mildly described as ‘stupid’ by every British ornithologist during the last five or six decades.

This once common bird is now almost unknown in England, and must be sought for in the wildest forest districts of Wales and Scotland. It is of a somewhat sedentary disposition, and in seeking its food displays little of the dashing and courageous spirit of the falcons. Small mammals, especially moles, reptiles, birds of various kinds, and insects, are its prey, which in all cases it drops upon and seizes on the ground. It is strongly attached to one favourite spot, and will return day after day to the same perch, where it will sit for hours at a stretch. All the buzzards show best when flying, and the appearance of the present species was thus described by Sir William Jardine: ‘The flight is slow and majestic; the birds rise in easy and graceful gyrations, often to an immense height, uttering occasionally their shrill and melancholy whistle. At this time, to a spectator underneath, and in particular lights, they appear of immense size; the motions of the tail when directing the circles may be plainly perceived, as well as the beautiful markings on it and the wings, sometimes rendered very plain and distinct by the body being thrown upwards, and the light falling on the clear and silvery tints of the base of the feathers. The buzzard is a fine accompaniment to the landscape, whether sylvan or wild and rocky.’

It nests both on crags and in forest trees, and sometimes makes use of the old nest of some other bird. The nest is of sticks, and is sometimes very large, lined with wool or some other soft material, and often with green leaves. Two to four eggs are laid, but three is the usual number. They vary from white, suffused with reddish brown, to bluish green, spotted, streaked, and clouded with reddish brown, with purple-grey under-markings.

Golden Eagle.
Aquila chrysaëtus.

Head, back of the neck, and legs lustrous reddish brown; the rest of the body dark brown; primaries nearly black; secondaries brownish black; tail dark grey, barred and tipped with brownish black; beak bluish at the base, black at the extremity; iris brown; cere and feet yellow; claws bluish black. Length of male, three feet.

This noblest of the British birds of prey used at one time to breed in some localities in England and Wales, but it has gradually retreated farther and farther north, and is now restricted (as a breeder) to the Highlands and the western islands of Scotland. Fortunately, it now receives protection from the owners of large deer-forests in its northern habitat, and there is reason to hope that it will long continue to exist as a British species.

This species is very dark in hue, and is known in Scotland as the ‘black eagle.’ The colour is a very deep brown, the feathers of the head and nape tinged with reddish gold—hence its name of golden eagle. It preys on hares, rabbits, grouse, ptarmigan, and other birds, and occasionally destroys lambs and fawns, and will even attack full-grown ewes and deer.

The nest is a bulky structure of sticks, placed, as a rule, on a crag, sometimes in a tree, and the same nest is used year after year. Two or three eggs are laid, white or pale bluish green in ground-colour, blotched, spotted, and clouded with reddish brown and purple-grey under-markings.

Owing to his great size, dark colour, and power of wing, this eagle makes a very noble figure when flying. But he is noble in appearance at other times as well, and in this he differs from many of the larger species that are equally strong on the wing, or even much stronger—condors, vultures, albatrosses, and others. These, when they fold their pinions, lose all their majesty. But the golden eagle has just as grand a presence when perched as when soaring. The pleasure produced in us by the sight of this creature appears to differ in character from that which we find in contemplating such species as excel in elegance and grace, or in rich colouring—the mute swan glassed in the water it floats upon, and the peacock with splendid starry train. He is built on different lines, that indicate power and rapine; but his appearance in repose is not less attractive than theirs, and, in a sense, not less beautiful. Tennyson, in a few well-known lines, has described it better, perhaps, than any other writer—the majestic bird and the nature it inhabits, and is in harmony with—its sublimity and desolation:—

White-tailed Eagle.
Haliaëtus albicilla.

Upper parts brown, head and neck lightest; under parts chocolate-brown; tail white; bill, cere, and feet yellowish white; claws black. In the young the tail is brown. Length of the male, two feet four inches; of the female, two feet ten inches.

Immature specimens of the white-tailed, or sea-eagle, or erne, are from time to time obtained in England during the autumn and winter months. They are, probably, in nearly all cases migrants from northern Europe on their way south. The British race—the sea-eagles that bred formerly in many localities on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and in the northern islands—is now all but extinct. The bird no longer breeds anywhere on the mainland, and but one or two pairs are known to inhabit the islands.

The sea-eagle has a more varied dietary than the species last described, and he hunts for food both on sea and land. In his habits he is by turns osprey, falcon, and raven. Like the osprey, he drops from a considerable height on to a fish seen near the surface, and, striking his talons into it, bears it away to land. But he preys more on puffins, guillemots, and other sea-fowl, than on fish. Like the golden eagle, he destroys mountain hares, grouse, and ptarmigan, and is regarded by the shepherd as the worst enemy to the flock. But the shepherd has his revenge, for the erne is a great lover of carrion, and may be easily poisoned.

The breeding habits of this species are similar to those of the golden eagle. The eggs, two in number, are white, without markings.

Its yelping cry is very powerful, and shriller than the scream of the golden eagle.

Sparrow-Hawk.
Accipiter nisus.

Upper parts dark bluish grey, with a white spot on the nape; under parts reddish white, transversely barred with deep brown; tail grey, barred with brownish black; beak blue, lightest at the base; cere, irides, and feet yellow. Female: upper parts brown, passing into blackish grey; under parts greyish white, barred with dark grey. Length of male, twelve inches; of female, fifteen inches.

The sparrow-hawk is found in wooded districts in all parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and is, perhaps, the most generally diffused species of the diurnal birds of prey in this country, and, compared with most other species, may be said to be almost common. In reality it is becoming rare; which is not strange considering that, next to the carrion crow, it is the most persecuted of all the feathered creatures whose existence is an offence to the gamekeeper. In Yarrell’s ‘British Birds’ it is said that the female sparrow-hawk is, indeed, the only bird of prey which the game-preserver nowadays need fear; and there is no doubt that it is immeasurably more destructive to the chicks of pheasant and partridge than any other raptor. It preys by preference on birds, as the kestrel does on mice, and in pursuit is capable of rapid flight and quick doublings; but its chases are short and near the surface of the earth. In habits it is a prowler, a stealthy flier among woods, by coppices and hedges, and takes its victims by surprise. It also dashes suddenly on them from its perch, where it has stood concealed by the foliage, keeping a sharp watch on the feathered creatures in its vicinity.

The sparrow-hawk is said to make a nest for itself, but it is more probable that in nearly all cases it takes possession of an old nest of some other bird. The eggs are four or five in number, and sometimes six, pale bluish white in ground-colour, blotched and spotted with various shades of reddish brown.

Kite.
Milvus ictinus.

Upper parts reddish brown; the feathers with pale edges, those of the head and neck long, and tapering to a point, greyish white, streaked lengthways with brown; under parts rust-colour with longitudinal brown streaks; tail reddish orange, barred indistinctly with brown; beak horn-colour; cere, irides, and feet yellow; claws black. Female: upper parts a deeper brown, the feathers pale at the extremity; head and neck white. Length, twenty-five inches.

The kite, or glead, is another melancholy example of the effect of the pitiless persecution of some of our finest birds by game-preservers, and, as the species became rare, by collectors of ‘British-killed’ specimens and ‘British-taken’ eggs. Once a common species in the British Islands, it is now reduced to a miserable remnant, composed of a few breeding pairs in Wales and Scotland.

Among the various types of diurnal birds of prey, the kite is one of the finest; the great extent of his sharp-pointed wings and his long, forked tail, fit him for an aërial life. In appearance he is a swallow-shaped eagle; and few birds equal him in grace and majesty of motion when he soars at a vast height. Like the eagles, buzzards, and other strong-fliers among the raptors, he soars for exercise and recreation; but, vulture-like, when soaring he is ever on the watch for a meal. And, like the vulture, he will feed on garbage; for though of so noble an appearance, and possessed of such great power, he has, compared with the falcons, a poor spirit, and his name is a term of reproach that signifies cowardice and rapacity. A carrion-eater, he also preys on small mammals, reptiles, and birds, in most cases the young, the sickly, or wounded.

The nest of the kite is placed in a tree, and is a bulky structure of sticks, mixed with much rubbish—bones, turf, scraps of paper, and old rags—and is lined with wool and moss. Two to four eggs are laid, three being the usual number. In size, colour, and markings they closely resemble those of the buzzard.

Peregrine Falcon.
Falco peregrinus.

Upper parts dark bluish grey, with darker bands; head bluish black, as are also the moustaches descending from the gape; under parts white; breast transversely barred with brown; beak blue, darker at the point; cere yellow; iris dark brown; feet yellow; claws black. Female: upper plumage tinged with brown, the under parts with reddish yellow. Length, fifteen inches; female, seventeen inches.

This famed bird is of a handsome appearance, not swallow-like as is the kite, nor so massive as the eagle; but nature in fashioning it has observed the golden mean, and the result is a being so well-balanced in all its parts and so admirably adapted for speed, strength, and endurance, that to many minds it has seemed the most perfect among winged creatures. When standing perched on a crag, erect and motionless, as its custom is, its smooth and compact figure looks as if carved out of a stone or marble of a beautiful soft grey tint. The wings are sharp-pointed, and the flight is exceedingly rapid. In South America, where I first observed its habits, it used always to seem to me that the peregrine, alone among hawks, possessed a courage commensurate with its strength; and, in hunting, an infallible judgment. However swift of wing its quarry might be, it was almost invariably overtaken and struck to the earth; and the bird thus vanquished was in many cases the equal, and sometimes even the superior, in weight to the falcon. All other hawks make frequent mistakes, and often fail in their efforts: they chase birds they cannot overtake, and attack others that are too strong for them; and occasionally their courage fails, and they pass by the healthy and strong to attack the wounded or weak that are incapable of making an effort.

In the British Islands the peregrine is an inhabitant of the iron-bound coasts, where it is still able to find comparatively safe breeding-sites. It makes no nest, the eggs being deposited in a slight hollow scratched in the soil on a ledge of a cliff. When it breeds in a tree it makes use of the deserted nest of some other bird. Two to four eggs are laid, yellowish white in ground-colour, mottled and spotted with reddish brown and orange-brown.

The peregrine preys almost exclusively on birds—ducks, waders, pigeons, grouse, partridges—and it has been seen to kill kestrels, jays, and magpies.

It has a sharp, powerful cry, uttered two or three times in rapid succession on the wing.

Hobby.
Falco subbuteo.

Upper parts bluish black; under parts reddish yellow with longitudinal brown streaks; moustaches broad, black; lower tail-coverts and legs reddish; beak bluish, dark at the tip; cere greenish yellow; iris dark brown; feet yellow; claws black. Female: colours less bright, and the streaks below broader. Length, twelve to fourteen inches.

The hobby in appearance is a lesser peregrine, being about one-fifth smaller than that bird. It differs from the peregrine in having a softer plumage and a comparatively greater length of wing. It is probably the fastest flier among rapacious birds, being capable of the marvellous feat of capturing swallows and martins in the air. It is a summer visitant to this country, and is most often met with in the southern counties of England, where, however, it is a rare species; and the farther north we go the rarer it becomes. In Scotland it is not known to breed, and it does not range to Ireland. It inhabits woods, and breeds in an old nest of the carrion crow, jay, or some other bird, which it does not re-line. Three eggs are usually laid, and in some rare instances four or five. In size and colour they are not distinguishable from those of the kestrel.

The hobby is a spirited bird, but in courage and power greatly inferior to the peregrine. He preys principally on dragon-flies, beetles, and other large insects, and on small birds, such as skylarks and buntings. In falconry, the hobby was trained to fly at such small game as larks, snipe, and quail.

Merlin.
Falco æsalon.

Upper parts greyish blue; under parts reddish yellow with longitudinal dark brown spots; tail barred with black; beak bluish, darker at the tip; cere yellow; iris dark brown; feet yellow; claws black. Female: upper parts tinged with brown; lower parts yellowish white. Length, eleven to twelve inches.

The merlin is a third less than the peregrine in size, and has the distinction of being the smallest of the British birds of prey, But in courage it is second to none, and Yarrell relates an instance in which this small bird, weighing itself no more than six ounces, struck down and killed a partridge twice as heavy. It is a resident throughout the year of the British Islands, from the north of Yorkshire to the Shetlands, and the mountainous parts of Ireland.

The merlin is an inhabitant of the moors and mountains, and nests on the ground among the tall heather. The eggs are laid in a slight hollow with little or no lining, and are four or five in number, smaller than those of the kestrel, but similar in colour. It sometimes, but very rarely, breeds in the nest of a carrion crow or other bird, in a tree.

It preys chiefly on small birds, and it was formerly trained to pursue snipe, pigeons, larks, blackbirds, &c.

Kestrel, or Windhover.
Tinnunculus alaudarius.

Upper plumage, neck, and breast dark lead-grey; sides, under tail-coverts, and thighs light yellowish red, with longitudinal, narrow, dark streaks; beak blue; cere and feet yellow; irides brown; claws black. Female: upper plumage and tail light red, with transverse spots and bars of dark brown; lower parts paler than in the male. Length, fifteen inches.

The kestrel is the best known of the British hawks, not only because it is the most common species, but also because its peculiar preying habits bring it more into notice. It is resident and found throughout the United Kingdom, but undoubtedly possesses a partial migration, as it wholly disappears from some northern districts in the winter, and at the same season becomes more abundant in the southern counties.

When in quest of prey the kestrel has the habit of stopping suddenly in its rapid flight, and remaining for some time motionless in mid-air, suspended on its rapidly-beating wings, usually at a height of twenty or thirty yards above the surface. This habit, which has won for the species the appropriate name of windhover, is unique among British hawks. It is this peculiar aërial feat which makes the kestrel, when seen on the wing, so familiar a figure to country-people. The instant that the bird pauses in his swift-rushing flight you know that it is a kestrel, although it may be at such a distance as to appear a mere spot, a small moving shadow, against the sky. It has shorter wings than other falcons, and, by consequence, a more rapid and violent flight.

The kestrel preys chiefly on mice and field-voles; occasionally it takes a small bird, and carries off young, tender chicks, if they come in its way; but it certainly does not deserve its scientific name of alaudarius (a feeder on larks), which would have fitted the hobby better. It also preys on frogs and coleopterous insects. Selby relates that a kestrel was observed late one evening pursuing the cockchafers, dashing at them and seizing one in each claw, eating them in the air, and then returning to the charge. When on the wing the kestrel’s downward-gazing eyes are constantly on the look-out for the mice that lurk on the surface, and as mice are usually well concealed by the grass and herbage, the eyes must indeed be wonderfully sharp to detect them. After remaining suspended for some seconds, sometimes for half a minute, or longer, during which the bird watches the ground below, he dashes down upon his prey, or flies on without descending, as if satisfied that what had been taken for a mouse had turned out to be something different.

When thus hovering motionless the wings are seen to beat rapidly for a few seconds, then to become fixed and rigid for a moment or two, after which the beating motion is renewed. A short time ago I watched a kestrel thus hovering in the face of a very violent wind, and it struck me that this suspension of the wings’ motion in such circumstances was very extraordinary and hard to explain. One can understand that, even in the face of a violent gale, the bird is able to maintain its motionless position by sheer muscular power; but how happened it that in the short intervals, when the outspread wings became fixed and motionless, the bird was not instantly blown from its position?

In its breeding habits the kestrel, like the starling and jackdaw, has a partiality for towers and lofty ruins, and it also nests in holes in rocks and hollow trees. In woods it frequently takes possession of a disused nest of a crow or magpie. The eggs are four or five, blotched with dull red on a reddish white ground; and in many eggs the ground-colour is quite covered with red.

The kestrel, among British birds of prey, is a favourite with the ornithologist in virtue of its interesting habits; and it deserves to be equally esteemed by the farmer on account of its usefulness. It is, indeed, the only bird of diurnal habits that wages incessant warfare against the prolific and injurious mice, and thus carries on by day the task of keeping down a pest which those ‘feathered cats,’ the owls, so efficiently pursue at night.

The kestrel is easier to tame, and, when tame, more docile and affectionate, than most hawks, and many accounts have appeared in print of the bird and its ways in the domestic condition; but, to my mind, not one so interesting as the history of a pet kestrel kept a few years since by some friends of mine. The bird was young when it came into their hands, and was lovingly cared for, and made free of a large house and park, and of the whole wide country beyond. And it made good use of its liberty. As a rule, every morning it would fly away and disappear from sight until the evening, when, some time before sunset, it would return, dash in at the open door, and perch on some elevated situation—a cornice, or bust, or on the top of a large picture-frame. Invariably at dinner-time it flew to the dining-room, and would then settle on the shoulder of its master or mistress, to be fed with small scraps of meat. This pleasant state of things lasted for about three years, during which time the bird always roosted in, or somewhere near, the house, flew abroad by day, to return faithfully every evening to his loving human friends to be caressed, and fed, and made much of; and it might have continued several years longer, down to the present time, if the bird’s temper had not suffered a mysterious change. All at once, for no reason that anyone could guess, he became subject to the most extraordinary outbreaks of ill-temper, and in such a state he would, on his return from his daily wanderings abroad, violently attack some person in the room. Up till this time he had preferred his master and mistress to any other member of the household, and had shown an equal attachment to both; now he would single out one or other of these his best friends for his most violent attacks; and, very curiously, on the day when he attacked his master he would display the usual affection towards his mistress, but on the next day would reverse the process. And his hostility was not to be despised: rising up into the air to a good height, he would dash down with great force on to the obnoxious person’s head, often inflicting a lacerating blow with his claws. More than once, the lady told me, after one of these cutting, ungrateful blows on her forehead her face was bathed in blood.

It is pleasant to be able to relate that no feeling of resentment or alarm was excited by this behaviour on the part of the bird; that he was never deprived of his sweet liberty or treated with less gentleness than before. It was hoped and believed that he would outgrow the savage fit, and if he had confined his virulent attacks to his master and mistress it would have been well with him. Unfortunately for him, he attacked others who were made of poorer clay. One evening at dinner, the butler, while occupied with his duties, was struck savagely on the wrist by the kestrel. Like a well-trained servant, he did not wince or cry out, but marched stolidly round the table, pouring out wine, anxious only to conceal the blood that trickled from his wounds. But on the following day the bird was missing, and was never afterwards seen or heard of.

Osprey.
Pandion haliaëtus.

Feathers of the head and neck white with dark centres; on each side of the neck a streak of blackish brown, extending downwards; upper plumage generally deep brown; under parts white, tinged here and there with yellow, and on the breast marked with arrow-shaped spots; tail-feathers barred with dusky; cere and beak dark grey; iris yellow. Length, two feet.

The osprey, like the sea-eagle, hen harrier, and kite, is one of the species that linger with us on the verge of extinction; and it may linger for many years, as in the case of the avocet, the black-tailed godwit, and the ruff, after these species had been reduced to a few breeding pairs; and, on the other hand, it may be gone to-morrow. That it will remain permanently as a member of the British avifauna is scarcely to be hoped.

The osprey, like the peregrine falcon and the short-eared owl, has an immense range, and inhabits Europe, Africa, the greater part of Asia, Japan, Formosa, the Australian region, New Guinea, and America. With us it appears in autumn as a migrant in small numbers; but the birds of the British race are now reduced to one or two pairs that breed annually in the Highlands of Scotland, and are strictly protected in their summer haunts.

The osprey feeds exclusively on fish, which it drops upon like a tern or gannet; but, falcon-like, it strikes with its feet, and, with its slippery prey gripped firmly in its sharp, crooked talons, it flies back to land.

The nest is usually placed in a tree, and is very large, formed of sticks, and lined with moss. Two or three eggs are laid, white or buff in ground-colour, blotched with rich chestnut-red, and purple-grey underlying marks.

Besides the twelve species of the order Accipitres described, all of which breed in the British Islands, there are fourteen others, which, although described as British in the standard ornithological works, are only occasional or accidental visitors or stragglers to our shores. There are two vultures to be mentioned: the griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), an inhabitant of Southern Europe, Africa, and Asia, once obtained in Ireland; and the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), an inhabitant of Southern Europe and Africa, twice obtained. The next species is the marsh-harrier (Circus æruginosus), once abundant throughout Great Britain and Ireland, now, unhappily, extinct as a British species. This harrier, which was also called the moor-buzzard, is a graceful, handsome bird: the head creamy white; upper parts brown; beneath, buff, streaked with brown and chestnut; part of the wing and the tail silvery grey. In its buoyant flight and preying and nesting habits it resembles the hen harrier, but frequents fens and marshes instead of moors and uplands.

The rough-legged buzzard (Archibuteo lagopus) is an irregular visitor, chiefly in autumn and winter, from the northern parts of Europe. It differs from the common buzzard in having its legs feathered to the toes—hence the specific name, lagopus—rough-footed like a hare. This species is of more frequent occurrence in the British Islands than any other occasional visitor among the diurnal raptors, and in some years it appears in considerable numbers.

The spotted eagle (Aquila clanga), known to us as a rare occasional visitor, breeds in the forests of central and south-eastern Europe. More interesting to us is the goshawk (Astur palumbarius), since this fine bird of prey, although now a very rare straggler to Great Britain, is believed to have been formerly an indigenous species, and to have bred in Scotland down to the beginning of the present century. In form, colouring, and manner of preying it resembles the sparrow-hawk, but is nearly double the size of that bird, and flies at very much larger game.

The American goshawk has been included in the list of British birds on ‘somewhat slight evidence,’ as the author of the ‘Manual of British Birds’ says. The black kite (Milvus nigrans) is an African species, a summer visitant to Europe south of the Baltic, and has once been obtained in Great Britain. The swallow-tailed kite (Elanoïdes furcatus), an American species, which I once had the pleasure of seeing (not in a glass case, but sitting on a tree, and soaring in the air), has also been found as a straggler in this country. The honey-buzzard (Pernis apivorus) is a third species of hawk in this list which has disappeared from this country. Like the hobby and the osprey, it is (or was) a summer visitant, and has been known to breed in most English and Scottish counties from Hampshire to Aberdeenshire. Up to within four or five years ago a few pairs continued to return to us each summer, but these, too, have now vanished. This fine large hawk, in size the equal of the common buzzard, lived almost entirely on insect food, wasps and wild bees especially—hence its name of honey-buzzard.

The remaining species to be noticed are all true falcons: the gyrfalcon (Hierofalco gyrfalco), an inhabitant of arctic Scandinavia, only once obtained in this country; the Greenland falcon (Hierofalco candicans), a wanderer to this country from north-west America and Greenland; the Iceland falcon (Hierofalco islandicus), a wanderer from Iceland; the red-footed falcon (Tinnunculus vespertinus), an occasional visitor from the warm countries of Europe; and the lesser kestrel (Tinnunculus cenchris), a visitor from southern Europe, where it breeds.

Cormorant.
Phalacrocorax carbo.

Upper head and neck black, striated with hair-like white feathers, those on the occiput being elongated, and forming a crest in spring; throat white; gular pouch yellow; mantle black and bronze-brown; all the other parts black, except a white patch on the thigh, assumed early in spring and lost in summer; iris emerald-green. Female: larger than the male, brighter in colour, and with longer crest. Length, three feet.

To those who know it slightly the cormorant is a big, sombre, ugly bird, heavy and awkward in his motions out of the water, and, when breeding, disgusting in his habits. He improves on a closer acquaintance. He may be easily tamed, and makes an intelligent, and sometimes very amusing, pet, and is capable of being trained to catch fish for his keeper. He is most frequently met with on the sea and seashore, but is an inhabitant of inland waters as well, and sometimes breeds beside them, making his nest on the ground or in a tree. He feeds exclusively on fishes and eels, which he captures by diving and pursuing them under water, sometimes for considerable distances. The bird is proverbial for its voracity. Its ‘swallow’ is probably the largest of any bird of its size—a fish fourteen inches long has been taken from its gullet. When swimming he presents a curious appearance: his body, as if too heavy for the element it floats in, sinks like a waterlogged boat, until the flat back is on a level with the surface. When alarmed, he sinks his body deeper and deeper at will, until the head and long neck alone appear, looking like the head and neck of a serpent swimming with body submerged. When resting on a rock after feeding, cormorants stand very erect and motionless, their long, hooked beaks much raised, and at such tunes they present a heavy, ungainly appearance. They are fond of opening their wings out to their greatest extent to dry their feathers, and remain for a long time in this attitude, looking like birds with spread wings carved out of black stone. The cormorant watches the water at times from a rock, and dives after its prey; but it more often swims, when fishing, with head and neck submerged. When taking wing it rises heavily and with great labour, but when once fairly launched the flight is powerful. Cormorants are gregarious and social birds at all seasons, and, like gulls and herons, they breed in communities. Very early in spring, or shortly after the winter solstice, the bird’s nuptial ornaments—a crest on the head and a white patch on the thigh—begin to appear; both crest and white mark disappear at the end of the breeding season. The same nesting-place is resorted to year after year, as in the case of most species that breed in communities. The summit of a crag not easily accessible, or a ledge of rock on a cliff fronting the sea, or a rocky island, are favourite sites. Here the birds, sometimes in hundreds, live together in the greatest harmony, building their nests close together, in some cases almost touching. The nest is pyramidal in form, built up from the rock to a height of from six or seven inches to a couple of feet, and is composed of sticks, coarse grass, and seaweed. Three to five eggs are laid, very small for the bird’s size, narrow and long in shape, of a pale greenish blue colour, overlaid with a thick coat of a chalky substance. This substance is quite soft when the egg is first laid; it is then white, but soon hardens, and becomes stained, in the always wet and filthy nest, to a dirty yellowish colour. The young birds are hatched blind, and have a naked, bluish black skin, but they soon grow a thick, sooty black down. They are at all stages strange and repulsive-looking creatures, and when handled or approached by a person they become sick with fear or anger, and roll and sprawl about on their nests, screaming harshly, and vomiting their half-digested food.

The young are fed with fish that has already been partially digested in the maw of the parent. It is not disgorged; the young bird thrusts his head and neck deep down into his parent’s gullet, and feeds as a horse does from his nose-bag.

The young are said not to assume the adult or breeding plumage until the third year.

Shag, or Green Cormorant.
Phalacrocorax graculus.

Bill black; base of the under mandible yellow, the black skin about the gape thickly studded with small yellow spots; iris emerald-green; crown, neck, upper and under parts dark green with purple and bronze reflections; wing and tail-feathers, legs and feet, black; a crest, curling forwards, grows on the forehead in early spring, and is lost by the end of May. Length, twenty-seven inches.

The shag may be easily mistaken for the cormorant, which it closely resembles, but when near at hand is seen to differ in its smaller size and its prevailing green colour, which appears black at a distance; and, in the breeding season, by the absence of the white patch on the flank. In its habits it is more strictly marine than the cormorant, but resembles that bird in its manner of swimming and flight. It prefers bays and inlets to the open sea, and deep water near rocks to the shallow sea, where there is a low beach. In diving after fish it springs upwards almost out of the water, and goes down head first. Beneath the water it propels itself wholly by its feet; the auks, and some other diving birds, use their wings as fins to assist progression. After capturing a fish the shag brings it to the surface to swallow it, then swims on for a space, and dives again, and so on, and finally returns to the rock, where it proceeds to disgorge its prey, to devour it at leisure. The shag breeds on sea-cliffs, sometimes building on the ledges or in crevices, but caves, where they exist, are preferred. The eggs are three in number, in shape and colour like those of the cormorant, and the nests, which are placed close together, are also like those of that bird.

The shag is found in certain localities all round the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, but is less numerous and more local than the cormorant.

Gannet.
Sula bassana.

Adult: head and neck buff-colour; all the rest of the plumage white, except the primaries, which are black. Young of the first year: upper parts blackish brown necked with white; under parts mottled with dusky ash and buff. The dark markings diminish until the sixth year, when the adult colouring is assumed. Length, thirty-four inches.

One of the most notable seafowls inhabiting the British coasts is the gannet, or solan goose, a species which forms a connecting-link between the cormorants and the pelicans. The origin of its two common names is not precisely known, although it seems probable that gannet is derived from gans, the ancient British name for goose. The young birds from the Bass Rock, which are largely used as food in the neighbouring counties, are called, I do not know why, ‘Parliamentary geese.’ The world will have it that the bird is a goose, although as little like a goose, except in size, as a guillemot is like a sheldrake. The scientific name, bassana (of the Bass Rock), had its origin in the belief that the rock at the entrance to the Firth of Forth was the gannet’s only breeding-place. There are several other colonies: one, now greatly diminished, on Lundy Island; another, also small, on the coast of Pembrokeshire; on the West Coast of Scotland there are four stations, and others exist on the Irish coast. None of these, however, can compare in importance with the Bass Rock, where it has been calculated that as many as ten thousand pairs congregate each year to breed.

The gannet is an exclusively marine bird, and an inhabitant throughout the year of the seas round the British Islands. Its flight is easy and powerful, and its appearance on the wing more pelican- than cormorant-like. It feeds entirely on fish, and follows the shoals of such species as swim near the surface—mackerel, herrings, pilchards, and sprats. When fishing it sails at a considerable height, and on catching sight of its prey rises to a greater height, and then, with wings nearly closed, drops straight down, with great force, into the water. Its appearance when falling has been likened by one observer to ‘a brilliant piece of white marble.’

The gannets begin to assemble at the breeding-rock in March. Their nesting habits are similar to those of the cormorant, but only one egg is laid, which is, like the cormorant’s egg, pale blue in colour and thickly coated with a white, chalky material. Mr. Charles Dixon, in ‘Our Rarer Birds,’ thus describes a visit to the great gannet settlement on the east coast: ‘By far the best locality for studying the nesting economy of the gannet is the Bass, that wide-famed mass of basaltic rocks standing like a sentinel in the Firth of Forth.... Upon reaching the Bass a few gannets may be seen sailing dreamily about, but you have no idea of the immense numbers until you have climbed the rugged hill.... But when the summit of the cliff is reached the scene that bursts upon our gaze is one that well-nigh baffles all description. Thousands upon thousands of gannets fill the air, just like heavy snowflakes, and on every side their loud, harsh cries of “carra-carra-carra” echo and re-echo among the rocks. The gannets take very little notice of our approach, many birds allowing themselves to be actually pushed from their nests. Others utter harsh notes, and with flapping wings offer some show of resistance, only taking wing when absolutely compelled to do so, and disgorging one or two half-digested fish as they fall lightly over the cliffs into the air. On all sides facing the sea gannets may be seen. Some are standing on the short grass on the edge of the cliffs, fast asleep, with their heads buried under their dorsal plumage; others are preening their feathers; whilst many are quarrelling and fighting over standing-room on the rocks.’

Describing another great breeding-place of the gannet on the island of Borreay, about four miles from St. Kilda, he says: ‘The flat, sloping top of one of these stupendous ocean rocks, called by the natives “Stack-a-lie,” looks white as the driven snow, so thickly do the gannets cluster there, and the sides are just as densely populated wherever the cliff is rugged and broken. So vast is this colony of birds that it may be seen distinctly forty miles away, looking like some huge vessel under full sail heading to windward.’

Heron
Ardea cinerea.

Crest bluish black; upper parts slate-grey; forehead, cheeks, and neck white, the latter streaked with bluish grey and terminating in long white feathers; under parts greyish white; bill yellow. Length, thirty-six inches.

The heron is sometimes spoken of as our largest wild bird. It is not meant that he is really larger than the golden eagle, or wild swan, or grey lag goose, but only that he is the biggest of the comparatively common birds. The heron has two very different aspects—when in repose, or standing, and when on the wing. On the ground, or, as we more often see him, standing knee-deep in the water, watching the surface, he presents a sorry appearance—a bird lean and ungraceful in figure, white and ghostly grey in colour, awkward in his motions when he moves. No sooner does he open his wings than this mean aspect vanishes, and he is transfigured. At first the flight appears heavy on account of the slow, measured beats of the broad, rounded vans; but as he rises higher, and soars away to a distance, it strikes the beholder as wonderfully free and powerful. The appearance of the bird is then majestic, and its flight more beautiful than that of any other large wading bird with which I am acquainted—ibis, wood-ibis, stork, flamingo, or spoonbill. When pursued by a falcon the heron is capable of rising vertically to a vast height, while the hawk rushes after in a zigzag course, striving to rise above his quarry so as to strike. This aërial contest of hawk and heron forms a very fascinating spectacle, and formerly, when falcons were trained for this sport, the heron was as much esteemed as the pheasant—which has been called the ‘sacred bird’—is at the present day. With the decline of falconry the heron ceased to be protected by law, and diminished greatly in numbers; but he is an historical bird, and there is a feeling, or sentiment, that has served to prevent his extermination. It is still considered a fine thing to have a heronry on a large estate; and so long as this feeling endures the bird will receive sufficient protection, although the existing heronries, when we come to count them, are not many.

The heron breeds in communities, and when the heronry is well-placed and safeguarded the birds return to it year after year. As a rule the nests are built on the tops of large trees in a sheltered part of the wood. The nest is a bulky, rudely built platform structure of sticks and weeds, lined with rushes, wool, and other soft materials. Three or four eggs are laid, very pale dull green in colour. The young are fed in the nest five or six weeks before they fly. Two broods are reared in the season.

The heronry is a most interesting place to visit when the young birds are nearly old enough to fly, and are most hungry and vociferous, and stand erect on the nests or neighbouring branches, looking very strange and tall and conspicuous on the tree-tops. The nests are of various sizes, and have a very disordered appearance, some of them looking like huge bundles of sticks and weed-stalks flung anyhow into the trees. At this period the parent birds are extremely active, and if the colony be a large one, they are seen arriving singly, or in twos and threes, at intervals of a few minutes throughout the day. Each time a great blue bird with well-filled gullet is seen sweeping downwards the young birds in all the nests are thrown into a great state of excitement, and greet the food-bearer with a storm of extraordinary sounds. The cries are powerful and harsh, but vary greatly, and resemble grunts and squeals and prolonged screams, mingled with chatterings and strange quacking or barking notes. When the parent bird has settled on its own nest, and fed its young, the sounds die away; but when several birds arrive in quick succession the vocal tempest rages continuously among the trees, for every young bird appears to regard any old bird on arrival as its own parent bringing food to satisfy its raging hunger.

The cry of the adult is powerful and harsh, and not unlike the harsh alarm-cry of the peacock.

Common Bittern.
Botaurus stellaris.

Crown and nape black; general colour buff, irregularly barred above and streaked below with black; feathers of the neck long, and forming a ruff; bill greenish yellow; legs and feet green. Length, thirty inches.

The bittern, formerly a common bird, is hardly entitled to a place in this book, since it has long been extirpated as a breeding species. It is, however, a noteworthy fact that, whereas other species that have been driven out, such as the great bustard, spoonbill, avocet, black tern, and several more, appear now as only rare occasional visitors in our country, the bittern comes back to us annually, as if ever seeking to recover its lost footing in our island. And that he would recover it, and breed again in suitable places as in former times, is not to be doubted, if only the human inhabitants would allow it; but, unhappily, this bird, like the ruff, hoopoe, and kingfisher, when stuffed and in a glass case, is looked upon as an attractive ornament by persons of a low order of intelligence and vulgar tastes.