generally closely stippled with orange-red, but are
sometimes finely blotched with darker red, when they
resemble those of the Kestrel. It feeds largely on insects,
but also on small birds, which it pursues with remark-
able swiftness ; near the nest the parents circle round
Accipitres
129
high in the air, and are then said to look almost like
Swifts. The shrill cry is seldom heard.
The Merlin (F. cesalori}, locally termed the Stone-
falcon, from its habit of perching on boulders, breeds
from the Shetlands to the Derbyshire moors, in Wales
and in Ireland ; abroad from the Arctic Circle to the
Merlin's nest and eggs
Pyrenees and throughout north Asia. The nest, a very
slight structure, if there be any, is usually on the
ground among heather, but not uncommonly a
deserted bird's habitation in a tree or on a ledge
of a cliff is made use of, the four or even half-a-dozen
eggs being rich brownish red, and rarely shewing the
ground colour. After the breeding season this species
E. B. 9
130 Order IV
commonly resorts for a time to the coast-lands, while
it may be seen in Britain at all seasons of the year.
Its flight is rapid with quick turns ; its cry is rather
querulous and consists of one reiterated note ; its food
is of our smaller birds, for the capture of which it was
used in falconry. The male Merlin is grey with a
rufous hind-neck, a dark band on the tail, and streaks
on the buff lower surface, the upper parts exhibiting
decided shaft-streaks on the feathers. The female is
quite different, being brown with five bars on the tail,
the tip of which, as well as the hind-neck and cheeks,
are white.
The Kestrel (F. tinnunculus) is undoubtedly our
commonest Hawk, being found from the north to the
south of Britain in the breeding season, but moving
gradually southwards for the winter, when it is
joined by many migrants from abroad. A like dis-
tribution holds good for Europe and Asia, but the
north African race is smaller and darker. This most
useful species feeds almost entirely on small mammals
and insects, especially beetles, though it does occa-
sionally take young birds ; the flight is slow and steady
with prolonged intervals of hovering, from which habit
it is called by country-folk the Windhover. The cry
is shrill, and usually heard near the breeding quarters.
The Kestrel builds no nest, but re-lines with the
slightest of materials that of a Crow, Magpie or other
large bird ; not uncommonly it lays its eggs on ledges
of cliffs or buildings, in holes in chalk pits, or in hollow
trees, but rarely on level ground. The eggs are reddish
white, partly or entirely covered with red-brown
blotches, spots, and smears. The male has a bluish
head, tail, and rump, a rufous back with black spots,
Accipitres
131
and lighter under parts with dark streaks ; the female
is rufous above with black bars, and has also several
tail-bars. Pellets of food are often ejected, as in owls.
Kestrel
The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) has a very wide
range in the world, extending over Europe, Asia,
northern Africa, and North America, and even reaching
to Australia. It still visits us from autumn to spring,
but it is to be feared that not a single pair now breeds
92
132 Order IV. Accipitres
in Scotland, where eyries were formerly not uncommon.
The large nest of sticks and turf, lined with softer
materials, is built in a tree or on a rocky islet in a lake,
while an old ruin makes a good substitute for a rock,
and in America the birds often form colonies. The
eggs, two or three in number, are creamy white with
fine blotches of purplish or reddish brown and greyish
lilac. The Fish-hawk, as it is sometimes termed, lives
entirely on fish, and it is a magnificent sight to see
a pair of these unsuspicious birds careering over the
waters of a lake, uttering their loud screaming cries,
and plunging into the water after their prey. They
are brown above and white below, the head and upper
breast exhibiting both colours.
ORDER V. STBGANOPODBS
The members of this Order stand alone among birds
in having all the toes connected by full webs, and the
first toe turned somewhat forward, while they have
stout curved claws. The bill is long and pointed in
Gannets, long and hooked at the tip in Cormorants,
and is furnished with a big pouch underneath in
Pelicans ; Cormorants, moreover, have a very long
neck. The feet are set far back, so that walking is
difficult ; the wings are long and ample ; and the tail
consists of strong stiff feathers. They are all water
birds and for the most part marine, though Pelicans
and sometimes Cormorants build inland. They breed
in colonies. The blackish nestlings are blind and
naked, but soon become covered with white down.
Pelicans are not now found in Britain, but their bones
have been dug up in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
Order V. Steganopodes 133
Family PBLBCANIDJE, or Cormorants and Gannets
The Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is an inter-
esting though ugly bird of a general black hue, but the
throat is white, as is a patch on the thighs in spring.
It has a very long hooked beak and yellow pouch
below it, while its great length makes it a conspicuous
object as it passes with low and laboured flight over
the sea from one resting place to another. The back
Cormorants and nests
of the head bears a sort of crest in spring, but this is
very different from the frontal crest of the Shag, which
moreover lacks the bronzy tint adorning the Cormorant's
back. Both species have a croaking note and dive
deep under water to catch the fish on which they feed.
The nest is an immense mass of sea-weed when it is
built on islands or ledges of cliffs, but consists of sticks
and softer substances when on a tree or bush. Colonies
are invariably formed, but are rarely found inland in
134 Order V
Britain, where the bird occurs at all seasons of year
on the sea in the most suitable localities. The elongated
eggs are light greenish blue with a white chalky covering,
and are about four in number. The naked and blind
black nestlings feed themselves by thrusting their heads
and necks into the parents' bills. Abroad the Cor-
morant inhabits Europe, Asia, and the Atlantic coast
of North America, except the extreme north, and also
northern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, the nesting
sites being not uncommonly in marshes and swamps.
The Shag (Phalacrocorax graculus) is entirely black
with metallic reflexions, and has a frontal crest in
spring. Its nest is often on a ledge in a cave, but
equally often on a cliff or under a large boulder;
the eggs are like those of the Cormorant, but smaller,
and are laid rather earlier in April. The flight is
hardly so heavy, but otherwise the habits are identical.
Locally this "Green Cormorant" is the more common
of the two species, especially in the west of Britain,
but abroad it is only found from the northern coasts
of Lapland by way of Iceland, Norway, and France to
Portugal, if we consider the widely spread Mediter-
ranean form to be distinct. By our fishermen the bird
is called the Scart or Scarf, a name less commonly
used for its congener.
The Gannet or Solan goose (Sula bassana), a very local
species in Britain, breeds on Grassholm in Pembroke-
shire, Ailsa Craig at the mouth of the Clyde, St Kilda,
several rocky stacks in the north-west of Scotland, two
in the south of Ireland, and the well-known Bass Rock
in the Firth of Forth. In some of the northern locali-
ties, however, the number of individuals is enormous.
The Shetlands, Faeroes, Iceland, and some islands in
Steganopodes 135
the Gulf of St Lawrence complete the range, but there
are other species of Gannet which have a much more
southerly distribution. The nest is more grassy than
that of a Cormorant, and contains but one egg, from
which the bird will hardly allow itself to be dislodged ;
Gannets nesting
it is exactly like that of the Cormorant, but a good deal
larger. The sitting Gannet uses its long, strong, pointed
beak with great effect upon any intruder who disturbs
its peace of mind, and utters low guttural or croaking
sounds in its distress. It has a strong and steady
flight, and when fish are plentiful keeps in companies,
while it is one of the finest sights in the world to see
136 Order V. Steganapodes
the bird dive straight down from a height with closed
wings and plunge deep into the water, under which
it remains for several seconds. On the Bass Rock, where
it was formerly called the Bass Goose, hundreds of birds
used to be killed, salted down, and eaten as delicacies.
The fully fledged young are sooty black with white
markings, instead of being white with black primaries.
ORDER VI. HERODIONBS
The Herons and Bitterns are birds of swamps and
river-sides, the former often breeding in colonies, called
heronries, which are often of considerable size, and the
latter leading a skulking life in reedy or sedgy marshes.
Herons' nests are usually on trees or bushes, but may
be on the ground. The neck, legs and feet are long ;
the bill is elongated, strong and pointed ; the long toes
are slightly webbed, with rather short claws, except in
Bitterns ; the wings are large ; crests and ornamental
plumes are not uncommon. The nestlings are covered
with scanty hair.
Storks have a still stronger bill, that of Ibises is
much weaker and extremely curved, that of Spoonbills
is flattened into a sort of "spoon" at the end, which
finally turns downward. The latter breed in colonies,
while all have downy young. One Ibis is an irregular
visitor to Britain.
Family ARDEnxaiJ, or Herons and Bitterns
The common Heron or Hern (Ardea cinerea) is "all
length." Its body is thin, its legs, bill and neck are
very long, and it has a bifid black crest hanging
down from the nape. Otherwise it is grey, with
whitish face and lower parts and streaked neck. The
Order VI. Herodiones
137
Common Heron
138 Order VI
distribution is rather peculiar, for in Europe it only
breeds from Scandinavia and Russia in the north to
France, central Italy, and the Danube; but in Asia
it is found as far south as Ceylon, and in Africa to
the Cape. It nests on lofty trees, cliffs, bushes and
reeds, or even on the ground, colonies being much
more usual than isolated pairs. These heronries are
decidedly local in England, but are mostly larger than
those in Scotland and Ireland ; in Scotland they are
both on the mainland and certain islands, while all round
the Borders the country is found particularly suitable
by the bird. A fine sight is this solitary fisherman
as it stalks solemnly through the water, stands for
long periods patiently watching for its prey, or makes
quick downward darts on the fish with its long sharp
bill. Reptiles, frogs, and small mammals form part of
the diet, nor are mollusks, worms, crustaceans and
insects rejected. The voice is harsh and croaking,
with a shorter and sharper alarm -note ; the flight is
slow but easy, with many a flap of the huge wings,
and is often high in the air ; the nest is a great flat
mass of sticks lined with grass and contains four blue
eggs, laid between February and April, but generally
early. The Heron was of old a well-known quarry for
Falcons, while the young were considered a delicacy
for the table.
The Purple Heron (A. purpurea) is an irregular
migrant to Britain, but breeds not uncommonly in
Holland, whence it ranges over west and central
Europe and Asia to south Africa. The breast is
maroon, the neck rufous with a black stripe on each
side. This species is comparatively seldom observed
on the wing and has a hoarser note than its congener
Hcrodiones 139
its food, however, is similar, though chiefly sought in
the twilight, and its eggs are merely smaller and rather
darker in colour. The nest of herbage is built on a
flattened mass of vegetation in reed-beds or swamps.
Two other Herons are not very uncommon migrants
to Britain, the Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides) of
central and southern Europe, Africa and western Asia ;
and the Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), of a some-
what similar range in Europe, which extends thence
over Africa, most of the temperate and hotter parts of
Asia, and is represented in North and South America
by very closely allied forms. The Squacco Heron is a
buff bird with white breast, which has long plumes on
the head and back during the breeding season ; it is
a comparatively small species, and its habits therefore
differ to some extent from those of the Common Heron.
The Night Heron is grey, with black crown and back,
and white head-plumes and breast. The note, generally
heard after dusk, is mournful. Both species breed in
colonies, but the former prefers low trees and bushes for
its nest, while the latter occasionally selects reed-beds.
The Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus) holds an
intermediate position between the Bitterns proper and
the Herons, with an inclination to the habits of the
former. It used to breed occasionally in the eastern
districts of England, but no East Anglian nests have
been recorded for many years, and the bird is now only
an irregular visitor to any part of Britain. The male
is greenish black with buff neck and lower surface ; the
female is nearly brown above and much streaked with
white below. In Europe it nests south of the Baltic,
whence it ranges to north Africa, Central Asia, and
northern India. The food, of the same description as
140 Order VI
that of Herons, is generally sought at night, for in the
day the Little Bittern lurks in the marshes and, if dis-
turbed, stands silently with upturned beak, looking
like a dry reed-stem. Naturally the flight is not very
strong, while the cry is of a grunting nature, sharper
in the female. The nest of marsh vegetation is placed
in reeds, low bushes or even trees and hedges, in or
near swamps, the four or five eggs being white with
scarcely a tinge of blue.
The booming note of the Bittern (Botaurus stettaris)
has again been heard in England. Since the days
when it bred not uncommonly in the marshes of that
country, Wales, and the south of Scotland it has
always continued to visit us in spring, but was shot or
driven away by persecution in almost every case of
later date than 1868. Nevertheless a very young bird
was killed in Norfolk in 1886, and finally in 1912 one
that had lately left the nest was found on the Broads
of that county, while a thorough search terminated
by the discovery of the nest itself. The Bittern bred
in the same district again in 1913, and there is no
reason that it should not continue to do so, if properly
protected. Abroad it occupies the whole Palsearctic
region, except the far north and north Africa. It is
a most striking bird, having very soft plumage, mottled
with buff, chestnut and black, while the head is black,
and the neck exhibits a fine ruff of erectile feathers.
It has a slow flight when seen in the day-time, and is
seldom alert except at night, when it hunts for its
food, which is as varied as that of the Heron ; at other
times it skulks in the dense cover of marshes. The
nest of dry reeds or flags contains four olive-coloured
eggs, often laid in April or even in March.
Herodiones
Family CICONIIDJB, or Storks
141
The White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a rare straggler
to Britain, but is too familiar a bird to be omitted
here. It is common, and for the most part protected,
from Sweden, Holland, and central Europe to Turkey
White Storks
and Greece, as well as in Spain ; in north Africa it
is abundant ; in Asia it ranges eastwards to the central
portions and thereafter meets the Japanese species,
while it has bred in Ceylon. It is a really white Stork,
only the wing-feathers being black, and the bill and legs
red. Instead of using their voice Storks clatter their
bills loudly ; their flight is very strong, and on migration
142 Order VI
the flocks pass at immense altitudes. Anatomically
they are closely connected with Herons and their food
is identical, at least in the case of the present species.
It breeds on trees, towers, houses or their chimneys,
and often on cart-wheels purposely erected on poles ;
the three to five eggs are white with a coarsely grained
shell. The Black Stork is an irregular visitor to us,
and will be found in the subsequent list, while the
Glossy Ibis comes in the same category, at least nowa-
days.
Family PL AT ALE ID JE, or Spoonbills
Far different is the case with the Spoonbill (Platalea
leuc-orodia), which still strays frequently to our shores,
notably those of Breydon Water near Yarmouth in
Norfolk. This fine white bird, with its black and yellow
bill expanding into a flat " spoon " at the end and its
red eyes, used to nest until the twelfth century or later
both in Norfolk and Suffolk, and four centuries after-
wards in Middlesex, Sussex, and Pembrokeshire. There
it bred in high trees, often among the Herons, but in
Holland, southern Spain, and the Danube region it
usually selects reed-beds or bushy trees. It does not
now pass the summer hi France, but is found at that
season in north Africa and across Asia to China and
Ceylon. Some half-a-dozen eggs are deposited on
a mass of reeds or the like, according to situation ;
they have a rough white shell, but are prettily marked
with reddish brown. The Spoonbill hardly utters any
cries, but is not a very shy bird ; its diet includes
fish, frogs, mollusks, crustaceans, and insects, most of
its food being obtained by moving round and round
Herodiones
143
with its bill immersed in the water. The flight is
sufficiently strong, without any peculiar character-
istics.
Spoonbill and Ibises
ORDER VIII. ANSBRBS
The Geese, Swans and Ducks are all classified in one
Family, Anatidce, and shew a great general similarity,
though Swans differ in their much elongated necks.
The bill is broad and generally flattened, though more
conical in Geese, and comparatively long and thin with
hooked tip in the Merganser Ducks ; it is covered with
soft sensitive skin and ends in a horny piece called the
144 Order VIII
" nail." Both mandibles are furnished at their edges
with small hard cross-plates, which act as a sieve when
the bill is shut. The feet are short, the front toes
webbed, with the hind-toe at a higher level, and the
claws small and curved. The wings are rather long
and broad ; the tail is usually of moderate length, but
is much produced in such forms as the Pintail and
Long- tailed Duck. For the simultaneous loss of the
flight-feathers and the eclipse plumage the reader must
be referred to the Introduction. The young are covered
with thick yellow, white, grey or brownish down and
run as well as swim from the shell. The eggs are
unspotted white, green, or creamy, and are bedded in
down torn from the female's breast.
Family ANATID^B, or Geese, Swans, and Ducks
Not only is this Family very extensive, but the
members are distributed over the whole of the globe,
while many of them are residents in or migrants to
our country. For instance, the King Eider is almost
exclusively an Arctic species, the Whooper Swan mainly *
so, the Steamer Duck is Patagonian and Chilian, the
Musk Duck is Australian, and one of the Teals comes
from South Georgia in the Antarctic Seas. Though
all are in the main anatomically alike, yet they are
sufficiently different in appearance and habits to admit
of their being placed in eleven groups or Subfamilies,
of which five concern us as including British species.
SUBFAMILY Anserinse, OR GEESE
We have only a single species of Goose which breeds
with us, one of our four " Grey Geese " as opposed to
our " Black Geese." This is the Grey-lag Goose (Anser
Anseres 145
anser), which till the end of the eighteenth century
bred in the fens of the counties of Cambridge and
Lincoln, and somewhat later in the last-named. Now
it only does so in Caithness, Sutherlandshire, and Ross-
shire including the Hebrides. Abroad it ranges from
Iceland to Kamtschatka and the Danube, while a few
Mute Swan
pairs nest in Denmark, Holland, north Germany, and
even as far south as the Mediterranean. In Asia its
distribution is less certain, but it appears to reach
China and India. The flocks fly high in the shape of
the letter V, and, except when actually breeding,
several individuals are generally seen together. The
cry is often syllabled as " honk-honk," but the bird
E. B. 10
146 Order VIII
can hiss like a tame goose. It feeds by day, on grass
and other green herbage, as well as on grain among the
stubbles; from late summer onwards it resorts to the
sea in the evening. The nest of coarse materials,
gradually lined with down by the sitting female, con-
tains about five rough-shelled yellowish white eggs,
and is built among either grass or heather when the
locality permits ; at times it is on almost bare soil.
This Goose is grey -brown with white belly, the legs and
bill being flesh-coloured with a white " nail " at the
tip of the latter.
Our other three Grey Geese differ not at all in habits,
but have a different distribution. The White-fronted
Goose (A. albifrons), which has also a white nail on the
bill, but a conspicuous white band on the forehead,
black bars on the breast, and orange-yellow bill and feet,
breeds within the Arctic Circle in most of Europe and
Asia, in Greenland and in Iceland; it is accompanied
eastwards from Scandinavia by the smaller and darker
species or race called the Lesser White-fronted Goose,
and in Arctic America by the larger Gambel's Goose.
On migration it is more common on our west coasts
than our east, while the Scandinavian form rarely
visits us. The Bean Goose (A.fabalis) and the Pink-
footed Goose (^4. brachyrhynchus) have a black nail on
the bill, which has also a black base : in the former
bird the central portion of it and the feet are orange, in
the latter pink. The colours, however, vary a little with
age. Neither species has a white forehead or a barred
breast. The Pink-footed Goose is much the commoner
on our eastern coasts, breeds in Iceland, Spitsbergen,
and probably Franz Josef Land ; the Bean Goose from
northern Scandinavia, or perhaps only Russia, through
Anseres 147
the Arctic seas to western Siberia ; the latter is locally
more abundant in western England as well as in
Ireland. To sum up, the "black-nailed" Geese are
those which compose most of our large winter flocks
of Grey Geese, and among them the Pink-footed in most
cases outnumbers the Bean Goose.
Finally we come to our two black Geese, the Bernacle
Goose (Branta leucopsis) which breeds from about
Greenland to Spitsbergen in the Arctic seas, and the
Brent Goose (B. bernicla), certainly the commonest of
the whole group in Britain in the cold season, which
in summer ranges from the east of Arctic America
eastward to the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia. A few
pairs of the first-named nest on the Lofoten Islands
off the coast of Norway. Allowing for an even more
northerly range, the habits of the Black Geese are
similar to those of the Grey Geese, but they feed on
the salt oozes or mud flats rather than on the land,
and are very partial to the grass-wrack that often
covers the flats. The eggs are more creamy in colora-
tion and smaller, as is natural, for the birds are not
as large as Grey Geese. The Brent Goose is entirely
black, except for the white belly and a spot on each
side of the neck, but the Bernacle Goose differs in having
the entire face white and the upper parts lightish grey
with white and black bars.
SUBFAMILY Cygninse, OB SWANS
The Swans are known to us all from our domesti-
cated birds. They fly very powerfully, if a little
heavily, but spend most of their time swimming about
or sleeping on the water, when they are not occupied
in feeding. To reach the water-plants which form
102
148 Order VIII
their main diet they are sometimes obliged to turn
tail upwards as ducks do, but their long necks generally
obviate this difficulty, and they are not accustomed
to dive. The diet may be varied by insects and plants
which are not aquatic.
Our three species of Swans are all perfectly white,
with black feet, though they differ in size, and are
most easily characterized by the bill. The Whooper
(Cygnus cygnus), which used to breed in the Orkneys
and Greenland, but now only ranges from Iceland to
Kamtschatka, chiefly north of the Arctic Circle, has
a yellow beak with black tip, the yellow colour ex-
tending forward to include the nostrils. The much
smaller Bewick's Swan (C. bewicki), a more Arctic and
eastern species, which nests north of the Arctic Circle