and ubiquitous plant. It was growing in a
garden with its usual allowance of sunlight ;
but an adjacent rosette was taken up and
planted in a large bowl where a
miniature garden was being formed.
By mistake the bowl was even-
tually moved to the darker side of
the room right away from the
window, and left there for a week
or so. When again brought to the
light it was pitiful to see the
desperate efforts that the little
plants in the miniature garden
had made to get an adequate
supply of the necessary sunlight.
The London pride rosette, starved
of its light supply, was making a
gallant but futile attempt to reach
the light before it was too late,
and its normally dwarf stem had
started to grow towards the
window. It was sacrificing its
leaves to the needs of its stem,



for these had ceased growing,
and those nearest the tip were
exceedingly minute. Moreover,
both the leaves and the stem
were almost colourless the
plant was not going to produce
the green colouring bodies until
there was some work for them
to do. In fact, it was devoting
every power it possessed to
reaching salvation in the shape
of sunlight ; it appeared to be
almost crawling to the light
instead of sitting and basking
in it as was the attitude of its
more fortunate brother in the
garden.

In the same bowl had also
been planted some tiny house-
leeks, one of which is " A " in
the next photograph, and they,
too, cut off from the light, were acting in a
similar manner. There again the middle of
the houseleek had begun to grow out in a
manner that was entirely foreign to its




beautiful mosaic on a horizontal branch of Lime*
Notice how cleverly the leaves "fit in."
464



BY-WAYS OF PLANT LIFE




A B

Compare A, an ordinary rosette of London Pride
growing in a garden having plenty of light, with B,
a poor plant which was placed in a dark corner of a
room and forgotten. The latter is making a desperate
effort to grow to the light at a far-distant window.



This finished, the plant was
useless, but it was so charming
an object that one hesitated to
throw it away, so it was care-
fully put with a little water at
the bottom of a deep sponge dish
at the back of the washing-stand
and forgotten. Two or three
days later a friend said, " What-
ever is this ? " and there lay a
most remarkable-looking object,
more like some quaint little vege-
table than a beautiful mosaic.
The centre of the plant had
nature, and the little leaves instead of being humped itself up some two inches, using
clustered together were scattered along the its outer ring of leaves and their stalks
stem. In " B," a plant only midway back, as feet and legs for this purpose, and
the stem was only a little elongated and the sacrificing them as leaves, for they were
outer part of the old rosette still clustered already turning yellow and beginning to
round its base. But look at " c." Here decay. Meanwhile the younger and more
the plant is in an extremity of desperation, central leaves and stalks were stretching up
All the original leaves of the rosette have towards the light like yearning arms. It was
been drawn upon for nutriment and sacri- at once obvious that this was the plant's
ficed to build up the stem rapidly extending last desperate effort to reach the light above
in the direction of the window. The posi- those dark imprisoning walls of the sponge
tion is one of " now or never." There are dish. It was a remarkable feat when one
long distances between such tiny colourless came to look into it. All the leaves were
leaves as do exist, and towards the tip there equally fresh and green at the outset and all
are no leaves at all. After a time, if sufH- on the same level. How was it, then, that
cient light is not attained, the unfortunate in this emergency they jointly initiated a
plant, attenuated, colourless and the' picture rational scheme which demanded that the
of misery, must die. Sunlight is vital to green outer leaves and stalks should press down-
plants just as green plants are vital to man. wards and hoist the central part no light

A little wild crane's-bill afforded
a striking and almost incredible
instance of a plant adapting itself
to abnormal conditions an in-
stance so striking that it was
difficult to believe there was not a
mind working behind it. On the
top of an old wall in the Lake
District the writer found a number
of little crane's-bills embedded in
moss and lying flat upon it, leaf c
patterns upon a velvet-like back-
ground. Each formed such a
beautiful mosaic that the short
central stem of one was cut across
(its roots left in the moss) and,
carefully laid upon a book to keep
its " pattern," was taken home
to be photographed. The illus-

tration on page 466, looking ^ & p]ant -^ f&p back fpom the Hght> and> g - op ._
straight down on the plant, was ficin g all> is ma kj n g a f Pan tic effort to reach it before




Witness the efforts of a starved Houseleek to obtain
an adequate supply of sunlight. A is the normal
plant ; B is a plant at some distance from the



the result.



it is starved to death.



4 6 5



THE PAGEANT OF NATURE



weight into the air towards the light,
while the younger leaves on their shorter
stalks should press upwards to attain a still
higher level ? It is precisely the course of
action two men would take to reach some-
thing beyond the grasp of either. One man
would be " legs " and hoist the other on




and carefully noted, might be made by
any one anxious to explore the by-ways of
Nature and the resourcefulness of plants to
meet exceptional difficulties. Their in-
genuity is probably not less than that of
some of the prisoners who escaped from
war prison camps. The writer found
most weird objects resulting from
growing crocus bulbs at the dark
end of a long cellar where there
was a small window at the opposite
end. These objects were thick,
fleshy and about five inches in
height ; variously contorted, as though
carved out of ivory, and totally un-
recognizable as crocus plants. And
these abnormalities are not mere




his back, and the latter
would reach upwards
to the desired object.
We have seen, more-
over, that leaves have
a tendency to grow to-
wards the light ; what in-
stinct, then, made these This little wild Crane's-bill (A) grew flat on the top of a mossy
outer leaves renounce wall and spread its leaves in this beautiful mosaic to the
this tenrlenrv ? Further sunshine. A remarkable transformation (B) occurred after
cr j the plant had been left for several days at the bottom of a

as the central part and deep spon g e d ish away from the light. In an heroic attempt
the up-reaching leaves to reach the light, the outer leaves and stalks became feet and
were still fresh green legs to hoist the plant upwards, while the younger ones stretched
and turgid, the water upwards like arms.

they required must have been absorbed by curiosities, but help to show what qualities

of life are directly induced by the presence

of sunlight.



the " feet-leaves " and passed upwards
along their down-pressing stalks. In fact,
the whole affair was a remarkable episode,



Another wide field of research which we



and presents a conundrum most difficult commend to the student of the curious is
to explain in a plant where there is neither that of the growth of plants in different



consciousness nor intelligence.



coloured lights, e.g. red, blue, green, that is,



The whole subject of growth in relation in sunlight from which the various constit-

to light is peculiarly fascinating, and ex- uent rays have been eliminated. Here again

periments on the lines of the above acci- there are most remarkable results, the full

dental incidents, but originated by design measure of which has yet to be ascertained.



466






Wonders of Bird Life







The Great Black Back Gull is the largest member of the family found breeding in

the British Isles. It is about thirty inches in length, and weighs nearly five

pounds. This bird has been known to carry off a dead lamb.



20.-THE GREATER AND LESSER BLACK

BACKED GULLS

By RICHARD KEARTON, F.Z.S., etc.

With photographs by the Author



THE two gulls here treated are both
common in and around the British
Isles throughout the year, with a
very noticeable increase in their numbers
during the nesting season ; this fact is
accounted for by their gathering from
all the seas and congregating in their
time-immemorial breeding quarters. They
are both omnivorous. No kind of carrion
comes amiss. I have seen them attack
dead rats and whales with equal zest.
Some years ago whilst I was studying wild-



bird life in the Shetlands, two dead whales,
supposed by the natives to have been killed
in a fight, drifted ashore on different
islands, and for days on end clouds of great
black back, lesser black back and herring
gulls tore and feasted, fought and yelled in
the midst of an indescribably foul stench.
Both the birds under notice are inveterate
egg-stealers, hence their presence is not
welcomed near any game preserve. The
lesser black back has been known to choke
itself with a wild duck's egg.



467



THE PAGEKttT OF MATURE




With a wing expansion of close upon six feet, the Great Black Back Gull planing
down to alight, presents an illustration of perfect control of movement, power, grace,

and beauty.



The flight of these gulls is easy and grace-
ful, and I have often marvelled at the celerity
with which they will catch up and follow an
ocean liner travelling in the teeth of a stiff
breeze. Should a quantity of broken food
and scraps be thrown overboard, all the birds



in the neighbourhood will pounce upon it,
and, in the wake of the boat, make the sea
boil in their endeavours to secure the most
delectable titbits ; but directly all the food
has been devoured, those with any capacity
left for more will rise into the air and by a




When at rest, the autocrat of the winds and waves, the Great Black Back Gull,
stands out conspicuous in the sable mantle which earns him his name.

468



WONDERS OF BIRD LIFE




Leaping off a rock in order to gain room for the downstroke of his powerful wings the
Great Black Back Gull begins to rise.



few strokes of their powerful wings overtake
the ship, and calmly float over her on out-
stretched pinions without the slightest
apparent exertion.

The great black back gull is the largest
member of its family found breeding in the
British Isles. It is about thirty inches



in length, has a wing expansion of close upon
six feet, and weighs nearly five pounds. The
sexes are similar in appearance, but the
female is a little smaller.

Although scattered all round the English
and Welsh coasts in winter, where it may be
seen standing on mudflats and sandbanks,




A second or so later, he attains the full stroke of the great wings, and gracefully

soars to his kingdom of the air.
469



THE PAGEANT OF NATURE



a veritable giant compared with the common (i) the great black back has flesh-coloured

and black-headed gulls around it, the great legs, whereas those of its relative are yellow ;

black back mostly retires to Scotland and (2) the black of the bird's mantle or back

Ireland to breed in the springtime. In the is of a more intense character than in the

early decades of last century, according to case of its congener. The loud harsh bark-

Yarrell, the great black back used to breed ing notes of this gull are also distinguishable

as close to London as the estuary of the from those of any other member of the family.



Thames, where it was known as " the cob."
The great black back is frequently con-
with its more numerous relative the



The strength of the great black back
is enormous. I have found a dead lamb
lying by a nest built on a small island in the







:



The flight of the Lesser Black Back and the Herring Gull is at once easy and graceful.
When flying against a stiff breeze in the wake of a steamer, the birds make a

marvellous speed.



lesser black back gull, of which it may be said
to be a larger edition. Size is not a very
safe guide to identification, however, when
the bird is on the wing or standing at a con-
siderable distance, as atmospheric condi-
tions have to be reckoned with, and are
sometimes apt to be misleading. I have
called up an old cock grouse at break of
day upon a misty morning, and upon
alighting on a heather knoll five-and-twenty
yards away he has appeared to loom as large
as a turkey.

Safer guides to correct identification are :



Hebrides, in circumstances that proved it had
been brought from a considerable distance.
Grey mentions an instance of a great
black back, " shot on the Fame Islands at
some distance from the water, that was found
to have swallowed a piece of fish about
four inches long, to which had been fas-
tened two hooks and a strong line thirty-
seven feet in length with a stone seven
pounds in weight at the end," the in-
ference being that the unlucky bird had
flown with this enormous weight from the
mainland to the Fame Islands.



470



WONDERS OF BIRD LIFE



At St. Kilda I have seen one of these
birds kill and tear a sickly puffin to pieces ;



Noss, close to Lerwick, in the Shetlands.
There is no access to this more or less flat-



indeed, such is its swallowing capacity that topped rock-stack since the cradle that used
it has been known to gulp down whole to travel slung on ropes across the yawning



a bird as large as a redshank.



chasm separating the rock-stack from the



Of the bird's great intelligence I have had island of Bressay was destroyed, and the birds



are thus enabled to breed in perfect safety.
I have been told it is impossible to throw



many proofs. Some years ago whilst

studying wild or grey lag geese at home in

their breeding quarters, I

was astonished to discover

that every nest I found

and examined was robbed

within a few hours, in spite

of the fact that I covered

the eggs over carefully with

down, and even increased

the density of the canopy

of heather overhead.

Ultimately I discovered
that I was being carefully
watched by two or three
pairs of great black backs
hovering in the air above,
and that the birds were
taking advantage of my re-
searches. A keeper who
accompanied me one day
shot at them as they
wheeled about, but
although we could dis-
tinctly hear his No. 4 shot
rattle on their wing quills,
it had no visible effect ex-
cept to make the birds soar
to a higher altitude. Down-clad young of the Great Black Back Gull leave the

On another occasion I nest soon after 5 they are hatched. It is said that they do
had a keeper out helping me not attain their full adult plumage until the fifth breeding
to photograph the specimen

shown in our illustration, on a small rocky a stone on to this rock-stack and also a
island in the middle of a Highland mountain similar one near to Thurso, upon which
loch. My bird and other members of a gulls breed from the mainland, but as a
small colony in which it lived did not seem matter of fact I have landed stones on both
at all to mind the man as he fished and of them when I was younger, which will
waited for me in the distance, but when I give the reader some idea of their closeness
was accompanied a day or two afterwards by to the shore.

a different keeper, not a bird would come The great black back frequently constructs
near the island whilst he was within sight a large and somewhat slovenly nest of sea-
of it, although I waited long and patiently, weed, heather, dead grass and bits of wool.
I learnt afterwards that this man had shot The wing quills of other gulls that may have
at the birds some days previous to my first died or been killed in the neighbourhood
visit. They knew him again undoubtedly, are frequently utilized.

Two, but more generally three, eggs are
laid in a clutch. In ground colour these




and were running no risks.

This species is gregarious in some places
and solitary in others. I think the largest



vary from yellowish to light olive brown,



colony I have ever seen is on the Holm of blotched with dark brown and slate grey



THE PAGEANT OF NATURE



spots. The down-clad young ones leave
the nest soon after they are hatched, and
wander about. It is said that they do not
attain their full adult plumage until the
fifth breeding season.

The lesser black-backed gull is far more



me, reverses things in Scotland, where it
predominates in point of numbers.

It feeds upon any kind of carrion that
may happen to be thrown up by the tide ;
crabs, any surface swimming fish it may
be lucky or dexterous enough to catch,

worms and grubs
If turned up by the
plough, the eggs
and young of
other birds, and
frequently upon
grain in the
spring.

In the Outer
Hebrides I have
watched lesser
black backs, wild
duck and rock
doves, all hunting
for stray un-
covered oats in a
newly-sown field.
The husks of the
corn are not di-
gested by the
gulls, but are cast
up in " pellets "
or " quids," just
as owls, rooks, and
other birds eject
undigestible por-
tions of anything
they happen to
swallow.

During the ex-
cessively hard
winter of 1895
this and other
members of the
laridce family were
driven to a diet
of turnips in order
to maintain their
existence in North
Uist, and my
friends tell me
that the birds

numerous as a species than its relative just have kept up the practice ever since, in the
described. It breeds in great numbers on absence of a plentitude of other food,
the Fame Islands, but nowhere south of It is said that members of this species
this point on the East Coast or in the south will occasionally attack human intruders
until we come to Devon and Cornwall. It upon the privacy of a breeding haunt. I
is not so numerous as the herring gull in have been subjected to angry demonstra-
Ireland, but so far as my experience carries tions at more than one gullery, but do not

473







The Lesser- Black Back Gull, as a species, is far more numerous than

its relative the Great Black Back. It breeds in vast numbers on the

Fame Islands, but nowhere south of this point on the East Coast or

in the south of England until Devon and Cornwall.







":









A GRACEFUL LANDING
Greater Black-backed Gulls coming in from the sea

Photograph by M. Best




LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL AND YOUNG, SCILLY ISLES

Photograph by Eleanor Shiffner




LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL TURNING HER EGGS

Photograph by M. Best




THE HOMEWARD FLIGHT
Lesser Black-backed Gull on Loch Linnhe, near Fort William

Photograph by Niall Rankin




A STUDY IN SOLITUDE

Lesser Black-backed Gull
Photograph by G. C. S. Ingram



WONDERS OF BIRD LIFE



remember ever being actually struck by a
lesser black back. Grace Darling's father,
who was a lighthouse-keeper on the Fame
Island, has, however, recorded the fact that
" an old woman who was in the habit of
gathering their eggs . had her bonnet
almost torn to pieces, it being perforated
throughout " by the bills of infuriated
lesser black-backed gulls.

The nests vary considerably in regard to
the amount of material used. Sometimes
quite a large structure of seaweed and green
grass may be met with, whilst at others the
eggs may be discovered in a hollow where
the grass has been trodden down, or in an
absolutely bare scrape in the peat earth.

The eggs number from two to four, but
three is an average clutch. They are
very variable in ground colour, from dark
olive brown to pale bluish-green, spotted,
blotched and streaked with ash-grey, pale
brown and dark liver-brown.



A member of this species has been known
to mate with a herring gull in confinement.
In the offspring the mantle was paler than
that of the lesser black back, but not so
light as that of a herring gull.

Whilst on the Dogger Bank in the early
spring, I have watched both lesser black
back and herring gulls emboldened by
hunger seize and carry away herrings from
nets that had almost been hauled inboard.

Strange things occasionally happen in
the realms of Nature. Some years ago an
eider duck and lesser black-backed gull
nested side by side on the Fame Islands.
A visitor put the birds off, and the latter
returning home first promptly devoured her
neighbour's treasures. A little later on
the eider duck, finding her enemy absent,
took possession of her nest and its contents.
I made a special journey in order to
record this unique happening with my
camera, but, alas ! had no luck.




All kinds of carrion thrown up by the tide provide food for Lesser Black Back
Gulls. Emboldened by hunger, they have been seen to carry away herrings from
nets that had almost been hauled inboard.



34



473




Photo; Stanley Crook.



-

Newly-fledged Kingfishers have the same brilliant plumage as the adults. It is
retained through all seasons of the year.



21.-PLUMAGE, COURTSHIP AND SONG

By A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, O.B.E., D.Sc.



IN thinking of decorative plumage we are
apt to be prejudiced by our own human
conceptions of beauty. Many birds,
it is true, have plumages which we do not
hesitate to describe as highly ornamental, and
this is so even in the case of our northern
avifauna, although brightly coloured birds
are less common with us than they are
in the tropics. Nevertheless, it is worth
while remembering that many birds which
to our eyes are but plainly garbed may be
none the less attractive according to their
own standards, and it is obviously these
standards which have to be considered when
we are discussing courtship and preferential
mating. The same principle holds good
with regard to bird music. At the same time
we can without partiality distinguish between



those birds with notable developments of
either plumage or voice which are obviously
ornamental in function, whether specially
beautiful to us or not, and those birds
possessing no very consipcuous characters
of this kind.

In some birds, for instance, there are well-
marked differences in plumage between the
sexes, and in certain cases these may be
enhanced by some special development
during the b ceding season. Many of the
distinguishing characters take the form of
crests or tail-streamers, or are in some other
way clearly ornamental rather than utili-
tarian in purpose. But this question of
sexual and seasonal plumages is complicated
by many differences in principle between
one kind of bird and another.



474



WONDERS OF BIRD LIFE



Some birds which have a brightly- It should be added that there are also
coloured plumage, as, for example, the king- seasonal plumage changes which serve other
fisher, wear this irrespective of sex, season purposes than those of ornament and court -
or age ; even the young birds new-fledged ship. On the Scottish mountains, for in-
in their nest displaying the
gaudy plumes. In other
birds the young are of
sober hue, but the adults
of both sexes have a bright
plumage all the year round ;
of this the starling, with
its beautiful iridescent
adult dress, is a good native
example. In birds like the
golden plover, on the other
hand, the sexes are alike,
but both cock and hen have
in the summer a common
nuptial plumage, in this
case characterized by black
underparts with a white
edging between these and
the greenish-gold of the
upper surface. Similarly,
both sexes of the well-
known black-headed gull
lose in winter the character
from which the species
takes its name.

There are other cases
again in which the sexes are very distinct
in appearance, the male being usually
the more ornamental, as it is often the
larger, of the two. The cock pheasant
with its bright colouring and very long
tail is thus permanently different in plum-
age from the plainly coloured, shorter-
tailed hen. The same is true of nearly
all the different species of wild duck,
except that the drake has a strange period
of " eclipse " in the late summer ; at this
time he moults with such rapidity that he is
often temporarily unable to fly, and has to
go into hiding, taking no part in the domestic
duties, and for a short time he is a dull-
coloured bird lacking the fine feathers
which he carries from October to July.

In still other species the sexes are more
or less alike during the winter, but the male
alone has a special nuptial dress. One of
the best British examples of this is the ruff,
a bird of the sandpiper family in which the stance, the ptarmigan is " camouflaged "
male in the breeding season acquires a to suit the seasons, being brown on most of
large ornamental frill of feathers of very its more visible parts during the summer