Part 7

80. MAGPIE. _Pica rustica_, Scopoli. French, "Pie", "Pie ordinaire."--The Magpie is resident and tolerably common in Guernsey, breeding in several parts of the Island; it is also resident, but I think not quite so common, in Sark. I do not remember having seen it in Alderney, and the almost entire absence of trees would probably prevent it being anything more than an occasional visitant to that Island.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but marked as only occurring in Guernsey; and there are two specimens in the Museum.

81. LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. _Picus minor_, Linnaeus. French, "Pie épeichette."--As may be expected, the Woodpeckers are not strongly represented in the Islands, and the present species, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, is the only one as to the occurrence of which I can get any satisfactory evidence.

Professor Ansted, however, includes the Greater Spotted Woodpecker in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey only; and there is one specimen of the Green Woodpecker, _Gecinus viridis_, in the Museum, but there is no note whatever as to its locality; so under these circumstances I have not thought it right to include either species. But as to the occurrence of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, though I have not seen it myself, nor have I a Channel Island specimen, I have some more evidence; for in reply to some questions of mine on the subject, Mr. Couch wrote to me in April, 1877, "Respecting the Woodpecker, you may fully rely on the Lesser Spotted as having been shot here, four examples having passed through my hands; and writing from memory I will, as near as possible, tell you when and where they were shot. I took a shop here in 1866. In the month of August, 1867, there was one brought to me alive, shot in the water lanes, just under Smith's Nursery by a young gent at the College; he wounded it in the wing. I wanted too much to stuff it (2s. 6d.); he took the poor bird out, fixed it somewhere; he and his companions fired at it so often they blew it to atoms. The same year, early in September, one was shot at St. Martin's; I stuffed that for a lady: there were four in the same tree; the day following they were not to be found. The second week in October, the same year I had one, and stuffed it for the person who shot it out at St. Saviour's; there were two besides in the same tree, but I had neither one myself. In 1868, I stuffed one that was shot at St. Peter's, in December; it was taken home the Christmas Eve. These were all I have had, but I have heard of their being seen about since, twice or three times." In addition to this letter, which I have no reason to doubt, Mr. MacCulloch wrote me word--"We have in the Museum a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, shot near Havilland Hall, in November, 1855; I saw it before it was stuffed." This bird was not in the Museum this year, (1878), as I looked everywhere for it, so I suppose it was moth-eaten and thrown away, like many others of the best specimens in the Museum, after the years of neglect they have been subject to. From these letters, there can be no doubt whatever that the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has been occasionally procured in Guernsey, and that it may be considered either an occasional autumnal visitant, remaining on into winter, or, what is more probable, a thinly-scattered resident.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as only occurring in Guernsey. As above stated, the specimen formerly in the Museum no longer exists.

82. WRYNECK. _Yunx torquilla_, Linnaeus. French, "Torcol ordinaire."--The Wryneck, or, as it is called in Guernsey-French, "Parlè"[14] is generally a numerous summer visitant to the Islands, arriving in considerable numbers, about the same time as the mackerel, wherefore it has also obtained the local name of "Mackerel Bird." It is generally distributed through the Islands, remaining through the summer to breed, and departing again in early autumn, August, or September. Its numbers, however, vary considerably in different years, as in some summers I have seen Wrynecks in almost every garden, hedgerow, or thick bush in the Island; always when perched, sitting across the branches or twigs, on which they were perched, and never longways or climbing, as would be the case with a Woodpecker or Creeper; and the noise made by the birds during the breeding-season, was, in some years, incessant; this was particularly the case in the early part of the summer of 1866, when the birds were very numerous, and the noise made was so great that on one occasion I was told that the Mackerel Birds seriously interrupted a scientific game of _Croquet_, which was going on at Fort George, by the noise they made; I can quite believe it, as, though I was not playing in the game, I heard the birds very noisy in other parts of the Island. This last summer, however (1878), I saw very few Wrynecks--only four or five during the whole of the two months I was in the Islands, and hardly heard them at all.

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum.

83. HOOPOE. _Upupa Epops_, Linnaeus. French, "La Huppé," "Huppé ordinaire."--The Hoopoe, as may be supposed from its geographical range and from its frequent occurrence in various parts of England, is an occasional visitant to the Channel Islands during the seasons of migration, occurring both in spring and autumn with sufficient frequency to have gained the name of "Tuppe" in Guernsey-French. Though occurring in spring and autumn, I am not aware that it ever remains to breed, though perhaps it might do so if not shot on every possible occasion. This shooting of every straggler to the Channel Islands is a great pity, especially with the spring arrivals, as some of them might well be expected to remain to breed occasionally if left undisturbed; and the proof of the Hoopoe breeding in the Channel Islands would be much more interesting than the mere possession of a specimen of so common and well-known a bird: if a local specimen should be wanted, it could be obtained equally well in autumn, when there would be no question as to the breeding. The autumn arrivals seem also to be most numerous, at least judging from the specimens recorded during the last four or five years, as Mr. Couch records one, a female, shot near Ronseval, in Guernsey, on the 26th of September; and another also in Guernsey, shot on the 23rd of September; I have one, obtained in Alderney in August, though I have not the exact date; and another picked up in a lane in St. Martin's parish, in Guernsey, on the 24th of August. During the same time I only know of one spring occurrence; that was on April the 10th of this year (1878), when two were seen, and one shot in Herm, as recorded in the 'Star' newspaper, for April the 13th; this one I saw soon afterwards at Mr. Jago's, the bird-stuffer. These birds were probably paired, and would therefore very likely have bred in Herm, had one of them not been shot, and the other accordingly driven to look for a mate elsewhere. It would pay, as well as be interesting, as I remarked in a note to the 'Star' in reference to this occurrence of the pair of Hoopoe's, to encourage these birds to breed in the Islands whenever they shewed a disposition to do so, as, though rather a foul-feeder and of unsavoury habits in its nest, and having no respect for sanitary arrangements, the Hoopoe is nevertheless one of the most useful birds in the garden.

The Hoopoe is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are now only two specimens in the Museum, and these have no note of date or locality, but a few years ago there were several more, and one or two I remember were marked as having been killed in the spring; the rest were probably autumnal specimens.

84. CUCKOO. _Cuculus canorus_, Linnaeus. French, "Coucou gris."--The Cuckoo is one of the commonest and most numerous summer visitants to the Islands, and is generally spread over all of them; it arrives about the same time that it does in England, that is to say, about the middle of April. I know earlier instances--even as early as February--have been recorded, but these must have been recorded in consequence of some mistake, probably some particularly successful imitation of the note. Mr. MacCulloch seems to think that the time of their arrival is very regular, as he writes to me to say, "The Cuckoo generally arrives here about the 15th of April; sometimes as early as the 13th, as was the case this year (1878); the first are generally reported from the cliffs at St. Martin's, near Moulin Huet, the first land they would make on their arrival from Brittany." Very soon after their arrival, however, they spread over the whole Island of Guernsey, as well as all the other neighbouring islands, in all of which they are equally plentiful; they seem to cross from one to the other without much considering four or five miles of sea, or being the least particular as to taking the shortest passage across from island to island. As usual, there were a great number of Cuckoos in the Vale whilst I was there this summer (1878); but I was unfortunate in not finding eggs, and in not seeing any of the foster-parents feeding their over-grown _protégés_: this was rather surprising, as there were so many Cuckoos about, and many must have been hatched and out of the nest long before we left at the end of July. I should think, however, Tree and Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and Stonechats, from their numbers and the numbers of their nests, must be the foster-parents most usually selected; other favourites, such as Wagtails, Hedgesparrows, and Robins, being comparatively scarce in that part of the Island, and Wheaters, which were numerous, had their nests too far under large stones to give the Cuckoo an opportunity of depositing her eggs there. I should have been very glad if I could have made a good collection of Cuckoos' eggs in the Channel Islands, and, knowing how common the bird was, I fully expected to do so, but I was disappointed, and consequently unable to throw any light on the subject of the variation in the colour of Cuckoos' eggs, as far as the Channel Islands are concerned, or how far the foster-parents had been selected with a view to their eggs being similar in colour to those of the Cuckoo about to be palmed off upon them. The only Cuckoos' eggs I saw were a few in the Museum, and in one or two other small collections: all these were very much the same, and what appears to me the usual type of Cuckoo's egg, a dull greyish ground much spotted with brown, and a few small black marks much like many eggs of the Tree or Meadow Pipit. It is hardly the place here to discuss the question how far Cuckoos select the nest of the birds whose eggs are similar to their own, to deposit their eggs in, or whether a Cuckoo hatched and reared by one foster-parent would be likely to select the nest of the same species to deposit its own eggs in; the whole matter has been very fully discussed in several publications, both English and German; and Mr. Dresser has given a very full _resumé_ of the various arguments in his 'Birds of Europe'; and whilst fully admitting the great variation in the colour of the Cuckoos' eggs, he does not seem to think that any particular care is taken by the parent Cuckoo to select foster-parents whose eggs are similar in colour to its own; and the instances cited seem to bear out this opinion, with which, as far as my small experience goes, I quite agree.

Whilst on the subject of Cuckoos I may mention, for the information of such of my Guernsey readers who are not ornithologists, and therefore not well acquainted with the fact, the peculiar state of plumage in which the female Cuckoo occasionally returns northward in her second summer; I mean the dull reddish plumage barred with brown, extremely like that of the female Kestrel: in this plumage she occasionally returns in her second year and breeds; but when this is changed for the more general plumage I am unable to state for certain, but probably after the second autumnal moult. The changes of plumage in the Cuckoo, however, appear to be rather irregular, as I have one killed in June nearly in the normal plumage, but with many of the old feathers left, which have a very Kestrel-like appearance, being redder than the ordinary plumage of the young bird; some of the tail-feathers, however, have more the appearance of the ordinary tail-feathers of the young Cuckoo soon after the tail has reached its full growth: the moult in this bird must have been very irregular, as it was not completed in June, when, as a rule, it would have been in full plumage, unless, as may possibly be the case, this bird was the produce of a second laying during the southern migration, and consequently, instead of a year, be only about six months old. This, however, is not a very common state of plumage; but it is by no means uncommon to find a Cuckoo in May or June with a good deal of rusty reddish barred with brown, forming a sort of collar on the breast. I merely mention these rather abnormal changes of plumage, as they may be interesting to any of my Guernsey readers into whose hands a Cuckoo may fall in a state of change and prove a puzzle as to its identity. The Cuckoo departs from the Channel Islands much about the same time that it does from England on its southern migration in August or September. Occasionally, however, this southern migration during the winter seems to be doubted, as a clerical friend of mine once told me that a brother clergyman, a well educated and even a learned man, told him, when talking about Cuckoos and what became of them in winter, that "it was a mistake to suppose they migrated, but that they all turned into Sparrow-hawks in the winter." As my friend said, could any one believe this of a well-educated man in the nineteenth century?

The Cuckoo is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are three specimens, one adult and two young, in the Museum, as well as some very ordinary eggs.

85. KINGFISHER. _Alcedo ispida_, Linnaeus. French, "Martin Pecheur."--The Kingfisher is by no means uncommon, is generally spread over the Islands, and is resident and breeds at all events in Guernsey, if not in the other Islands also. It is generally to be seen amongst the wild rocks which surround L'Ancresse Common, where it feeds on the small fish left in the clear pools formed amongst the rocks by the receding tide; it is also by no means uncommon amongst the more sheltered bays in the high rocky part of the Island; it is also to be found about the small ponds in various gardens. About those in Candie Garden I have frequently seen Kingfishers, and they breed about the large ponds in the Vale in Mr. De Putron's grounds; they also occasionally visit the wild rocky islets to the northward of Herm, even as far as the Amfrocques, the farthest out of the lot. As well as about the Vale ponds, the Kingfisher breeds in holes in the rocks all round the Island. I have not myself seen it in Alderney, but Captain Hubbach writes me word he saw one there about Christmas, 1862. I think its numbers are slightly increased in the autumn by migrants, as I have certainly seen more specimens in Mr. Couch's shop at that time of year than at any other; this may perhaps, however, be accounted for, at all events partially, by its being protected by the Sea Bird Act during the summer and in early autumn, where the 'Martin pêcheur' appears as one of the "Oiseaux de Mer."

It is included in Professor Ansted's list, and only marked as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are three specimens now in the Museum.

86. NIGHTJAR. _Caprimulgus enropaeus_, Linnaeus. French, "Engoulevent ordinaire."--The Nightjar is a regular autumnal visitant, a few perhaps arriving in the spring and remaining to breed, but by far the greater number only making their appearance on their southward migration in the autumn. The Nightjar occasionally remains very late in the Islands, as Miss Carey records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1872 as occurring on the 16th of October; and I have one killed as late as the 12th of November: this bird had its stomach crammed with black beetles, not our common domestic nuisances, but small winged black beetles: these dates are later than the Nightjar usually remains in England, though Yarrell notices one in Devon as late as the 6th of November, and one in Cornwall on the 27th of November. Colonel Irby, on the faith of Fabier, says the Nightjars cross the Straits of Gibraltar on their southward journey from September to November; so these late stayers in Cornwall and Guernsey have not much time to complete their journey if they intend going as far south as the coast of Africa; perhaps, however the Guernsey ones have no such intention, as Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks published with Professor Ansted's list, says "The Nightjar breeds here, and I have obtained it summer and winter." Mr. MacCulloch tells me the Goatsucker is looked upon by the Guernsey people as a bird of ill-omen and a companion of witches in their aërial rambles. The bird-stuffer in Alderney had some wings of Nightjars nailed up behind his door which had been shot in that Island by himself.

Professor Ansted includes the Nightjar in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are two specimens, a male and female, in the Museum, but no date as to time of their occurrence.

87. SWIFT. _Cypselus apus_, Linnaeus. French, "Martinet de Muraille."--The Swift is a tolerably numerous summer visitant to all the Islands, but I think most numerous in Sark, where hundreds of these birds may be seen flying about the Coupée, amongst the rocks of which place and Little Sark they breed in considerable numbers. Mr. MacCulloch and Mr. Gallienne appear to think the Swift rare in Guernsey, as Mr Gallienne says in his remarks on Professor Ansted's list, "The swift appears here (Guernsey) in very small numbers, but is abundant in Sark;" and Mr. MacCulloch writes me word, "I consider the Swift very rare in Guernsey." I certainly cannot quite agree with this, as I have found them by no means uncommon, though certainly rather locally distributed in Guernsey. One afternoon this summer (1878) Mr. Howard Saunders and I counted forty within sight at one time about the Gull Cliff, near the old deserted house now known as Victor Hugo's house, as he has immortalised it by describing it in his 'Travailleurs de la Mer.' The Swifts use this and two similar houses not very far off for breeding purposes, a good many nesting in them, and others, as in Sark, amongst the cliffs. Young Le Cheminant had a few Swifts' eggs in his small collection, probably taken from this very house, as the Swift is certainly, as Mr. MacCulloch says, rare in other parts of Guernsey. In Alderney the Swift is tolerably common, and a good many pairs were breeding about Scott's Hotel when I was there this year (1878). Probably a good many Swifts visit the Islands, especially Alderney, for a short time on migration, principally in the autumn, as once when I was crossing from Weymouth to Guernsey, on the 18th of August, I saw a large flock of Swifts just starting on their migratory flight; they were plodding steadily on against a stormy southerly breeze, spread out like a line of skirmishers, not very high, but at a good distance apart; there was none of the wild dashing about and screeching which one usually connects with the flight of the Swift, but a steady business-like flight; they went a little to the eastward of our course in the steamer, and this would have brought them to land in Alderney or Cape la Hague.

Professor Ansted included the Swift in his list, but oddly enough, considering the remark of Mr. Gallienne above quoted, marks it as only occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen at present in the Museum.

88. SWALLOW, _Hirundo rustica_, Linnaeus. French, "Hirondelle de Cheminée."--According to Métivier's 'Dictionary,' "Aronde" is the local Guernsey-French name of the Swallow, which is a common summer visitant to all the Islands, and very generally distributed over the whole of them, and not having particular favourite habitations as the Martin has. It arrives and departs much about the same time that it does in England, except that I do not remember ever to have seen any laggers quite so late as some of those in England. A few migratory flocks probably rest for a short time in the Islands before continuing their journey north or south, as the case may be; the earliest arrivals and the latest laggers belong to such migratory flocks, the regular summer residents probably not arriving quite so soon, and departing a little before those that pay a passing visit; consequently the number of residents does not appear at any time to be materially increased by such wandering flocks.

Professor Ansted includes the Swallow in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen of any of the Hirundines in the Museum.

89. MARTIN. _Chelidon urbica_, Linnaeus. French, "Hirondelle de fenêtre."--The House Martin is much more local than the Swallow, but still a numerous summer visitant, like the Swallow, arriving and departing about the same time that it does in England. It is spread over all the Islands, but confined to certain spots in each; in Guernsey the outskirts of the town about Candie Road, and the rocks in Fermain and Petit Bo Bay, seem very favourite nesting-places. In Alderney there were a great many nests about Scott's Hotel and a few more in the town, but I did not see any about the cliffs as at Fermain and Petit Bo in Guernsey.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark.

90. SAND MARTIN. _Cotyle riparia_, Linnaeus. French, "Hirondelle de rivage."--When I first made out my list of Guernsey birds I had omitted the Sand Martin altogether, as I had never seen it in the Islands, but Mr. MacCulloch wrote to me to say, "Amongst the swallows you have not noticed the Sand Martin, which is our earliest visitant in this family and by no means uncommon." In consequence of this note, as soon as I got to the Island this year (1878), in June, I went everywhere I could think likely to look for Sand Martins, but nowhere could I find that the Sand Martins had taken possession of a breeding-station. Knowing from my own experience here that Sand Martins are fond of digging their nest-holes in the heads of quarries, (I had quite forty nest-holes in my quarry this year, and forty pairs of Sand Martins inhabiting them), I kept a bright look-out in all the stone-quarries in the Vale, and they are very numerous, but I did not see a single Sand Martin's hole or a single pair of birds anywhere; and it appeared to me that the sandy earth forming the head was not deep enough before reaching the granite to admit of the Sand Martins making their holes; and they do not appear to me to have fixed upon any other sort of breeding place in the Island; neither could Mr. MacCulloch point one out to me; so I suppose we must consider the Sand Martin as only a spring visitant to this Island, not remaining to breed. The same seems to me to be the case in Alderney, as Captain Hubbach writes to tell me he "saw some Sand Martins about the quarry here (in Alderney), for two or three days at the beginning of April, but cannot say whether they remained here to breed or not." I suppose they continued their journey, as I did not see any when there in June; I have not seen any in Sark or either of the other small Islands.

Professor Ansted includes the Sand Martin in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark.