Part 70

The nest is placed on the ground, among heather or herbage and grass, at some distance from the water. The four eggs are pale brown in ground-colour, spotted with blackish brown and grey.

The grey phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius), irregular in its visits like the last species, appears in larger numbers when it does come. Its visits to the south and south-east coasts of England occur in autumn and winter. Its range in summer is circumpolar, and it has been found breeding as far north as latitude 82° 30′. The breeding plumage is reddish chestnut, the female being brightest in colour. In winter, when it arrives in this country, its under parts are pure white, and the whole upper parts a delicate pale grey.

Woodcock.

Scolopax rusticula.

Upper plumage reddish brown barred and vermiculated with black; under parts wood-brown with darker brown bars. Length, fourteen inches. Sexes alike.

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The woodcock is a large species compared with other snipes, and a very handsome bird in its russet-red plumage, prettily pencilled and barred with various shades of black and brown and grey; furthermore, it is in great esteem for the table, and it is therefore not strange that, like the red grouse, it should be a favourite alike with the ornithologist, the sportsman, and the lover of delicate fare.

Nocturnal in its habits, the woodcock spends the daylight hours in close concealment in woods and brakes, often under the shelter of a thick evergreen bush, and, it is said, sometimes partially covering itself with dead leaves. Its red and mottled plumage, which so closely assimilates in colour to the fallen leaves among which it sits, is its best protection--a similar case to that of the nightjar crouching on the dry, open common. Visible it may be, but not distinguishable as a bird amid such surroundings unless the large, lustrous black eyes are caught sight of. When flushed during daylight its flight is owl-like, and its appearance somewhat singular. In the dusk of evening, when seeking its feeding-ground, it flies in a curious manner, darting rapidly this way and that through the glades and open spaces. It obtains its food by probing deep in the soft, damp soil, or in bogs, with its long bill, but how it finds the earthworms and grubs on which it feeds would be hard to say. There is no doubt that the end of the beak is an exquisitely delicate organ of touch, but it is hard to believe that it is thrust deep into the soil merely on the chance of finding something edible.

The woodcock breeds in suitable localities throughout Great Britain and Ireland, but in limited numbers, and not very regularly; but whether the birds that breed with us remain all the year, or migrate to more southern latitudes in autumn, is not known. Most, if not all, of the birds that winter in our islands are visitors from northern Europe. They begin to arrive, chiefly on the east and south-east coasts, about the middle of October, travelling by night, usually in calm, hazy, or foggy weather, and sometimes arriving in immense numbers. As a rule the females arrive first, the later flights being composed of males. It is only when migrating that woodcock are seen in any number together, and at such times their gatherings are probably accidental. On their arrival they quickly scatter over the country, and for the rest of the time are solitary in their habits. The migrants from the north take their departure in March. In this country nesting begins at the end of that month, and in the pairing season the male woos his mate with a curious and pretty performance, not at all like the wild celestial love-antics of his relation, the common snipe. For a time he abandons his shy, skulking habits--a hermit in love, he comes out morning and evening, and for the space of half an hour continues flying to and fro, with a singularly slow flight, and with plumage puffed out, so that he looks twice his ordinary size. Flying, he emits two peculiar notes, one deep and hollow, the other sharp and whistling. This performance of the woodcock is called ‘roding’ in East Anglia. The nest is a slight hollow, placed among dead ferns and fallen leaves in a sheltered situation in a wood. The eggs are four, pale yellowish white, the larger end spotted and blotched with ash-grey and brown of a reddish yellow tint.

A little over a century ago it was discovered that the female woodcock had the habit of removing its young, one at a time, when in danger by flying away with them. But it was said that the young bird was carried in the bill of its parent, and ornithologists declined to believe it, because, as Gilbert White remarked, the long, unwieldy beak of the woodcock was unfitted for such a task. The matter remained in doubt until about twenty years ago; and it is now known that the bird carries her young with her feet, either grasping them in her claws or holding them pressed between her thighs. According to some observers, the bird uses her bill to keep her young one pressed firmly against her thighs when flying with it.

Great Snipe.

Gallinago major.

Crown black, divided lengthways by a yellowish white band; a streak of the same colour over the eye; upper parts mottled with black and chestnut-brown; greater wing-coverts tipped with white; under parts whitish, spotted and barred with black. Length, twelve inches.

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The great, or solitary snipe, sometimes called the double snipe, resembles the common snipe in form and colouring, and in size is intermediate between that species and the woodcock. This species, described in the B.O.U. official list as a ‘straggler,’ hardly comes within the scope of the present work. But although a straggler, it comes regularly, appearing in the eastern and southern counties from the middle of August to the middle of October. These visitors are young birds, and few in number, and as they do not revisit us in spring, it may be assumed that they perish in their winter wanderings--the usual fate of stragglers from the migrating route of the species, or race. The fact that young birds in very many cases migrate in advance of the adults, that they keep to the same lines, and often journey vast distances, clearly shows that migration is performed instinctively. We may call the principle of action in this case crystallised experience, or inherited or historical knowledge, or lapsed intelligence, or by any other pretty name; but it is not ordinary intelligence--the guiding faculty that observes, considers, and profits by experience. And it is possible to believe that the young of the great snipe, when visiting Great Britain in the autumn, are going back to an ancient route abandoned by the species, perhaps thousands of years ago, on account of physical changes in the earth’s surface, or of a change in the system of the bird itself.

Common Snipe.

Gallinago cælestis.

Upper plumage mottled black and chestnut-brown; flanks barred with white and dusky; under parts white. Length, ten inches and a half.

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The common snipe, like the woodcock, breeds in limited numbers throughout the British Islands. But the woodcock nests in woods, and, owing to the increase of plantations, the bird as a breeding species has increased with us. Just the contrary has happened with the snipe. He is a breeder in marshes, fens, and low, wet grounds, and as drainage and cultivation deprive him of suitable localities to nest in, he diminishes in numbers. Most of the birds that winter in our islands are migrants from Scandinavia; they come in October and November, and remain until March. During the winter months they are often compelled by changes in the weather to shift their feeding-grounds, and intense cold is very fatal to them. Their soft, sensitive bills must have a soft soil to probe in, and frost cuts off their food-supply. When approached, the snipe seeks to avoid observation by crouching close to the earth, where its mottled upper plumage fits in well with the colour of the boggy or wet ground; on taking wing it rushes upwards with a violent zigzag flight, uttering at the same time a sharp, scraping cry, two or three times repeated. Late in March or early in April the snipes pair, and it is then that the males begin to practise their curious aërial exercises, familiar to anyone who observes wild bird life, and about which so much has been said by ornithologists. The performance takes place at all hours of the day, but chiefly towards evening, the bird rising to an immense height in the air, and precipitating himself downwards with astonishing violence, producing in his descent the peculiar sound variously described as drumming, bleating, scythe-whetting, and neighing. From this sound the snipe has been named in some districts ‘moor-lamb’ and ‘heather-bleater.’ As to how the sound is produced opinions differ still, although the question has been discussed for over a century. Probably it is in part vocal and partly produced by the wing-feathers.

The snipe makes a very slight nest of a few dried grass leaves and stalks, placed among rushes or by the side of a tussock of coarse grass. Four eggs are laid, yellowish or greenish white, the larger end spotted with various shades of brown. The female hatches the eggs without assistance from her mate, who continues his play in the air at intervals every day until the young are out. Two broods are sometimes reared in the season.

Jack-Snipe.

Limnocryptes gallinula.

Upper parts mottled with buff, reddish brown, and black, the latter exhibiting green and purple reflections; neck and breast spotted; belly white. Length, eight inches.

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The small jack-snipe is exclusively a winter visitor to this country, never remaining to breed. It comes at the end of September and in October, and is found generally distributed in Great Britain and Ireland, but in less numbers than the common snipe. In its habits it is more solitary than that species, and sits closer, often refusing to rise until almost trodden upon; and when it flies it utters no alarm-note. In April it leaves us, after assuming its summer plumage, glossed with beautiful colours. In its breeding-haunts in northern Europe and beyond the arctic circle the male has an aërial performance similar to that of the common snipe, but the sound produced by the bird in descending is different, and has been compared by Wolley to ‘the cantering of a horse over a hard, hollow road; it comes in fours, with a similar cadence and a like clear yet hollow sound.’ It makes its slight nest on the low ground, and lays four eggs, very large for the bird, of a yellowish olive colour, spotted and streaked with brown.

Dunlin.

Tringa alpina.