British birds

The bittern is a bird of singular appearance. On the wing he resembles the heron, but it is a rare thing to see him abroad in the daytime. He is strictly nocturnal in habits, and passes the daylight hours concealed in thick reed-beds in extensive marshes. His buff and yellow and chestnut colour, mottled and barred and pencilled with black and brown, gives him a strange tigrine or cat-like appearance; it is a colouring well suited to his surroundings, where yellow and brown dead vegetation is mixed with the green, and the stems and loose leaves of the reeds throw numberless spots and bars of shade beneath. Secure in its imitative colouring, the bittern remains motionless in its place until almost trodden upon. Its active life begins in the evening, when it leaves its hiding-place to prey on fishes, eels, frogs, voles, small birds, and insects, and every living thing it finds and is able to conquer with a blow of its sharp, powerful bill.

When flying he utters a harsh, powerful scream, and he has, besides, a strange vocal performance, called ‘booming’—a sound that resembles the bellowing of a bull. Formerly, when the bittern was a common bird in England, this extraordinary evening performance was the subject of some superstitious notions, and it was commonly believed that, to produce so great a volume of sound, the bird, when screaming, thrust its beak and head into the water. Thus, in Thomson’s ‘Seasons’ we read:—

In March or April the nest is made on the ground, among the thick reeds, and is formed of weeds, sticks, and rushes. The eggs are four in number, of an olive-brown colour, sometimes with a greenish shade.

Besides the two species described there are no fewer than eight herons in our list of British birds, most of these being very rare stragglers to our shores:—

Purple heron (Ardea purpurea) is a straggler from the continent of Europe; it breeds in Holland.

Great white heron (Ardea alba).—Eight examples of this species, a straggler from South-eastern Europe, have been obtained in this country.

Little egret (Ardea gazetta).—A waif from Southern Europe; it also inhabits Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Buff-backed heron (Ardea bubulcus).—Inhabits Southern Europe; three examples have been obtained.

Squacco heron (Ardea ralloïdes).—From Southern Europe; occasionally seen on migration in England.

Little bittern (Ardetta minuta).—This bittern almost deserves to rank as a British species, as it is of somewhat frequent occurrence, and has been known to breed in the Broads of Norfolk, and in other localities in Great Britain. It is a summer visitor to most countries in Europe.

Night heron (Nycticorax griseus).—This heron has a range almost as extensive as that of the barn-owl, and breeds in many localities throughout the continent of Europe. The question as to whether or not it has ever bred in England has not been settled; but it is now an almost annual spring and autumn visitor to our country, and it is hardly to be doubted that it would breed with us if unmolested, or, in other words, allowed to live.

American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus).—A few examples of this North American bittern have been obtained in this country.

Two other families in the present order (Herodiones) are represented by occasional visitors in the list of British birds—two storks (Ciconiidæ), and a spoonbill, and an ibis (Platalaidæ):—

White stork (Ciconia alba).—Common in Holland, and an occasional visitor to the east coast of England.

Black stork (Ciconia nigra).—A rare straggler from continental Europe.

Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia).—Now an occasional straggler to Great Britain; formerly a regular breeder in heronries in several localities in England.

Glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus).—A very rare straggler from Southern Europe.

Grey Lag Goose.
Anser cinereus.

Head, neck, and upper parts greyish brown; lower breast and abdomen dull white with a few black spots; bluish grey rump and wing-coverts; bill flesh-coloured, with a white nail at the tip; legs and feet flesh-coloured. Length, thirty-five inches.

Eight species of geese are counted among British birds; two of these—the snow-goose (Chen albatus) and the red-breasted goose (Bernicla ruficollis)—may be dismissed at once as rare stragglers to the British Islands. The other six are all winter visitors to our coasts, and are divisible into two natural groups—the grey geese (counting four species), all large birds, brownish grey in colour, and feeders on land; and the black, or dark-coloured geese (two species), very dark in colour, very much smaller in size, and feeders on the tidal flats.

The grey lag is the largest species in the first group, and the only goose that breeds within the limits of the United Kingdom. It was formerly a common summer resident, and bred in the eastern counties of England; it is now confined as a breeding species to a few localities in Scotland and the Hebrides, and in all these last refuges it is said to be rapidly diminishing. That it will diminish still further, until the vanishing-point is reached, hardly admits of a doubt. As a winter migrant from northern Europe it will long continue to visit our coasts, and as a domestic bird we shall have it always with us; for the grey lag is supposed to be the species from which our familiar bird has descended.

The grey lag goose pairs for life, and is gregarious, but is said not to associate with geese of other species. It feeds on grass and young shoots, and in the autumn on grain, and spends nearly the whole day in feeding, and resorts at dark to some open level space to roost, where it is almost impossible to approach within gunshot of the flock, owing to its watchfulness. The grey lag makes a large nest of reeds and grass, lined with moss, and lays six eggs, sometimes a larger number. During incubation the gander keeps guard over his mate, and afterwards assists her in rearing the young. These are led back to the nest every evening by the goose, and sleep under her wing. The male begins to moult a month earlier than the female, and when the time comes he leaves her in sole charge of the young, and withdraws to some hiding-place, or spends the daylight hours on the water, coming to the land in the evening to feed. The goose begins her moult after the young are able to take care of themselves.

The grey lag goose does not range so far north as the allied species; it is only in Norway, where the summer is longest, owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream, that it is found nesting north of the arctic circle.

Bean-Goose.
Anser segetum.

The bean-goose differs from the preceding species in its more slender shape and longer bill, which is orange-colour in the middle, black at the base and on the nail; and in its darker colour and the absence of black marks on the breast, and the bluish grey colour on the shoulder of the wing; legs and feet orange-yellow. Length, thirty-four inches.

This species is more arctic in its range than the grey lag, and has not been known to breed in this country, except in a domestic state. It visits Scotland, Ireland, and the north and east coasts of England, in winter. It is less in size than the grey lag, but its habits are similar: by day it feeds on the wolds and stubbles, and its love of grain has won for it the common name of bean-goose, as well as its scientific name, segetum. Its flight is somewhat laboured, with measured wing-beats, but powerful and rapid, and the birds travel in skeins, or in a phalanx formation. It breeds in extensive marshes and lakes, making its nest on the ground among the rushes on small islands. The nest is a slight hollow lined with dead grass and moss, and down from the parent bird: three or four eggs are laid, creamy white in colour, with a rough granular surface. Before the young are able to fly the moulting season begins, when the birds lose the power of flight, as is the case with all the geese; and according to Seebohm’s interesting account, even in the remote and desolate districts in Siberia, to which this bird resorts to breed, the moulting season is one of great danger to it. He says: ‘The Samoyades in the valley of the Petchora gave us glowing accounts of the grand battues which they used to have at these times, surrounding the geese, killing them with sticks, and collecting sacks full of down and feathers.’

Pink-footed Goose.
Anser brachyrhynchus.

Colour of plumage as in the bean-goose, but with the bluish grey on the shoulder of the wing as in the grey lag goose; upper mandible pink in the centre; base, edges, and nail black; legs and feet pink. Length, twenty-eight inches.

This goose very closely resembles the bean-goose in habits, colour, and general appearance; the only difference of any importance between the two species consists in the smaller beak of the pink-foot, from which it takes its name of brachyrhynchus (short-billed), and in its legs being pink instead of yellow. It was first described as a distinct species about fifty years ago, but is still regarded by some authorities as only an ‘island form’ of the bean-goose. The pink colour of the bill and feet is found not to be constant, and Seebohm says, ‘It looks very much as if the pink-footed geese had been long enough in the arctic climate of Spitzbergen to change the colour of their feet, but not long enough to make the new colour permanent, and that when bred in the warmer climate of this country they had a tendency to hark back to their ancestors.’

White-fronted Goose.
Anser albifrons.

White on the forehead and at the base of the lower mandible; upper parts brownish ash; breast and belly brownish white broadly barred with black; bill orange-yellow, with a white nail at the tip; legs and feet orange. Length, twenty-seven inches.

The white-fronted goose is the fourth and last on our list of grey geese—four forms of one species, as some hold—and, like the others, it comes to us from the north in winter, but is more common in Ireland than in Great Britain. It is like the bean-goose in size, but differs from it in its white front, and from the grey lag goose in having the under parts more speckled with black feathers. Its voice is most like that of the grey lag, but is more trumpet-like in sound, and the rapidly repeated notes give its cry a laughter-like character; laughing goose is one of its common names. It breeds farther north than the bean-goose, and its nest is described as a hollow in the ground lined with dead grass. It lays five to seven creamy white eggs.

Brent Goose.
Bernicla brenta.

Bill, head, throat, and neck black, except a small white patch on each side of the latter; mantle brownish black with rufous-brown edges; wing-feathers, rump, and tail black; coverts white; upper breast black; lower breast and belly slate-grey; legs black. Length, twenty-three inches.

The brent goose arrives in our islands in the autumn, and remains through the winter in suitable localities in various parts of the coast, from the Orkneys and Shetlands in the north to the Channel Islands; it is, however, most abundant on the north-east coast of England. In most years old and young birds arrive together in flocks; in other years only adults appear, and it is supposed that in such seasons exceptionally cold weather has prevented the eggs from hatching. The brent differs from its nearest ally, the barnacle goose, in its slightly smaller size, darker plumage, which is nearly black, and its more marine habits. With us it spends most of the time out at sea, visiting the tidal flats early and late in the day, and at night, to feed on the wrack grass (Zostera marina). Mr. Abel Chapman has graphically described this goose in his ‘Bird Life on the Border.’ It is, he says, the last of our winter visitors to arrive, seldom coming in force until the new year. Their affections are so hyperborean that they will come no farther south than they are actually compelled by food requirements, being driven reluctantly southwards, point by point, before the advancing line of the winter’s ice. He writes: ‘On alighting at the feeding-grounds the geese at once commence greedily to pull up and devour the blades of the sea-grass, the whole flock advancing in the closest order over the green oozy mud, all heads down except the sentries, of which an ample number are always discernible.... After finishing their morning meal, about noon, the geese are disposed to rest, and spend the middle of the day floating about on the water, preening themselves, and, in mild weather, splashing about, and chasing each other in sheer exuberance of spirit.... Towards evening the geese recommence feeding, and so intensely eager are they about sunset to utilise the few remaining minutes that they then, perhaps, offer the most favourable chance to get within shot.... Just at dark the whole host rise on wing together, and make for the open sea. In the morning they come in by companies and battalions, but at night they go out in a solid army; and a fine sight it is to witness their departure. The whole host, perhaps ten thousand strong, here massed in dense phalanxes, elsewhere in columns, tailing off into long skeins, V’s, or rectilinear formations of every conceivable shape, but always with a certain formation—out they go; ... while their loud clanging honk honk, and its running accompaniment of lower croaks and shrill bi-tones, resound for miles around.’

Barnacle Goose.
Bernicla leucopsis.

Head, neck, and throat black; forehead, cheeks, and chin white; a black stripe between the eye and bill; mantle lavender-grey barred with bluish black and white; wing and tail feathers blackish; breast and belly greyish; vent and tail-coverts pure white; flanks barred with grey; bill, legs, and feet black. Length, twenty-five inches.

The present species is not nearly so abundant as the brent, and not so exclusively marine in its habits. It sometimes visits inland districts, and although it feeds on the mud-flats like the brent, it leaves them as soon as the tide rises, and repairs to some grassy bank of a river or lake, where it feeds. The breeding habits of this species are not known; it is believed to have its nesting-grounds in Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla.

Mute Swan.
Cygnus olor.

Bill reddish orange; the nail, nostrils, lores, and basal tubercle black; plumage pure white; legs and feet black. Length, sixty inches; weight, about thirty pounds.

The mute, or tame swan, is as well known to most people as the turkey, goose, and pheasant, and, like the pheasant, is supposed to be a foreign species, said to have been first brought from Cyprus to this country, by Richard I., about the end of the twelfth century. As a semi-domestic species it exists throughout the British Islands, but whether wild birds of its species visit us or not is not known, since wild and semi-wild birds are indistinguishable. The wild mute swan breeds in Denmark and South Sweden, in South Russia and the valley of the Danube, and many other localities, and in winter visits the Mediterranean. The breeding habits of the wild and tame bird are the same, but, according to Naumann, the wild bird in the pairing season has a loud, trumpet-like note, resembling the cry of a crane or whooper swan.

The cygnet is sooty grey in colour, but in the so-called ‘Polish swan’ (Cygnus immutabilis) of Yarrell, which is now regarded by most ornithologists as a variety of the mute swan the cygnets are white.

Whooper Swan.
Cygnus musicus.

Beak: anterior part depressed and black, basal part quadrangular and lemon-colour; plumage white; legs and feet black. Length, sixty inches; weight, about twenty-four pounds.

The whooper, also called the wild swan and the whistling swan, is a not uncommon visitor to our coasts in winter, and a little over a century ago had a breeding-station in the Orkneys. It is very closely related to the mute swan, but it ranges very much farther north in summer, its breeding-grounds being north of the arctic circle. The nest is bulky, composed of sedge and coarse herbage, and the eggs are four or five in number, and white. Seebohm, who observed its habits in its breeding-grounds, says: ‘The whooper is a ten times handsomer bird than a tame swan in the eyes of an ornithologist, but is not really so graceful—its neck is shorter, and its scapulars are not so plume-like. Instead of sailing about with its long neck curved in the shape of the letter S, bent back almost to the fluffed-up scapulars, the whooper seemed intent on feeding with his head and neck under water.’ He compares the notes of the whooper to a bass trombone; but the notes are short—three or four trumpet-blasts, keeping time with the upward and downward beat of the wings. He adds: ‘The extermination of the whooper in so many of its breeding-places has arisen from the unfortunate habit, which it evidently acquired years ago, before men came upon the scene—a habit which it shares with the goose. Most birds moult their quills slowly, in pairs, so that they are only slightly inconvenienced by the operation, and never without quills enough to enable them to fly. Swans and geese, on the other hand, drop nearly all their flight-feathers at once, and for a week or two, before the new feathers have grown, are quite unable to fly. In some localities the whoopers have had the misfortune to breed where the natives have been clever enough to surround them at the critical period of their lives, and stupid enough to avail themselves of the opportunity thus afforded of killing the geese that laid the golden eggs.’

Bewick’s swan (Cygnus Bewickii), named by Yarrell after Thomas Bewick, author of a well-known ‘History of British Birds,’ is of frequent occurrence in the British Islands in severe winters, but is not a regular visitant. It is a third smaller than the whooper, which it resembles in figure and habits.

Common Sheldrake.
Tadorna cornuta.

Beak and basal knob bright red; head and upper neck dark glossy green, followed by a white collar, below which is a chestnut band; wing-coverts white; speculum green; scapulars, part of the secondaries, and the primaries black; rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers white, the latter tipped with black; lower, central line of the breast and belly dark brown, the rest of the under parts white; legs and feet pink. Length, twenty-six inches. The female is without the knob at the base of the bill, and her colours are not so bright.

The sheldrakes, or sheld-ducks, are curious and interesting birds, and form a connecting-link between the geese and ducks; but they are more like the former than the latter, and sheld-gander, or sheldgoose, would perhaps be a more suitable name. The common sheldrake is, perhaps, the most duck-like in appearance of all the birds of this genus, and the common name, sheld, which means parti-coloured, really applies to this species only. As in the geese, the male and female sheld-ducks are nearly alike in plumage, and the male does not change colour; and, like the gander, he assists his mate in rearing the young. In the true ducks the drake changes his plumage in summer, becoming like the female in colour, and in most cases (for there are exceptions) he remains apart from the duck from the time that incubation begins until the young are fully grown. Of the seven known species of sheldrake, only one is indigenous to the British Islands. A second species, the ruddy sheldrake (Tadorna casarca), is a rare visitor, or straggler, to our coasts, and it is probable that most of the sheldrakes of this species that are shot from time to time in England are escaped birds.

The common sheldrake is a bird that, once seen, cannot be easily forgotten, its strange guinea-pig arrangement of three colours—black, white, and red—making it one of the most strikingly conspicuous fowls in this country. On account of its handsome and singular colouring it is much persecuted, and as a breeding species is becoming increasingly rare with us. It inhabits sandy sea-coasts, and is only seen as a rare straggler on inland waters. It feeds close to the shore where the sea is shallow, and is partial to coasts where wide stretches of sand, mixed with rocks, are uncovered at low water. It feeds, both in the water and on the flats, on marine insects and molluscs, and breeds in the sandhills along the coast. The nesting-hole is in most cases a deserted rabbit-burrow, but it also burrows for itself, and is known as the ‘burrow-duck’ on many parts of the coast. The hole is six to twelve feet in length, ending in a chamber lined with dry grass and moss. Seven to twelve creamy white eggs are laid, sometimes a larger number. The eggs are enveloped in a quantity of down, which the bird plucks from her own body. It is said that the male takes no part in incubation, but remains near the burrow on guard, and gives timely warning of danger, and when the young are hatched and taken to the sea, assists in rearing and protecting them.

The sheldrake has a harsh cry, but in the breeding season the drake utters a soft, tremulous, whistling note.

Wigeon.
Mareca penelope.

Bill dull blue; forehead and crown cream-white; chin, neck, and throat chestnut; the cheeks and hind neck minutely spotted with deep green; breast white; under parts grey, the flanks pencilled with dark grey; mantle vermiculated grey; shoulder white, with a terminal bar of black, followed by a green speculum tipped with black below; wing- and tail-feathers dark brown; legs and feet dark brown. Length, eighteen inches. Female: above, mottled greyish brown; shoulder whitish; speculum greyish green; under parts mottled buffish white. The drake assumes female plumage in July.

Next to the mallard, the wigeon is the most familiar freshwater duck in the British Islands. Its abundance, handsome plumage, peculiar voice, and interesting habits, to say nothing of its excellence as an article of food, contribute to make it well known. It is a visitor in winter in very large numbers to our coasts, and seeks its food both on the tidal flats and on inland waters throughout the country, but is always most abundant in the vicinity of the sea. In April and May it migrates to higher latitudes: in Scotland it is partly a resident species, and breeds in many localities; and, in less numbers, it also remains to breed in Ireland. The wigeon differs a good deal from other ducks in its feeding habits: it feeds both by day and night, in the water and on land. On land it is, like the goose, a grass-eater, and in Lapland is known from this habit as the ‘grass-duck.’ In disposition it is one of the shyest and wariest; and at the same time the most gregarious, among the waterfowl, and often unites in immense flocks. It is also very loquacious: its loud, prolonged whistle in two syllables, strongly accented on the first, is described by Seebohm as being ‘very wild and weird, as it startles the ear on the margin of a mountain tarn or moorland lake—a solitary cry, very high in key, not unmusical in tone, but loud and piercing.’ It is called ‘whew duck’ in some localities, from its whistling cry.

The nest is placed amidst coarse grass or heather, and is deeply lined with down. The eggs are seven to ten in number, and cream-coloured.

A few specimens of the American wigeon (Mareca americana) have been obtained in various parts of Great Britain.

Pintail.
Dafila acuta.

Head and neck bronze-brown, black on the nape; a white stripe down the neck on each side, extending to the white breast and under parts; back and flanks mottled grey; greater wing-coverts buff; speculum green margined with black and white; tail black, the two middle feathers greatly prolonged; under tail-coverts black; bill, legs, and feet slaty grey. Length, twenty-eight inches. Female: mottled brown above and greyish white below; speculum green. In July the male assumes the female dress, and retains it until October.

The pintail, although not so handsomely coloured as the shoveler, mallard, wigeon, and teal, is the most elegant of the freshwater ducks, being slim and graceful in form, with the two slender middle feathers of the tail greatly elongated. Sea-pheasant is one of its local names, but the same name is sometimes given to the long-tailed duck (Harelda glacialis) on the north-east coast. The pintail is a winter visitor only to the British Islands, appearing in October, and is most common on the south coast. It is found in small flocks, and prefers shallow waters with muddy bottoms, and feeds on aquatic weeds, insects, and crustaceans. It is always most abundant near the shore, but is also met with on inland waters. It has a rapid flight, and is a comparatively silent bird by day; its cry by night is a low quack, and in spring, during courtship, the drake utters soft and inward notes, which he accompanies with some curious gestures and antics. The pintail breeds freely in a semi-domestic state, and lays seven to ten eggs, pale buffish green in colour.

Mallard, or Wild Duck.
Anas boscas.

Bill yellowish; head and neck glossy green, followed by a white ring; hind neck and breast deep chestnut; across the secondaries a greenish purple speculum, bordered above and below with white: rump, upper tail-coverts, and the four middle curled tail-feathers black; the rest of the tail-feathers grey; flanks and belly greyish white; under tail-coverts velvet-black; legs and feet orange-red. Length, two feet. Female: smaller; bill greenish; crown dark brown; general plumage mottled brown and buff; speculum green.

The mallard is the most common and best-known freshwater duck in Britain, and is a resident species, breeding in suitable localities throughout the country; but the birds that breed and remain all the year are few in number compared to the migrants that come to us in winter from more northern regions. In the domestic state the mallard is, next to the fowl, the most abundant and familiar bird we possess. The tame duck differs from the mallard only in its heavier body and shorter wings, and in being polygamous instead of monogamous in its habits. The tendency to vary in colour is a result of domestication in all species. It was from observing the annual change in the plumage of the domestic drake that the discovery was made that ducks differ from other birds in the manner of their moult. The period of the moult does not coincide in the drake and duck; and this discrepancy in the sexes has caused ducks to differ in their breeding habits from all other birds. Thus, in most birds, male and female share the labours of incubation, and of rearing and protecting the young; and the moult, which is always a period of danger, during which the bird is obliged to go into hiding, takes place some time after the young are able to shift for themselves—in other words, the family tie is broken after it has ceased to be necessary; and the female of the mallard, and of other ducks, moult in this way. Not so the male. He is smitten by the change after the eggs are all laid and incubation begun; with the result that the marriage tie is dissolved just at the period when his help is most needed. This is one of the strangest things in bird history; for up to the time when the physical change begins the drake is not less loving and solicitous than any other male bird, and if by chance the moulting period is delayed, he continues to guard the nest and share the labours of incubation; so that we may say, without straining a metaphor, that the drake is forcibly torn away from his marital duties, just as the late-breeding swift or swallow is sometimes forced by an overpowering migratory instinct to abandon its helpless young in the nest. The action of the swift in leaving its helpless young to perish of starvation in the nest is painful to contemplate, since we are accustomed to look on the parental affection as the most powerful of all; and in this case there is a conflict between this emotion and another—the desire for another climate; and the last conquers, and the young are forsaken. In the drake it is not a case of a conflict between two emotions or two instincts, but of a physical change, which kills or makes nugatory the instinct and emotion; for it is certain that the moulting period in all species that, like the duck, change their whole plumage in a short time, is not only a period of danger, but of suffering. When the change comes the bird acts like the ‘stricken deer,’ and like animals afflicted with some fatal disease: he goes apart, and remains in hiding until his new plumage has grown, and with renewed health his social instincts are restored. It is only in the case of the male duck that this change from health and strength to sickness and impotence falls in the midst of the breeding season.

Another extraordinary fact about the moulting of the drake is that, in moulting, he puts on the dress of the female. The moult is complete, but only after the whole of the small feathers have been changed are the wing- and tail-feathers shed, and as these are all shed at once, the bird is for some time incapable of flight. But while in this incapable condition he is no longer a drake in appearance—a bird of rich and conspicuous colouring—but has a dull mottled brown like the duck. This annual ‘eclipse,’ as Waterton called it, lasts for three or four months; and then there is a second, autumnal moult, of the body-feathers only, in which the rich colours of the male sex are recovered.

The duck, in the meantime, moults only once in the year.

A slight difference has been noted between the resident mallard that breeds in the British Islands and the mallard from the north that visits us in winter, the native bird being heavier.

Gadwell.
Chaulelasmus streperus.

Beak lead-colour; head and upper neck light brown with darker mottlings; back marked with crescents of light grey on a dark ground; median wing-coverts chestnut; greater coverts blackish; primaries brown; secondaries brown and black, the outer webs forming a white speculum; rump and upper tail-coverts bluish black; tail-feathers dark brown with pale edges; lower neck dark grey, each feather with a pale grey margin; breast and belly white; flanks and vent grey; under tail-coverts bluish black; legs and feet orange. Length, twenty-one inches. Female: head and upper neck light brown mottled with dark; lower hind neck and upper parts brown; speculum and under parts white.

The gadwell most nearly resembles the mallard, but is not so richly coloured, and is smaller in size. It is a widely distributed species, ranging over a greater portion of the northern hemisphere. In the British Islands it is a winter visitor in small numbers, very few pairs remaining to breed, except in one locality in Norfolk, where it has been strictly protected for the last forty years, with the result that it breeds regularly, and is abundant. Elsewhere it is the rarest of the British freshwater ducks. The wings are long and sharply pointed, and the flight exceedingly rapid. When flying it frequently utters its cry, which resembles that of the mallard, but is shriller in tone. Like the mallard, it is a night feeder; during the daylight hours it usually remains concealed in the closest cover. Its nest, lined with dry grass and a quantity of down, is placed on the ground at some distance from the waterside. Eight to twelve buffish white eggs are laid.

Garganey.
Querquedula circia.

Bill black; forehead, crown, nape, and back dark brown; from the eye a white stripe extending to the back of the neck; cheeks and neck light brown with short hair-like lines of white; scapulars black, with central white stripe; wing-coverts bluish grey; speculum green between two bars of white; primaries and tail dull brown; chin black; breast pale brown with dark crescentic bands; belly white; flanks with transverse black lines; under tail-coverts black and white; legs and feet greyish brown. Length, sixteen inches. Female: mottled brown; stripe over the eye yellowish white; speculum dull metallic green between two white bars.

The garganey, or summer teal, or cricket teal, as it is sometimes called, on account of the low, jarring note of the male in the pairing season, differs considerably from its nearest relation, the common teal, both in its larger size and its colouring, which a little resembles that of the shoveler. It is an early spring visitor to the British Islands, rare in England, and still rarer in Scotland and Ireland. It remains to breed in suitable localities in this country, and is perhaps most common in the district of the Broads in Norfolk. It flies swiftly, and utters on the wing a sharp, quacking cry, sometimes repeated twice. Its feeding habits are similar to those of the teal, but it is not esteemed a good bird for the table. The nest is made among the coarse grass and herbage in swampy ground; eight or nine creamy white eggs are laid sometimes a larger number.

Teal.
Querquedula crecca.

Bill blackish; crown, cheeks, neck, and throat chestnut; round and behind the eye an elongated patch of glossy green margined with buff; upper parts and flanks delicately marked with black and white; speculum black, green, and purple, tipped with yellowish white; rump and tail-coverts black; tail-feathers brown; front of neck spotted with black on a buff ground; breast and belly white; legs and feet brownish grey. Length, fourteen inches and a half. Female: mottled brown; little or no purple on the speculum. The female dress is assumed by the drake in July, and is kept until October.

The handsome and natty little teal is the smallest of our ducks, its weight being only one third that of the mallard. In appearance it is a small wigeon, but whereas the wigeon is the wildest of our wild ducks in disposition, the teal is the tamest. It is chiefly a winter visitor to this country, and from September until spring is found throughout the British Islands. A considerable number of pairs remain to breed in suitable localities throughout England, and more numerously in Scotland and Ireland. The nest is placed on the ground on the borders of a marsh or bog, and sometimes at a distance from water, among heather or herbage; it is made of dry grass and leaves, and, later on, down from the bird is added. The eggs are creamy-white or pale buff in colour, with a tinge of green, and eight or ten in number, sometimes as many as fifteen. The teal feeds chiefly by night, on aquatic plants, insects, slugs, and small crustaceans. Its call-note is a short, sharp quack, and in the pairing-time the drake emits a low, jarring note. The drake does not moult so early as most ducks, and remains longer with the female during the breeding season, leaving her only when the young are partly grown.

Two American species of teal—the blue-winged teal (Querquedula discors) and the green-winged teal (Q. carolinensis)—have been obtained in Great Britain, one specimen of each.

Shoveler.
Spatula clypeata.

Bill lead-colour, very broad at the tip; head and upper neck green; lower neck and scapulars white; middle of the back dark brown; shoulders pale blue; greater wing-coverts white; secondaries dark brown with a green speculum; primaries, rump, upper and under tail-coverts, and tail-feathers, blackish; breast and belly rich chestnut; flanks freckled with dark brown on a paler ground; vent white; legs and feet reddish orange. Length, twenty inches. Female: brown with dark and light mottlings. In summer, the male in moulting assumes the colours of the female.

The shoveler is the handsomest of the British freshwater ducks, and the most singular in appearance, on account of the great breadth of its spoon-like bill. Its plumage also, although beautiful, strikes one as somewhat singular; for it is rare to find pale and delicate hues, like those on the wings and upper parts of this duck, together with a deep, rich colouring, as on the head, upper neck, and under parts. The pale blue and pure white contrast beautifully with the deep green and chestnut-brown. Another most interesting point in the shoveler’s history is its distribution. There is but one shoveler duck in the northern hemisphere, over which it has an immense range, including Europe, North Africa, Asia, and North America from Alaska to Panama. But in the southern hemisphere there are four other species, occupying respectively the four following widely separated regions—South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

The shoveler is a winter visitor to the British Islands; it also breeds sparingly in some localities in the Midlands, in East Anglia, and the northern counties; also in the Hebrides, and in one or two spots in Ireland. It is a very early breeder, placing its nest, lined with dry grass and down, on the ground, usually near the water, and it lays eight to fourteen eggs, pale greenish buff in colour.

In the breeding season it utters a low quack, but at other times is a silent bird.

Tufted Duck.
Fuligula cristata.

Black, the head and neck with purplish gloss; speculum, flanks, and belly white; bill pale blue; irides brilliant yellow; legs and feet dark blue. Length, seventeen inches. Female: dark brown; under parts brownish grey. Male changes colour in May.

Of sea or diving ducks (including the mergansers) no fewer than twenty species, referable to nine genera, have been described as ‘British.’ Of this number nine species are irregular visitants or stragglers, and may be dismissed with a mention of their names: Red-crested pochard (Fuligula rufina), white-eyed duck (Nyroca ferruginea), Barrow’s goldeneye (Clangula islandica), buffel-headed duck (C. albeola), harlequin duck (Cosmonetta histrionica), Steller’s duck (Heniconetta Stelleri); king eider (Somateria spectabilis); surf-scoter (Œdemia perspicillata), and hooded merganser (Mergus cucullatus).

Of the eleven species, referable to six genera, that breed in, or regularly visit, these islands, and may properly be described as British birds, three are mergansers, the least duck-like of the ducks in their curiously modified beaks and grebe-like habits. Of the other eight species, four only are, strictly speaking, sea-ducks, being (on our coasts) exclusively marine in their habits. These are the eider, the long-tailed duck, the common scoter, and the velvet scoter. The tufted duck, pochard, and goldeneye, are marine and freshwater ducks. The scaup is more of a sea-duck than these three, and may be said to be intermediate in its habits between the two groups.

These eight diving ducks are all interesting, and some of them very handsome birds in their richly coloured and conspicuous plumage. They have stout, heavy-looking figures, and are clumsy walkers on land; but in the water they are as much at home as grebes and guillemots, and are also strong on the wing. But they are not so familiar to us as the mallard, wigeon, and teal, as comparatively few persons have the opportunity of observing them. Mr. Abel Chapman, in his valuable work, ‘Bird Life on the Border,’ says that these ducks are only well known to those ‘who are enthusiastic enough to follow the regular sport of wildfowling afloat, and who alone enjoy the opportunity of becoming acquainted with these wild creatures in their bleak and desolate haunts.’

The tufted duck is a winter visitor to our coasts, also a resident throughout the year, and a regular breeder in various localities in England, Scotland, and Ireland. In winter it is both a sea- and freshwater duck; in the breeding season it is exclusively an inhabitant of inland waters, with a preference for small ponds with weedy bottoms. It pairs in March, and male and female thereafter keep company until incubation begins, when the marriage tie is dissolved, as is the case with most ducks. It feeds chiefly by night, and is inactive by day, floating lazily on the water, dozing, or preening its feathers. At sunset it leaves the pool where it has passed the day, to seek its feeding-grounds. Its food consists of weeds growing at the bottom, for which it dives, and, tearing them up, brings them to the surface, to be eaten at leisure.

The nest is placed among the rushes at the waterside, or in the centre of a tuft of aquatic grass, and is composed of dry sedges and grass, to which down is added as incubation progresses. Eight or ten eggs are laid, sometimes more, greenish buff in colour.

When rising from the water it utters a grating cry. In winter it is gregarious, and is often seen associating with the scaup, pochard, and goldeneye.

Scaup.
Fuligula marila.

Head, neck, upper breast, and back glossy black; mantle finely vermiculated with greyish brown and white; speculum white, terminated with greenish black; rump, wing- and tail-feathers brown; belly white; bill pale blue; irides straw-yellow; legs and feet dull blue. Length, eighteen inches. Female: brown; a broad white band round the base of the bill; upper breast and mantle vermiculated with grey; belly dull white.

The scaup is common with us in winter, and found on most parts of the coast, but never remains to breed. It does not come inland, like the tufted duck and goldeneye, but is met with in estuaries and the mouths of tidal rivers. In its breeding-haunts in the extreme north of Europe it penetrates to lakes and rivers at a considerable distance from the sea. It feeds on shellfish, crustaceans, aquatic insects, also on vegetable food, which it obtains by diving. It is gregarious at all times, and in the breeding season is seen in small flocks, feeding or floating idly on the water. It rises heavily, and flies rapidly, with violently-beating wings. Seebohm, who observed it in its summer haunts, says of its language: ‘Of all the cries of ducks that have come under my notice, I think that of the scaup is the most discordant. None of them are very musical, perhaps; but if you imagine a man with an exceptionally harsh, hoarse voice, screaming out the word scaup at the top of his voice, some idea of the note of this duck may be formed.’

The scaup makes its nest near the water, and lays from six to nine eggs, of a pale greenish grey colour.

Pochard.
Fuligula ferina.

Head and neck chestnut-red; breast and upper back black; mantle finely freckled with black and white; speculum inconspicuous and grey; under parts greyish white; tail-coverts black: bill black with a blue band across the middle; irides red; legs and feet bluish grey. Length, nineteen and a half inches. Female: dull brown; chin white.

The pochard is a common winter duck when it comes to us from northern Europe; it is a resident throughout the year in small numbers, and breeds regularly in many localities in Great Britain and Ireland. As a breeding species it has, however, greatly diminished in numbers, owing to the extensive draining of marshes and meres in recent times. The pochard is more a freshwater than a sea-duck, and comes nearest to the tufted duck in its habits, obtaining its food by diving, and tearing up the grass and weeds from the lake-bottom. It feeds chiefly on vegetable matter, and is considered a better bird for the table than any other diving duck. In its flight it resembles the tufted duck, and also has a harsh, quick cry, like that species, when alarmed. At other times it has a low, whistling call-note. The nest is a hollow among the herbage near the water, or in a tussock of sedge, and is lined with dry grass, and with down from the sitting-bird. Seven to ten or twelve eggs are laid, in colour like those of the scaup.

Goldeneye.
Clangula glaucion.

Head and neck glossy green, the crown-feathers slightly elongated; a white patch at the base of the bill; back black; lower neck, scapulars, speculum, and under parts white; thighs dark brown; bill bluish black; irides golden-yellow; legs and toes yellow, with blackish webs. Length, nineteen inches. Female: dark brown above, without the white face-spot; below, white. The female colour is assumed by the male in summer.

The goldeneye is a regular winter visitant to the British Islands, remaining from the middle of October to the middle of April. In language and flight it resembles the scaup and tufted duck, but its flight is more violent, the rapidly-beating wings producing a loud, whistling sound. It passes most of the time on the water, and dives for its food, which consists of small fishes, frogs, shellfish, and insects; also seeds and tender shoots of water-plants. During the winter it inhabits the sea and inland waters indifferently; but in its summer haunts it seeks an inland lake, marsh, or river, where it has the peculiar habit of nesting in the trunk of a hollow tree. The eggs are deposited on the rotten wood at the bottom of the cavity, and a thick bed of down from the sitting-bird is made. As many as nineteen eggs are sometimes laid, but a dozen or thirteen is the more usual number. They are smooth and glossy, and greyish green in colour. The natives in the summer home of the goldeneye place suitable nesting-boxes, with small entrance-holes, in the trees; the ducks readily occupy the boxes, and return to them year after year, although always robbed of their eggs. When the young have hatched the parent bird takes them in her beak, and carries them one by one to the water.

Long-tailed Duck.
Harelda glacialis.

Head and neck, white with brownish grey cheeks, and below, on each side of the neck, an oval patch of dark brown; back, rump, and tail-feathers blackish; long scapulars, inner secondaries, short outside tail-feathers, belly, and flanks white; breast, wing-coverts, and primaries brownish black; bill, rose-colour in the middle, base and tip black; irides yellow or red; legs and feet pale lead-colour. Length, twenty-six inches. Female: brown; stripe above the eye and lower parts white.

The long-tailed duck has the most elegant figure of the sea and diving ducks, if we except the mergansers, and although not so richly coloured as some species, is a beautiful bird in its white and brown plumage, bright red irides, and rose-coloured bill. During its winter sojourn on our coasts it is exclusively marine in its habits. To the south and east coasts its visits are irregular; on the west coast of Scotland and in the Hebrides it is common; in Ireland it is restricted to the north coast. It is more arctic in its distribution than any other duck, and in summer is only to be met with north of the limit of forest growth. In its summer haunts it goes inland to breed, and Seebohm says: ‘Probably the explanation of its almost exclusive attachment to salt water in winter is to be found in the fact that it rarely winters in a climate where all the fresh water is not frozen up.’ A charming account is given by the same author of the habits of the long-tailed duck in its summer home in the Siberian tundra—a vast level region of swamps and lakes, gay with bright-tinted moss and lichen, and brilliantly-coloured arctic flowers. The ducks were abundant and very tame, in strange contrast to their excessively shy and wary disposition on our coasts. The smaller lakes were inhabited by single pairs, the larger sheets of water by several pairs. Each pair appeared to be very jealous of any invasion of its breeding-grounds, and severe battles were frequent between the males. The call of the drake was very peculiar, and often heard, and was a loud, clear cry of three syllables, the middle one prolonged and strongly accented. In its summer haunts it feeds on water-plants. The drake does not leave his mate after the eggs have all been laid, but assists in incubation and in protecting the young. The nest is a slight hollow in the ground with down for lining; the eggs are pale buffish green in colour.

Mr. Abel Chapman says that, like other sea-ducks, this species gets its food by diving, but is not a bottom-feeder like the eider and scaup, which cannot feed in water more than two or three fathoms deep. The long-tail feeds on small marine animals floating in the water, and is hence able to feed in deep as well as shallow seas at a distance from land.

Eider Duck.
Somateria mollisima.