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.