CHAPTER XVIII.. Birds of the Sea-Shore.

BIRDS OF THE SEA-SHORE.

One of the greatest charms of the sea-shore to the majority of visitors is afforded by the marine birds in their varied occupations of flying, swimming, diving, and walking. In these beautiful creatures the British coasts are rich, even when we exclude (as we propose to do from this chapter) the many species that frequent the mud flats of estuaries in preference to the rocks and sands of the sea-coast proper. Strange as it may at first sight seem, the sea-sands are in the hard weather of winter the resort of multitudes of small birds from inland woods and commons, which here seek their sustenance at the very time when hunger induces the gulls to follow the plough and to penetrate far up the rivers--even to such uncongenial places as London itself, where, however, they are sure of a cordial welcome and a plentiful repast. Then is the season for the starlings and the thrushes to take their sea-change, and I have seen them in winter in great crowds upon the sands, hobnobbing and competing with rooks, redbreasts, lapwings, and finches of many kinds, for the odds and ends brought in by every wave, and for the smaller mollusks, the marine worms and minor crustaceans that the shore affords to the quick-eyed and the patient seeker.

But our business just now is more with those birds to whom the shore and the adjacent waters are their every-day hunting-grounds, the place where many of them lay their eggs and rear their young. One of the most constant of these is the Rock Pipit (Anthus obscurus), whose happy chirrup and light-hearted springy flight from sand to rock, or rock to rock, are every day and all the year round features of the shore on certain parts of our coast. In other places it is only seen at the period of migration or in the winter months. It is a larger and darker bird than the well-known Meadow Pipit (A. pratensis), and its hind claw is more curved and not so long. The bill is black, with a little yellow at its base, and the tail dark.

It prefers a spot where the cliffs are not too precipitous, or where they exhibit sloping terraces grown with thrift and samphire, in which the Rock Pipit may find a suitable little cave for its nest, with a beetling brow in the shape of an overhanging piece of rock to protect it from the rain. There it will make its nest of grass, hair-lined, and deposit in it the five pretty green-grey eggs with evenly distributed reddish-brown specks. I have often sat on Cornish rocks and watched the Rock Pipit on the shore below, running along the lines of washed-in weeds, and evidently picking out small mollusks and shore-hoppers; I have found its nest also in the hollows of steep cliffs difficult of access.

The Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) was at one time a common bird in England, but it is now restricted to Ireland, the Isle of Man, parts of Wales, and south-west England. Cornwall was formerly regarded as its headquarters, and it was variously known as the Cornish Chough, Cornish Daw, Cornwall Kae, Market-jew Crow, as well as by other names not connected particularly with the Duchy; but so great have been the onslaughts upon it that the Cornwall County Council has had to get the Home Secretary to declare it a protected species, with a price upon the head of the miscreant who dares to take its eggs in the Western Duchy. Its plumage is black, with purple and green reflections, and its bill and legs bright red. It fortunately nests in difficult places in high cliffs, where it makes the nest which Yarrell describes as built of “sticks lined with wool and hair,” in which it lays “four or five eggs of a yellowish-white colour, spotted with ash-grey and light brown.”

The Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) often builds in holes in high cliffs. We have found its nest far inside a rabbit hole that was probably never intended by the rabbit as a means of entrance to or exit from his burrow, but as a secluded place whence he could look out upon the blue sea hundreds of feet below. But the rabbit had probably been evicted, or had fallen a prey to the ravens that built hard by, and the Jackdaw had taken possession. I knew the nest was there from watching the excursions of the old birds, but it was only by lying along a dangerously narrow ledge and pushing my arm in, right up to the shoulder, that I could feel the nest and count the heads of the five young Jacks. The nest of the Raven (Corvus corax) was in a hole so high up the perfectly straight face of the rock, that its entrance could only be reached by a person swung from the cliff fifty feet above it. All one could do was to watch the young birds fly out in a batch and hear the parental croaking that was evidently intended as approbation of their progress.

But to get to the distinctly maritime species, and first those of the Pelican family. We have two native species of Cormorant, the Common Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and the Shag (P. graculus). The Common Cormorant, Great Black Cormorant, Cole Goose, or Skart, as it is variously styled in different localities, is a bird of the rock-bound coast, where there are detached masses of rock forming little islets, and where the face of the high cliffs is broken into narrow ledges. Such a coast will have at distances of a few miles its Shag-rocks and Shag-stones, which are well-marked by an abundant coating of white-wash. These are the resting-places whither the Cormorant and Shag repair to eat and digest the fish they have just captured, two or three miles further along the coast it may be. Similarly you may always tell the situation of their nests on the high ledges of the cliffs, though from the shore no part of the nest itself may be seen: but the streaks of white-wash splashed far down the precipice have only to be followed upward with the eye, and they will be seen to end just below a narrow shelf. Upon that shelf the rough nest is placed, and in it lie the four or five bluish-green eggs that afterwards become coated with a white crust. The colouring of the adult is more or less green, with patches of white on the neck and the outer part of the thighs. In winter these white patches become less conspicuous, and the green of its upper parts changes to a rusty black.

The Shag, Green Cormorant, Crested Cormorant, or Crested Shag, may be distinguished from the other species by its entire green colour and its smaller size. This difference in measurements, etc., may be put into a readily-seen form thus:--

BILL WING TAIL FEATHERS EGGS P. carbo. 4½ to 5 ins. 14½ ins. 14 4 to 6 P. graculus 3½ ins. 10 ins. 12 3 to 5

The two species are very similar in their habits, watching for fish from their favourite rock, and when their prey is seen diving after it. Sometimes they skim the waters and suddenly dive in after fish seen through the water.

Our other British Pelican is the Gannet or Solan Goose (Sula bassana), whose breeding-places are restricted to certain islets off the north-western coasts, such as the Bass Rock, Ailsa Craig, and some of the jutting headlands of the Hebrides, where they build extensive nests of dry grass, seaweed, and anything else that happens to be handy when they are building. On this they lay their solitary white egg, which must be described as small in proportion to the bird, and ridiculously small compared with the nest. Great numbers gather at their favourite breeding-places in the spring, and they are then said to be very tame. In autumn these great assemblages, with the new generation they have reared, break up, and the individuals distribute themselves widely over the seas, where they follow at a height the shoals of fish, suddenly diving straight to the mark and capturing the fish selected for their prey.

The Common Grey Heron, or Hern (Ardea cinerea), though not usually reckoned among maritime birds, is frequent on our shores, and may often be seen to fly along, then settle with his feet in the water beside some grey rock where he is all but invisible, and watch for fish and other marine creatures.

The ill-named Oyster Catcher (Hæmatopus ostralegus) is well distributed along our shores, and it is no uncommon thing to hear its loud and shrill rattling pipes, and turning at the sound, to see its elegant form perched on a rock that is surrounded by water. In such a prominent position its black and white plumage, its red legs, and long red beak render it very conspicuous. I do not think it catches many oysters, unless they be the fragile Saddle-oysters (Anomia) from the rocks. The oyster of commerce and gastronomy (Ostrea) has too thick and large a shell for it, though its bill is a strong one and capable of breaking into the strongholds of small cockles, mussels, and Venus shells. So far as the coast is concerned it selects sandy shores for its breeding-places, where it may be seen running quickly up and down at the very edge of the water. It makes no nest, merely selecting the slight shelter of a tuft of grass on the higher, drier part of the sands, and there it lays its three or four clay-coloured eggs, spotted, blotched, and streaked with dark brown, and arranged with their narrow ends close together. If there are four eggs in the clutch they will be arranged cross-wise.

The Purple Sandpiper (Tringa striata) must not be looked for by the summer visitor, for it only comes to these shores when it has donned its winter dress. The same may be said of the Knot (Tringa canutus), which is sometimes confused with the Purple Sandpiper, but they may be readily distinguished in winter dress by examining the upper tail-coverts. In T. striata these are quite black, but in T. canutus they are white barred with black.

The Sanderling (Calidris arenaria) is plentiful in spring and autumn, on the wet sands and adjacent rocks; its whitish underside showing distinctly. The Redshank (Totanus calidris) is also common on many of our shores; its winter plumage is uniformly grey above, white beneath; but in spring this changes to brown, spotted and barred with black on the upper parts, and the white of the lower surfaces becomes greatly modified by the many streaks and spots of dark brown.

The Curlew (Numenius arquata) in its seasonal migrations has usually some representatives upon the coast, though it is in the winter that they are most commonly seen there, especially in the south, where they spend the winter in flocks. The Whimbrel (Numenius phæopus), which is a smaller Curlew, is often found on the same shores in winter and spring. It may be distinguished not merely by the smaller stature, but by a difference in the colour and markings of the head. In the Curlew this has a light brown crown streaked with black, whereas in the Whimbrel the same part is dark brown, with a pale buff stripe dividing the brown into two equal portions.

The Terns (Sterna) have been well-named Sea-swallows, and a flock of them flying, wheeling, and doubling, over the waters, presents a very close resemblance of movement to that of the real Swallow. Several species haunt our shores, some coming here to breed. Among these may be noted the Sandwich Tern (Sterna cantiaca), the largest of the genus that breeds here, which has a yellow-tipped black bill; the Common Tern (S. fluviatilis), which has a red bill, the tip of the upper mandible only being black, and that not a very good black; and the Little Tern (S. minuta) with a yellow bill, black-tipped, and a white forehead.

The Gulls (Larus) are, of course, abundant, and much time may be pleasantly spent sitting near the edge of a grassy cliff, or some distance up its face, and watching the flight of the gulls below, sometimes rapidly as though time and tide wait for no gull; at other times with an easy undulating motion as though it were not necessary to hurry about anything, and scarcely necessary to move a wing when sailing on a pair outstretched is so easy a matter. But the visitor is often puzzled to make out the difference between those he commonly sees, and this is never an easy task to a naturalist until he has spent much time with them and made himself acquainted with the colour changes of the birds from youth to adult age.

Below I am attempting to tabulate the most striking differences between several species, taking in each case the adult plumage.

+---------+-----+-------+--------------+------+--------+-----------+ | |HEAD | BILL | PRIMARIES | BACK | LEGS | FEET | | +-----+-------+--------------+------+--------+-----------+ |Black- |Dark |Red |White, the |Pearly|Red |Red | |headed |brown| |fore-edge |grey | | | |Gull | | |of the first | | | | | | | |black; hinder | | | | | | | |edges and tips| | | | | | | |of all black | | | | | | | | | | | | |Common |White|Yellow,|Black, spotted|Bluish|Lead |With well- | |Gull | |dusky |with white |grey |grey |developed | | | |at base|near tips | | |hind toe | | | | | | | | | |Herring |White|Yellow |Black, tipped |Ash |Flesh |Pale flesh | |Gull | | |with white |grey |coloured|coloured | | | | | | | | | |Lesser |White|Yellow |Ditto |Dark |Yellow |Yellow | |Black- | | | |grey | | | |backed | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Greater |Pure |Yellow |Black, tipped |Pure |Flesh |Flesh | |Black- |white| |and barred |black |coloured|coloured | |backed | | |with white | | | | | | | | | | | | |Kittiwake|Pure |Dull |1st outer web |Pearl |Dark |Hind toe | | Gull |white|clouded|black, others |grey |lead |undeveloped| | | |yellow |pearl grey | |coloured| | | | | |tipped | | | | | | | |with black; | | | | | | | |tips of 4th | | | | | | | |and 5th | | | | | | | |spotted with | | | | | | | |white | | | | +---------+-----+-------+--------------+------+--------+-----------+

The Razorbill and the Guillemot are common birds on most of our coasts where there are cliffs, but we shall see them chiefly as swimming and diving birds as we walk along the shore. The Razorbill (Alca torda) when swimming carries its tail parts higher out of the water than the Guillemot (Uria troile), and is further distinguished by the high compressed bill with white transverse stripes, the white stripe from the bill to the eye, and the dark brown throat. The Guillemot has a long, straight, pointed beak, white throat crossed by a greyish cravat, continued from the mottled black and white of the back of the head and neck. It is too common as a dead, sodden-plumaged bird in the rock-pools after winter storms, which prevent it fishing, and starve it to death. The legs and feet are greyish, the webs black.

The Black Guillemot (Uria grylle) breeds on cliffs in Scotland, Ireland, and Man, but in winter also visits the south and south-west coasts. Its summer dress is wholly black, save for a patch of white on the coverts, but in winter the black is all replaced by white and very pale grey. The legs and feet differ, too, from those of U. troile in being vermilion in the present species.

The Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is identified readily, wherever seen, by its conspicuous compressed orange beak of great depth from top to bottom. This gives it a humorous aspect that belongs to itself alone; but it is useful to it also, for it makes a very efficient cracking instrument wherewith certain of the thinner shelled bivalves may be utilised for the Puffin’s food. It is a great diver, and sometimes the habit is its ruin. I have a fine specimen that was drowned by running its head into the mesh of a mackerel-net, and failing to extricate itself in time to prevent death by drowning. Young specimens are sometimes blown in exhausted during winter gales. Many other birds are similarly overcome.

The pretty little Storm Petrel, or Mother Carey’s Chicken (Procellaria pelagica), whose stuffed body is before me as I write, was blown in early in November, 1895. I tried to restore it to vigour, but it was too far exhausted to take food, and this appears to be the common condition of those that are blown in. On the same day many Gulls, Guillemots, and Shags were washing into our “porth,” and several of these were cared for, restored to health, and given their liberty a few days later.

The Great Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialis) and the Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) are also winter visitants to most of our shores. It is thought the Diver may breed on some of our extreme northern islands, but there appears to be no evidence that it does so. It is a regular visitor to the Cornish coasts in winter, and it is well worth watching from some rocky headland. It is large and powerful, and excels not merely as a proficient diver with plenty of “staying power,” but is a vigorous swimmer, and a very capable flier. It is a pity those who see it are not more content with the sight, instead of being possessed with the desire to get a gun and shoot it. One would like to see it more often alive, and less frequently adorning the halls of country houses near the coast.

The Fulmar is not of such general occurrence as the Diver, except in the far north--St. Kilda, Orkney and Shetland. St. Kilda is its breeding-place, and they are merely stragglers that put in an appearance during winter on more southern shores. The hooked-bill and tubular nostrils distinguish it from the gulls at a glance.

The Manx Shearwater (Puffinus anglorum) breeds on islands all down the western coast as far south as Scilly; it is therefore a more frequent visitor to our southern and western coasts, especially before and after it is engaged on the important work of hatching and rearing its solitary chick.