104. GOLDEN PLOVER. Charadrius pluvialis, Linnaeus. French, "Pluvier dore."—A common winter visitant to all the Islands, arriving about the end of October or beginning of November, and remaining till the spring, sometimes till they have nearly assumed the black breast of the breeding-season; but I do not know that the Golden Plover ever breeds in the Islands, at all events in the present day.
Professor Ansted includes the Golden Plover in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is one specimen in the Museum, probably killed rather late in the spring, as it is assuming the black breast.
105. DOTTEREL. Eudromias morinellus, Linnaeus. French, "Pluvier guignard."—The common Dotterel is a rare occasional visitant to the Channel Islands, occurring, however, on both the spring and autumn migration, as Mr. MacCulloch says he has a note of a Dotterel killed in May, 1849; he does not say in which of the Islands, but probably in Guernsey; and I have a skin of one, a fine full-plumaged bird, according to Mr. Couch, who forwarded me the skin, a female by dissection, killed in Herm on the 26th of April, 1877. Another skin I have is that of a young bird of the year, killed in the autumn, I should think early in the autumn—August or September; and the Rev. A. Morrës, who kindly gave me this last one, has also a skin of one killed at the same time; both of these were Guernsey killed.
The Dotterel is included in Professor Ansted's list, and by him marked as having occurred in Guernsey and Sark. I should think Alderney a more likely place for the bird to have occurred than Sark, but I have not been able to gain any information about its occurrence there; neither the carpenter bird-stuffer nor his sporting friend had a skin or any part of the bird. There is no specimen now in the Museum.
106. RING DOTTEREL. Ægialitis hiaticula, Linnaeus. French, "Grand pluvier à collier," "Pluvier à collier."—The Ring Dotterel is very common in all the Islands in places suited to it. Some remain throughout the summer, and a few of these, but certainly very few, may breed in the Islands; the great majority, however, of those that frequent the coast in the winter are migrants, arriving in the autumn and departing again in the spring. Some, however, appear to arrive very early, and cannot have bred very far off, perhaps on the neighbouring coast of France or Dorset. I have the following note on the subject in the 'Zoologist' for 1866, which gives the time of their arrival pretty correctly. During the first two or three weeks after my arrival—that was on the 21st of June, 1866—I found Ring Dotterels excessively scarce even on parts of the coast, where, on other visits later in the year, I had found them very numerous. Towards the middle of July, however, they began to frequent their usual haunts in small parties of six or seven, most probably the old birds with their young. These parties increased in number to twenty or thirty, and before my departure, on the last day of July, they mustered quite as thickly as I had ever seen them before. On another summer visit to Guernsey, from the 3rd to the 19th of June, 1876, I did not see any Ring Dotterel at all, though at the time Kentish Plover were common in most of the bays in the low parts of the Island. The Ring Dotterel must therefore have selected some breeding-place separate from the Kentish Plover, probably not very far off; but I do not believe it breeds at all commonly in the Islands. This agrees very much with what I saw of the Ring Dotterel this year (1878); there were a few in L'Ancresse and one or two other bays, but none in Grand Havre, close to which I was living, and I very much doubt if any of those I saw were breeding. Neither Colonel l'Estrange nor I found any eggs, though we searched hard for them both in '76 and '78; neither did we find any eggs either in Herm or Alderney.
Professor Ansted includes the Ring Dotterel in his list, but marks it as only occurring in Guernsey. There is a specimen in the Museum.
107. KENTISH PLOVER. Ægialitis cantianus, Latham. French, "Pluvier à collier interrompu." I have always looked upon the Kentish Plover as only a summer visitant to the Islands, never having seen it in any of my visits in October and November; but Mr. Harvie Brown mentions ('Zoologist' for 1869) seeing some of these birds in January, at Herm, feeding with the Ring Dotterel, but he says they always separated when they rose to fly. If he is not mistaken, which my own experience inclines me to think he was, we must look upon the Kentish Plover as partially resident in the Islands, the greater number, however, departing in the autumn. Until this summer (1878) I have been unsuccessful in finding the eggs of the Kentish Plover, though I have had many hard searches for them; and they are very difficult to find, unless the bird is actually seen to run from the nest, or rather from the eggs, for, as a rule, nest there is none, the eggs being only placed on the sand, with which they get half buried, when they may easily be mistaken for a small bit of speckled granite and passed by. In the summer of 1866, a friend and myself had a long search for the eggs of a pair we saw and were certain had eggs, as they practised all the usual devices to decoy us from them, till my friend, actually thinking one of the birds to be badly wounded, set his dog at it; after this all chance was over: this was in a small sandy bay, called Port Soif, near the Grand Rocques Barracks. I mention this as I am certain these birds had eggs or young somewhere close to us, and this was the farthest point towards Vazon Bay from the Vale I found them breeding. The sandy shores of Grand Havre and L'Ancresse Bay seemed to be their head breeding-quarters in Guernsey. Though I only found one set of eggs in Grand Havre, I am sure there were three or four pairs of birds breeding there; the two eggs I found were lying with their thick ends just touching each other and half buried in sand; there was no nest whatever, not even the sand hollowed out; they were in quite a bare place, just, and only just, above the high-water line of seaweed. I should not have found these if it had not been for the tracks of the birds immediately round them. In L'Ancresse Bay I was not equally fortunate, but there were quite as many pairs of birds breeding there. In Herm the shell-beach seems to be their head breeding-quarters, and there Mr. Howard Saunders, Colonel l'Estrange and myself found several sets of eggs, generally three in number, but in one or two instances four: these were probably hard-sat; in one instance, with four eggs, the eggs were nearly upright in the sand, the small end being buried, and the thick end just showing above the sand. In no instance in which I saw the eggs was there the slightest attempt at a nest; but Colonel l'Estrange told me that in one instance, in which he had found some eggs a day or two before I got to Guernsey, quite the end of May, he found there was a slight attempt at a nest, a few bents of the rough herbage which grew in the sand just above high-water mark having been collected and the nest lined with them. I have not found any eggs in Alderney, but I have no doubt they breed in some of the sandy bays to the north of the Island occasionally, if not always, as I have seen them there in the breeding-season, both in 1876 and in 1866. This summer (1878) I was so short a time in that Island that I had not time to search the most likely places, but Captain Hubbach wrote me—"I do not think the Kentish Plover remained here to breed this year, although I saw some about in April."
Professor Ansted includes the Kentish Plover in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is one specimen, a male, in the Museum.
108. TURNSTONE. Strepsilas interpres, Linnaeus. French, "Tourne pierre," "Tourne pierre a collier." The cosmopolitan Turnstone is resident in the Channel Islands; throughout the year its numbers, however, are much increased in the autumn by migrants, many of which remain throughout the winter, leaving the Islands for their breeding-stations in the spring. Some of those that remain throughout the summer I have no doubt breed in the Islands, as I have seen the old birds about with their young and shot one in July; and on the 8th of June, 1876, I saw a pair in full breeding plumage in L'Ancresse Bay; I saw them again about the same place on the 16th: these birds were evidently paired, and I believe had eggs or young on a small rocky island about two or three hundred yards from the land, but there was no boat about, and so I could not get over to look for the eggs. Col. l'Estrange obtained some eggs on one of the rocky islands to the north of Herm, which certainly were not Tern's eggs as he supposed, and I believe them to have been Turnstone's; unluckily he did not take the eggs himself, but the boatman who was with him took them, so he did not see the bird go off the nest. This last summer (1878) I was in hopes of being more successful either in Guernsey itself or in Herm, or the rocks near there, but I did not see a single Turnstone alive the whole time I was in Guernsey. I think it very likely, however, I should have been successful in Herm, as I visited it several times both by myself and with Col. l'Estrange and Mr. Howard Saunders; our first visit was on June the 21st, when we did not see a single Turnstone; but this was afterwards accounted for, as on a visit to Jago, the bird-stuffer, a short time afterwards, I found him skinning a splendid pair of Turnstones which had been shot in Herm a few days before our visit on the 17th or 18th of June; the female had eggs ready for extrusion; I need not say I did not exactly bless the person who, in defiance of the Guernsey Sea Birds Act, had shot this pair of Turnstones, as had they been left I have no doubt we should have seen them, and probably found the eggs, and quite settled the question of the Turnstone's breeding there. I have long been very sceptical on this subject, but now I have very little doubt, as I think, seeing the birds about, paired, in Guernsey in June and the pair shot in Herm, the female with eggs in June, pretty well removes any doubt as to the Turnstone breeding in the Islands, and I do not see why it should not, as it breeds quite as far south in the Azores, and almost certainly in the Canaries.[[18]] Mr. Rodd, however, tells me he does not believe in its breeding in the Scilly Islands, though it is seen about there throughout the year, as it is in the Channel Islands. Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks on Professor Ansted's list, merely says, "The Turnstone is found about the neighbourhood of Herm throughout the year." It occurs also in Alderney in the autumn, but I have not seen it there in the breeding-season.
Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There are a male and female, in breeding plumage, in the Museum, and also one in winter plumage.