Part 10

This species, moreover, is much less intolerant of heat than the common gull; and while the former is compelled to wing its way to the more northern coasts for the breeding-season, the herring-gull, like the kittiwake, nests by scores on the southern coast of England, wherever conditions suitable to its habits exist. The kittiwake, it may be mentioned, differs from other gulls by the absence of the hind-toe, and is therefore referred to a genus by itself, under the appropriate name of Rissa tridactyla. The only other species likely to be confounded in the summer plumage, when the black-headed species have donned their chocolate or black caps, is the greater white-winged gull (L. hyperboreus), which differs by the paler tone of the plumage generally and more especially by the feature to which it owes its name.

The herring-gull is a wide-ranging species, met with on both sides of the North Atlantic, extending eastwards to the White Sea, and in winter as far south as the Black and Caspian Seas and the Mediterranean. In America herring-gulls visit in summer the inhospitable coasts of Labrador and Greenland, but in winter wander south to the genial climate of the West Indies and Central America, where, in all probability, they cross the continent to join a closely allied gull inhabiting the Pacific. In Europe the southern breeding range of this handsome species seems to be formed by the northern coasts of France.

Herring-gulls, where conditions are favourable, may be found nesting on the coasts of the British Isles from the south of England to the Orkneys and the Shetlands, as well as in Ireland, where they are the most common and most widely spread members of their tribe in the breeding-season. Sometimes only a few gulls nest in company, but in other situations large colonies collect for breeding purposes; and it is noteworthy that the breeding sites are always in the neighbourhood of the shore and generally on tall cliffs.

Another noteworthy feature of the herring-gull is that the adult livery is not assumed till the fourth year, in consequence of which an unusually large number of birds in the speckled dress are always in evidence.

THE GREAT HORNED OWL

(Bubo ignavus)

The great horned, or eagle, owl, the largest European representative of the nocturnal birds-of-prey, is the typical member of a group characterised by the relatively small size of the apertures of the ears, which are not closed by covers, and likewise by the more or less imperfect development of the disc-like ring of feathers round the eye, which forms such a conspicuous feature in ordinary owls. The so-called horns are, it need scarcely be mentioned, tufts of long, somewhat hair-like feathers growing from the neighbourhood of the ears. These ear-tufts are common to the so-called long-eared owls, which are, however, all birds of smaller size, with larger ear-openings, protected by special covers, and complete discs of feathers round the eyes.

The general appearance of this magnificent bird when in an attitude of repose, the colour and markings of the plumage of the head, breast, and under-parts, and the great, staring, red-ringed eyes are admirably shown in the illustration. When, however, the bird is enraged, the body is depressed and the plumage ruffled out, while the wings are half-spread, thus increasing its size and producing a formidable appearance probably sufficient to overawe a number of would-be assailants other than man. In length this unmistakable bird measures as much as 27 inches, so that it is equal in point of size to a small eagle.

The eagle-owl ranges over the greater portion of Europe, as well as northern Africa, and much, if not the whole, of northern and central Asia; and the species breeds as far north as Lapland and as far south as Gibraltar and Greece. It is true that the eagle-owls inhabiting the country to the east of the Ural Mountains have been regarded as a distinct species, under the name of B. sibiricus, while the name of B. turcomanus has been proposed for those from the deserts of south-western Siberia, Turkestan, and Tibet; but these and others from Asia north of the Himalaya are so closely allied to the European bird that they are best regarded in the light of local races of that species.

On the other hand, the American eagle-owl (B. virginianus) is a perfectly distinct species, with a range extending over the whole of North America, although this bird has likewise been split up into a number of nominal species. Eagle-owls of various species are also known from tropical South America, the whole of Africa, Arabia, India, China, and Japan, so that with the exception of the Malay countries and Australasia, the group has a practically world-wide range.

To the British Isles the great horned owl--the grand duc of the French and the uhu of the Germans--is, nowadays at any rate, merely an occasional straggler, and then only to the northern parts of the kingdom, most, if not all of the specimens that have from time to time been taken in England being birds that have escaped from captivity. There is, however, a report that these splendid owls once inhabited the Orkneys.

Eagle-owls thrive well and breed freely in captivity; years ago a number were kept, for instance, at Arundel Castle, but these, although long regarded as European birds, were eventually proved to belong to the North American species. Captive specimens have served to demonstrate in some degree the great age to which these owls will live; a female brought from Norway in 1827 having survived for seventy-five years in an English aviary, and having produced during the last thirty years of her captivity no less than ninety offspring.

From its large size, powerful beak and claws, and fierce disposition, the eagle-owl, which is mainly nocturnal in its habits, is a terrible foe to the smaller animals, preying largely upon rats, mice, moles, birds, and frogs, while it also attacks and devours larger game, such as roe-deer fawns, hares, rabbits, hazel-hens, ducks, and geese. Its haunts are thick forests, especially those in which tints of rufous grey and black prevail; and in such situations the mottled, warm-coloured tints of its plumage harmonise both with the bark of the tree-trunks and the weathered surface of the rocks and cliffs. At even, with noiseless wings, the eagle-owl issues from its perch to sweep over the plains in search of prey; or, rising high in the air, utters its loud screech, and awakes the slumbering birds, which flutter from their roosts to meet their fate by the relentless talons and beak of the nocturnal marauder.

The huge nest is generally built in trees, on cliffs, or in old buildings, but the two or three eggs may be laid in holes on the bare ground. The eggs are brooded by the female, who is fed during incubation by her partner.

THE FLAMINGO

(Phœnicopterus roseus)

Flamingoes, of which there are several species, present us with one of the most striking instances of adaptation to a particular mode of life to be met with in the animal kingdom, more especially as the main feature in this adaptation is developed in its full perfection only when the bird is mature and takes to a special diet. In common with other waders, the adult flamingo has an enormously long neck and legs, and is thereby enabled to procure its food from depths inaccessible to most other birds, although it is frequently content to search for food in the shallows. Its distinctive structural peculiarity is, however, the sharp downward flexure of the extremity of the beak, and more especially that of the lower half. Such a beak appears at the first glance quite unsuited for groping up food from the mud of marshes and lagoons which form the favourite haunts of these stately birds; but while thus engaged, flamingoes turn their heads the wrong way up, when the beak at once becomes a most efficient ladle, admirably adapted for collecting and holding the small spiral univalve molluscs of the genus Cerithium which in many districts form their chief food.

In the young flamingo, whose diet is of a different nature, the beak is more or less normal in form.

Flamingoes, with certain relationships to the storks, appear to have most affinity with ducks, geese, and swans; and it is curious to note how like are the head and neck of a flamingo, if the beak were but straightened out, to those of a swan, the resemblance extending in some cases even to the colour of the beak,--red or orange at the base and black at the tip.

White and scarlet, or crimson--the Easter colours--are the colours of the flamingo, but the relative proportions of these vary according to the species. The European flamingo--the subject of the Plate--whose range extends from central Europe to the Canaries and the Cape Verd Islands, and thence all over Africa, and eastwards to Lake Baikal, India, and Ceylon, has, for instance, the greater part of the plumage white or pinkish white with scarlet wing-coverts and black quills, red legs, and the beak pink at the base and black at the tip. Much more gorgeous is the tropical American P. ruber, ranging as far south as Para and the Galapagos Islands, in which the general colour of the plumage is light vermilion, with brighter wing-coverts, the base of beak being yellow and the legs red. To the south of central Peru, in Uruguay, and perhaps in Brazil this species is replaced by P. chilensis, distinguished by the legs being grey with red joints, while the black of the beak extends upwards above the bend. In all the foregoing species a hind-toe is present, but this is lacking in two other South American species, namely, P. (Phœnicoparrus) andinus, the largest member of the family, of the Chilian and Bolivian Andes and Argentina, and P. (P.) jamesi, of southern Peru and Chile, in both of which the beak is yellow at the base and red in the middle, while the legs are yellow in the former and red in the latter. Lastly, there is P. (Phœniconaias) minor, of Africa, Madagascar, and India, which in general appearance much resembles the European species.

Although flamingoes spend much of their time in wading, they are also good swimmers. Like geese and ducks, they associate in vast flocks, and further evidence of their kinship to that group is afforded by their loss of the power of flight during the height of the moulting season, and likewise by their “gaggling” cries, which are curiously like those of geese.

In the breeding-season flamingoes resort to lakes, salt-lagoons, or the swamps in river-valleys, those of the Guadalquivir being one of their favourite haunts in Europe. Bare shores are an essential element in such breeding-colonies, for it is on these that the birds construct their curious sugar-loaf mud-nests, which have a cup-like depression at the summit for the reception of the one or two eggs, and vary in height from two to fifteen inches according to the depth of the water. The eggs, which are brooded by each sex in turn for a period of fully four weeks, have bluish coloured shells, covered with a rough chalky crust. When incubating, the bird sits with its legs bent beneath the body, although it was long supposed that these hung down on the sides of the nest.

Hundreds or even thousands of flamingoes may congregate in these breeding-colonies; and there are few more beautiful sights in nature than to see a flock of these splendid birds, especially the scarlet American species, rise on the wing and display their full colouring and plumage in the sunlight.

THE NILE CROCODILE

(Crocodilus niloticus)

To the ancient Egyptians the timsa, or Nile crocodile, the champsa of Herodotus, was a familiar reptile; but from the lower and middle portion of the Nile, as far up as Thebes, the species has long since been exterminated, although it is still abundant in East and South Africa. Elsewhere it occurs in Madagascar, and still survives, although sparingly, in Syria, more especially in the Zerka (= Crocodile) River near Cæsarea. In Biblical times crocodiles were, however, abundant in the Holy Land; and there is little doubt that the “leviathan” of the Book of Job refers to these noisome reptiles. Till nearly the fifteenth century it also seems that crocodiles lived in Greece and the Isles of the Grecian Archipelago; and at that date a huge crocodile’s skull was jealously preserved and exhibited at Rhodes. It is these ancient south European crocodiles which probably gave rise to the legend of St. George and the Dragon and other myths of a kindred nature.

In popular estimation there is much confusion between crocodiles and alligators; and in India the former are almost invariably called alligators, although there is not a single representative of that group in the whole country. Indeed, alligators are confined to China and America; those of South America, properly known as caimans, differing from the typical Mississippi species by having a bony armour on the under as well as on the upper surface. There are many characters distinguishing crocodiles from alligators; one of the most easily recognised being that the fourth lower tooth of a crocodile bites into a notch on the outer side of the upper jaw, so that its summit is visible when the mouth is closed, whereas in an alligator the corresponding tooth is received into a pit, so that the tip is completely concealed when the reptile shuts its enormous mouth.

True crocodiles, which, with alligators, caimans, and gavials, are the largest of living reptiles, are now represented by about eleven species, whose combined range includes Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and tropical America. India possesses two species, the broad-nosed muggar (Crocodilus palustris), and the narrow-nosed estuarine crocodile (C. porosus); the former of which ranges to Ceylon, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula and Islands, while the latter, which enters salt-water freely, and is sometimes found far out to sea, extends from India, Ceylon, and the south of China to northern Australia and the Solomon and Fiji Islands.