CHAPTER IV.

AUKS, GULLS, AND PLOVERS.

THE AUK TRIBE.

GUILLEMOT is found all around Britain, and breeds wherever the sea is fringed by cliffs affording ledges for the reception of the eggs. It breeds in colonies often number-THE is large and pear-shaped. Since the ing many thousands, and lays but one egg, which guillemot builds no nest, but lays its egg on the bare rock, this peculiar shape is advantageous, since it revolves on itself, when disturbed, instead of rolling off the ledge into the sea. At the same time thousands of eggs fall into the sea every year owing to the bird's leaving the egg, whilst incubating, in too great a hurry. At Lundy Island one of the sources of amusement for the gaping tourist was that of firing a shot to frighten the birds, with the result that, at each shot, showers of eggs were knocked off the ledges on to the rocks below. The colour of the egg varies infinitely, no two being quite alike. This, it has been suggested, is useful, as the mother is thereby enabled to identify her of own egg, even when surrounded by hundreds others. The young are covered with long down, still unable to fly, are and when big enough, but taken down by the mother to the sea, being carried, some say, on her back: others say the chick is seized by the wing and carried down. The RAZOR-BILL is nearly, if not quite, as common on the coasts of Britain as the guillemot, from which it may be readily distinguished by its beak, which its By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Tring. is much compressed from side to side hence WHITE TERN. name of Razor-bill and deeply grooved. In habits of white There are two species tern, almost restricted to the it very closely resembles the guillemot, but in one Southern Hemisphere. respect at least it is a more interesting bird, inasmuch as it is related to and closely resembles the now extinct GREAT AUK, the giant of the tribe. The smallest British representative, it should be mentioned, is the LITTLE AUK, a species more nearly allied to the guillemot. It is only a winter visitant to Britain, breeding in huge colonies on the inhospitable shores of Greenland and Iceland.

So quaint a bird as the PUFFIN most certainly finds a place here. One of its most characteristic features is its enormous bill, which is rendered more conspicuous on account of its bright colour. It is bluish at the base, yellow at the tip, and striped with orange. A very remarkable feature of this bill is the fact that it is larger in summer than winter, portions of the sheath being shed in autumn.

Enormous numbers of puffins breed in Ireland; myriads breed on Lundy Island. The Fame Islands, the cliffs of Flamborough, and Scotland are also tenanted by thousands. Puffins breed in holes, which they dig for themselves when occasion requires, but when rabbit-burrows are to be had they prefer these, dispossessing the owners without the slightest compunction. Might, with the puffin, is right, as well as with many other animals. 417 53

By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Tring. WHITE TERN.

4i8 The Living Animals of the World

Young puffins, like young auks and guillemots, are hatched covered with long down. The parents feed them on fish, which they deposit at the mouth of the burrow twenty at a time, is sitting, her mate feedsand give them to the young bird one by one. When the female her in a similar way. Puffins lay only a single egg, which differs from that of its relatives the Auks and Guillemots it in the dark burrow.in being white. The white colour enables the sitting-bird to see

THE GULL TRIBE.

To get at the real inwardness of the Gull Tribe, so to speak, we must examine their anatomy very closely; then we shall be convinced that they are modified Plovers, and have nothing to do with the Petrels, to which they bear an undoubted resemblance.

TERNS. Terns are gulls in miniature, on which account it is probable that many a visitor to the seashore passes them unwittingly. But let him watch next time for what look like flocks of tiny, long-winged, and unusually active gulls, now hovering gracefully in the air, and now suddenly plunging headlong like an arrow to the sea, with a force and dash that will surprise him, now that attention is drawn to them. These are terns. From their vivacity and forked tails, they have been aptly named Sea-swallows.

There are several species of tern. Like the Gulls, they have a distinctive dress for summer and winter, but the sexes are both dressed alike. The general livery, as with the Gulls, is pearly grey above and pure white below in summer, in some species, relieved by a black head. One species, the ROSEATE TERN, has the Photo by G. Watmough Webster & Son} [Chester. breast suffused with a most exquisite TERNS ON A SHINGLE BANK. these are difficult to; from their coloration, stones. surroundingrose-pink, which fades rapidly after Terns lay their eggs amongdetecttheamongshinglethe death, however. Young terns, in their first plumage, differ conspicuously from their parents, having much brown intermixed with grey. ; and Terns lay about three eggs, which are deposited among the shingle on the beach so closely do the eggs, and later on the young, resemble the surrounding stones that it is almost impossible to find them. As a rule terns breed in colonies, often numbering many thousand birds. There are exceptions to the rule just laid down as to nest-building. One species of the NODDY TERNS, for example, builds a nest of turf and dry grass, placed in bushes or in low trees. It seems to return to the same nest year after year, adding on each return new materials, till they form masses nearly 2 feet in height. Occasionally it appears to make a mud-nest, placed in the fork of a tree; whilst the superb little WHITE NODDY often deposits

Auks, Gulls, and Plovers 419

its egg on the leaf of a cocoanut-palm truly a wonderful site, and still more wonderful when we reflect that it is chosen by one of the Gull Tribe.

About six species of tern commonly occur in the British Islands, and some five or six other species occasionally visit them.

SKIMMERS. The SKIMMERS are tern-like birds, with a very wide geographical distribution, occurring in India, Africa, and North and South America, and remarkable for the very extraordinary form of the beak. The upper jaw is much shorter than the lower, and both are compressed to the thinness of a knife-blade. This beak is associated with, and is probably an adaptation to, an equally remarkable method of Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.feeding, which has been admirably Photo by described by Darwin, who watched HERRING-GULL. called from its habit of following the shoals of herrings.them feeding in a lake near Maldonado. So " They kept their bills," he says, ' wide open, and the lower mandible half buried in the water. Thus skimming the surface, ... and it formed a most curious spectacle to behold a flock,they ploughed it in their course; ... theyeach bird leaving its narrow wake on the mirror-like surface. In their flight fish, which aredexterously manage with their projecting lower mandible to plough up small secured by the upper and shorter half of their scissor-like bills."

THE GULLS.

Gulls are larger and heavier birds than terns, with longer legs, and shorter, thicker beaks. Furthermore, with one exception, the tail is never forked. Like the terns, gulls generally breed in colonies, and these are often of large size. Young gulls, when newly hatched, are quite active. Later, when their feathers have grown, they are found to wear a dress quite different from that of the parents. Sometimes the adult plumage is gained at the end Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green. YOUNG HERRING-GULLS IN THE GREY PHASE OF PLUMAGE.of the first year of existence, sometimes not until after the In their dull grey plumage the young of all gulls ara very unlike the adults. third year. Gulls feed on everything that comes in their way, from fish caught swimming at the surface of the sea to worms picked up at the plough-tail.

One of the commonest and best known of all the gulls is perhaps the species known as the BLACK-HEADED GULL, which has become so common in the heart of busy London, river, orwhere hundreds may be seen, during the winter months, flying up and down the

wheeling about ever the lakes in the parks. The black-headed gull receives its popular name on account of the fact that, like some terns and some other gulls, in the spring, the feathers of the head suddenly acquire a sooty-black colour: all trace of this is lost in the winter, save for two patches, one behind each ear. The eggs of this bird are collected in thousands each spring, and sold in London and other markets as plovers' by W. F. Piggotf] [Litton liv".n,-il.eggs. As many as 20,000 Photo have been taken in a season STONE-CURLEW, OR THICK-KNEE. from the extensive gullery at The plumage so closely easilyresembleseffectedthe bysandycrouchingsoil onclosewhichto thetheground.bird lives that concealment is Scoulton Mere, in Norfolk. Three or four eggs are laid in a nest of rushes, which is always placed on the ground in marshy and often inaccessible spots.

The largest of the Gull Tribe is the GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL, which is, furthermore, a common British bird; indeed, it is frequently seen flying, together with the last-mentioned species, on the Thames, doing its best to get a full share of the tit-bits thrown by interested spectators from the various London bridges. Unlike the black-headed gull, it has no seasonal change of plumage, but is clad all the year round in the purest white, set off by a mantle of bluish black. The young of this bird has a quite distinct plumage of greyish brown, and hence has been described as a distinct species the GREY GULL. This dress is gradually changed for the adult plumage, but the process takes about three years. The KITTIWAKE is another of the common British gulls, breeding in thousands in favourable localities on the coasts. Its eggs are deposited on the narrowest and most inaccessible ledges of precipitous cliffs. This species sometimes falls a victim to the fashion of wearing feathers. "At Clovelly," writes Mr. Howard Saunders, " there was a regular staff for preparing plumes; and fishing-smacks, with extra boats and crews, used to commence their work of destruction at Lundy Island by daybreak on the 1st of August.... In many cases the wings were torn off the wounded birds before they were dead, the mangled victims being tossed back into the water." And he has seen, he con- " tinues, hundreds of young birds dead or dying of starvation in the nests, through the want of their parents' care.... It is well

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