Part 55

FAMILY SCOLOPACIDÆ

THE AVOCET RECURVIROSTRA AVOCÉTTA

General plumage white; crown, nape, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, and primaries, black; bill black; irides reddish brown; feet bluish ash. Length eighteen inches. Eggs olive-brown, blotched and spotted with dusky.

This bird has become so rare, that having recently applied to two several collectors in Norfolk, once the headquarters of the Avocet, to know if they could procure me a specimen, I was told by one that they were not seen oftener than once in seven years--by the other, that it was very rare, and if attainable at all could not be purchased for less than five pounds. In Ray's time it was not unfrequent on the eastern maritime coasts. Small flocks still arrive in May and now and again in the autumn, but collectors never allow them to breed. They used to rest on the flat shores of Kent and Sussex. Sir Thomas Browne says of it: 'Avoseta, called shoeing horn, a tall black and white bird, with a bill semicircularly reclining or bowed upward; so that it is not easy to conceive how it can feed; a summer marsh bird, and not unfrequent in marsh land.' Pennant, writing of the same bird, says: 'These birds are frequent in the winter on the shores of this kingdom; in Gloucestershire, at the Severn's mouth; and sometimes on the lakes of Shropshire. We have seen them in considerable numbers in the breeding season near Fossdike Wash, in Lincolnshire. Like the Lapwing, when disturbed, they flew over our heads, carrying their necks and long legs quite extended, and made a shrill noise (twit) twice repeated, during the whole time. The country people for this reason call them Yelpers, and sometimes distinguish them by the name of Picarini. They feed on worms and insects, which they suck with their bills out of the sand; their search after food is frequently to be discovered on our shores by alternate semicircular marks in the sand, which show their progress. They lay three or four eggs, about the size of those of a Pigeon, white, tinged with green and marked with large black spots.' Even so recent an authority as Yarrell remembers having found in the marshes near Rye a young one of this species, which appeared to have just been hatched; he took it up in his hands, while the old birds kept flying round him.

The Avocet is met with throughout a great part of the Old World, and is said to be not unfrequent in Holland and France. A writer of the latter country says that 'by aid of its webbed feet it is enabled to traverse, without sinking, the softest and wettest mud; this it searches with its curved bill, and when it has discovered any prey, a worm for instance, it throws it adroitly into the air, and catches it with its beak'.

It is not a little singular that the Spoonbill, a bird which strongly contrasts with the Avocet in the form of its bill, ploughs the sand from one side to another, while hunting for its food.

THE GREY PHALAROPE PHALÁROPUS FULICARIUS

Winter--plumage in front and beneath white; back of the head, ear-coverts, and a streak down the nape, dusky; back pearl-grey, the feathers dusky in the centre, a white transverse bar on the wings; tail-feathers brown, edged with ash; bill brown, yellowish red at the base; irides reddish yellow; feet greenish ash. Summer--head dusky; face and nape white; feathers of the back dusky, bordered with orange-brown; front and lower plumage brick-red. Length eight inches and a half. Eggs greenish stone colour, blotched and spotted with dusky.

The Grey Phalarope, without being one of our rarest birds, is not of irregular occurrence. Its proper home is in the Arctic regions, from whence it migrates southward in winter. It is a bird of varied accomplishments, flying rapidly like the Snipes, running after the fashion of the Sandpipers, and swimming with the facility of the Ducks. In all these respects it does not belie its appearance, its structure being such that a naturalist would expect, à priori, that these were its habits. During the breeding season, the Phalarope quits the sea, its usual haunt, and repairs to the sea-shore, where it builds a neat nest, in a hollow of the ground, with grass and other weeds, and lays four eggs. The usual time of its appearance in Great Britain is autumn; sometimes it comes then in numbers; but specimens have been obtained in winter. On all these occasions it has shown itself singularly fearless of man.

THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE PHALÁROPUS HYPERBOREUS

Head deep ash-grey; throat white; neck bright rust-red; under plumage white, blotched on the flanks with ash; back black, the feathers bordered with rust-red; a white bar across the wing; two middle tail-feathers black, the rest ash, edged with white; bill black; irides brown; feet greenish ash. Length seven inches. Eggs dark olive, closely spotted with black.

The Red-necked Phalarope, or Lobefoot, is, like the preceding species, an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, but extends its circle of residence so far as to include the Orkney Islands, in which numerous specimens have been obtained. It builds its nest of grass, in the marshes or on the islands in the lakes, and lays four eggs. The most marked habit of these birds seems to be that of alighting at sea on beds of floating sea-weed, and indifferently swimming about in search of food, or running, with light and nimble pace, after the manner of a Wagtail. They are often met with thus employed at the distance of a hundred miles from land. They are described as being exceedingly tame, taking little notice of the vicinity of men, and unaffected by the report of a gun.

THE WOODCOCK SCÓLOPAX RUSTÍCOLA

Back of the head barred transversely with dusky; upper plumage mottled with chestnut, yellow, ash, and black; lower reddish yellow, with brown zigzag lines; quills barred on their outer web with rust-red and black; tail of twelve feathers tipped above with grey, below with silvery white; bill flesh-colour; feet livid. Length thirteen inches. Eggs dirty yellow, blotched and spotted with brown and grey.

The history of the Woodcock as a visitor in the British Isles is briefly as follows: Woodcocks come to us from the south in autumn, the earliest being annually observed about the twentieth of October. On their first arrival, they are generally found to be in bad condition; so weak, in fact, that I recollect many instances of flights having reached the coasts of Cornwall, only able to gain the land. Their condition at these times is one of extreme exhaustion; and they become the prey, not only of the sportsman, but are knocked down with a stick, or caught alive. In the course of a very few days they are enabled to recruit their strength, when they make their way inland. They have been known even to settle on the deck of a ship at sea, in order to rest; or actually to alight for a few moments in the smooth water of the ship's wake. Their usual places of resort by day are woods and coppices in hilly districts, whither they repair for shelter and concealment. Disliking cold, they select, in preference, the side of a valley which is least exposed to the wind; and though they never perch on a branch, they prefer the concealment afforded by trees to that of any other covert. There, crouching under a holly, or among briers and thorns, they spend the day in inactivity, guarded from molestation by their stillness, and by the rich brown tint of their plumage, which can hardly be distinguished from dead leaves. Their large prominent bead-like eyes are alone likely to betray them; and this, it is said, is sometimes the case. So conscious do they seem that their great security lies in concealment, that they will remain motionless until a dog is almost on them or until the beater reaches the very bush under which they are crouching. When at length roused, they start up with a whirr, winding and twisting through the overhanging boughs, and make for the nearest open place ahead; now, however, flying in almost a straight line, till discovering another convenient lurking-place, they descend suddenly, to be 'marked' for another shot. About twilight, the Woodcock awakens out of its lethargy, and repairs to its feeding-ground. Observation having shown that on these occasions it does not trouble itself to mount above the trees before it starts, but makes for the nearest clear place in the wood through which it gains the open country, fowlers were formerly in the habit of erecting in glades in the woods, two high poles, from which was suspended a fine net. This was so placed as to hang across the course which the birds were likely to take, and when a cock flew against it, the net was suddenly made to drop by the concealed fowler, and the bird caught, entangled in the meshes. Not many years ago, these nets were commonly employed in the woods, near the coast of the north of Devon, and they are said still to be in use on the Continent. The passages through which the birds flew were known by the name of 'cockroads', and 'cockshoots'.

The localities which Woodcocks most frequent are places which abound in earthworms, their favourite food. These they obtain either by turning over lumps of decaying vegetable matter and picking up the scattered worms, or by thrusting their bills into the soft earth, where (guided by scent it is supposed) they speedily find any worm lying hid, and having drawn it out, swallow it whole, with much dexterity. When the earth is frozen hard, they shift their ground, repairing to the neighbourhood of the sea, or of springs; and now, probably, they are less select in their diet, feeding on any living animal matter that may fall in their way. In March they change their quarters again, preparatory to quitting the country; hence it often happens that considerable numbers are seen at this season in places where none had been observed during the previous winter. They now have a call-note, though before they have been quite mute; it is said by some to resemble the syllables pitt-pitt-coor, by others to be very like the croak of a frog. The French have invented the verb croûler, to express it, and distinguish Woodcock shooting by the name croûle. Some sportsmen wisely recommend that no Woodcock should be shot after the middle of February; for it has been ascertained that increasing numbers of these remain for the purpose of breeding in this country; and it is conjectured, with reason, that if they were left undisturbed in their spring haunts, they would remain in yet larger numbers. As it is, there are few counties in England in which their nest has not been discovered; and there are some few localities in which it is one of the pleasant sights of the evening, at all seasons of the year, to watch the Woodcocks repairing from the woods to their accustomed feeding-ground.

The nest is built of dry leaves, principally of fern, and placed among dead grass, in dry, warm situations, and contains four eggs, which, unlike those of the Snipes, are nearly equally rounded at each end.

There have been recorded numerous instances in which a Woodcock has been seen carrying its young through the air to water, holding the nestling between her thighs pressed close to her body.

During its flight, the Woodcock invariably holds its beak pointed in a direction towards the ground. Young birds taken from the nest are easily reared; and afford much amusement by the skill they display in extracting worms from sods with which they are supplied. The Woodcock is found in all countries of the eastern hemisphere where trees grow; but it is only met as a straggler on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

THE GREAT SNIPE GALLINÁGO MAJOR

Crown black, divided longitudinally by a yellowish white band; a streak of the same colour over each eye; from the beak to the eye a streak of dark brown; upper plumage mottled with black and chestnut-brown, some of the feathers edged with straw-colour; greater wing-coverts tipped with white; under parts whitish, spotted and barred with black; tail of sixteen feathers; bill brown, flesh-coloured at the base. Length eleven and a half inches. Eggs brownish olive, spotted with reddish brown.

The Great Snipe, Solitary Snipe or Double Snipe, is intermediate in size between the Woodcock and Common Snipe. Though not among the rarest of our visitants, it is far from common. It is, however, an annual visitor, and is seen most frequently in the eastern counties in the autumn. Its principal resorts are low damp meadows and grassy places near marshes, but it does not frequent swamps like its congeners. This difference in its haunts implies a different diet, and this bird, it is stated, feeds principally on the larvæ or grubs of Tipulæ (known by the common name of Father Daddy-Long-legs), which are in summer such voracious feeders on the roots of grass. It breeds in the northern countries of Europe, and in some parts of Sweden is so abundant that as many as fifty have been shot in a day. When disturbed on its feeding-ground, it rises without uttering any note, and usually drops in again, at no great distance, after the manner of the Jack Snipe. It may be distinguished by its larger size, and by carrying its tail spread like a fan. In the northern countries where it breeds it is found most commonly in the meadows after hay-harvest, and as it is much prized for the delicacy of its flesh it is a favourite object of sport. It is remarkable for being always in exceedingly good condition, a remark which applies to specimens procured in this country as well as those shot in Sweden. The nest, which has rarely been seen, is placed in a tuft of grass, and contains four eggs. The Zoologist once mentioned the fact of four solitary Snipes being killed in the county of Durham in August, and two of these were young birds, scarcely fledged.

Great Snipe

Jack Snipe

Common Snipe

Woodcock

Knot

Wood Sandpiper.