114. COMMON SANDPIPER. Totanus hypoleucos, Linnaeus. French, "Chevalier guignette."—The Common Sandpiper, or Summer Snipe as it is sometimes called, is a spring and autumn visitant, but never a numerous one, sometimes, however, remaining till the summer. One of Mr. De Putron's men told me he had seen one or two about their pond all this summer (1878), and he believed they bred there; but as to this I am very sceptical; I could see nothing of the bird when I visited the pond in June and July, and I fancy the birds stayed about, as they do sometimes about my own pond here in Somerset, till late perhaps in May, and then departed to breed elsewhere. The latest occurrence I know of was one recorded by Mr. Couch in the 'Zoologist' for 1874, as having been killed on the 3rd of October. Mr. Couch adds that this was the first specimen of the Common Sandpiper he had had since he had been in the Islands.
The Common Sandpiper is included in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen in the Museum.
115. BARTAILED GODWIT. Limosa lapponica, Linnaeus. French, "Barge rousse."—The Bar-tailed Godwit is a regular and sometimes rather numerous spring and autumn visitant. In May, 1876, a considerable number of these birds seem to have rested on the little Island of Herm, where the keeper shot three of them; two of these are now in my possession, and are very interesting, as though all shot at the same time—I believe on the same day—they are in various stages of plumage, the most advanced being in thorough breeding-plumage, and the other not nearly so far advanced; and the third, which I saw but have not got, was not so far advanced as either of the others. In the two which I have the change of colour in the feathers, without moult, may be seen in the most interesting manner, especially in the least advanced, as many of the feathers are still parti-coloured, the colouring matter not having spread over the whole feather; in the most advanced, however, nearly all the feathers were fully coloured with the red of the breeding-plumage. This red plumage remains till the autumn, when it is replaced, after the moult, by the more sombre and less handsome grey of the winter plumage. Though the Bar-tailed Godwit goes far north to breed, not breeding much nearer than Lapland and the north of Norway and Sweden, both old and young soon show themselves again in the Channel Islands on their return journey, as I shot a young bird of the year in Herm the last week in August. Most of the autumn arrivals, however, soon pass on to more southern winter quarters, only a few remaining very late, perhaps quite through the winter, as I have one shot in Guernsey as late as the 14th of December; this one, I need hardly say, is in full winter plumage, and of course presents a most striking difference to the one shot in Herm in May.
The Bar-tailed Godwit is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as occurring in Guernsey. It is, however, as I have shown, perhaps more common in Herm, and it also occurs in Alderney. There is a series of these in the Museum in change and breeding-plumage.
The Blacktailed Godwit is also included in Professor Ansted's list, but I have never seen the bird in the Islands or been able to glean any information concerning it, and there is no specimen in the Museum.
116. GREENSHANK. Totanus canescens, Gmelin. French, "Chevalier gris," "Chevalier aboyeur."—The Greenshank can only be considered a rare occasional visitant. I have never shot or seen it myself in the Islands, but Miss C.B. Carey records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1872 as having been shot on the 2nd of October of that year, and brought to Mr. Couch's, at whose shop she saw it.
The Greenshank is included in Professor Ansted's list, but there is no letter to note which of the Islands it has occurred in. There is no specimen in the Museum.
117. RUFF. Machetes pugnax, Linnaeus. French, "Combatant," "Combatant variable."—The Ruff is an occasional but not very common autumn and winter visitant; it occurs, probably, more frequently in the autumn than the winter. Mr. MacCulloch writes me, "I have a note of a Ruff shot in October, 1871." This probably was, like all the Guernsey specimens I have seen, a young bird of the year in that state of plumage in which it leads to all sorts of mistakes, people wildly supposing it to be either a Buff-breasted or a Bartram's Sandpiper. Miss C.B. Carey records one in the 'Zoologist' for 1871 as shot in September of that year; this was a young bird of the year. Miss C.B. Carey also records two in the 'Zoologist' for 1872 as having been shot about the 13th of April in that year; these she describes as being in change of plumage but having no ruff yet; probably the change of colour in the feathers was beginning before the long feathers of the ruff began to grow; and this agrees with what I have seen of the Ruff in confinement; the change of colour in the feathers of the body begins before the ruff makes its appearance.
Professor Ansted includes the Ruff in his list, and only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum at present.
118. WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticola, Linnaeus. French, "Becasse ordinaire."—The Woodcock is a regular and tolerably common autumnal visitant to all the Islands, arriving and departing about the same time as in England,—none, however, remaining to breed, as is so frequently the case with us. There might be some good cock shooting in the Islands if the Woodcocks were the least preserved, but as soon as one is heard of every person in the Island who can beg, borrow, or steal a gun and some powder and shot is out long before daylight, waiting for the first shot at the unfortunate Woodcock as soon as there should be sufficient daylight. In fact, such a scramble is there for a chance at a Woodcock that a friend of mine told me he got up long before daylight one morning and went to a favourite spot to begin at; thinking to be first on the ground, he sat on a gate close by waiting for daylight; but so far from his being the first, he found, as it got light, three other people, all waiting, like himself, to begin as soon as it was light enough, each thinking he was going to be first and have it all his own way with the cocks. Besides the gun, another mode of capturing the Woodcocks used till very lately to be, and perhaps still is, practised at Woodlands and some other places where practicable in Guernsey. Nets are set across open paths between the trees, generally Ilex, through which the Woodcocks take their flight when going out "roading," as it is called—that is, when on their evening excursion for food; into these nets the Woodcocks fly and become easy victims.