Though perhaps not possessing the
interest to the ornithologist which Lundy Island (the
only breeding-place of the Gannet in the South-West
of England) or the Scilly Islands possess, or being
able to produce the long list of birds which the indefatigable
Mr. Gaeetke has been able to do for his little island,
Heligoland, the avifauna of Guernsey and the neighbouring
islands is by no means devoid of interest; and as little
has hitherto been published about the Birds of Guernsey
and the neighbouring islands, except in a few occasional
papers published by Miss C.B. Carey, Mr. Harvie
Browne, myself, and a few others, in the pages of
the ‘Zoologist,’ I make no excuse for publishing
this list of the birds, which, as an occasional visitor
to the Channel Islands for now some thirty years,
have in some way been brought to my notice as occurring
in these Islands either as residents, migrants, or
occasional visitants.
Channel Island specimens of several
of the rarer birds mentioned, as well as of the commoner
ones, are in my own collection; and others I have
seen either in the flesh or only recently skinned in
the bird-stuffers’ shops. For a few, of
course, I have been obliged to rely on the evidence
of others; some of these may appear, perhaps, rather
questionable, as, for instance, the Osprey, but
I have always given what evidence I have been able
to collect in each case; and where evidence of the
occurrence was altogether wanting, I have thought it
better to omit all mention of the bird, though its
occasional occurrence may seem possible.
I have confined myself in this list
to the Birds of Guernsey and the neighbouring islands Sark,
Alderney, Jethou and Herm; in fact to the islands
included in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. I have
done this as I have had no opportunity of personally
studying the birds of Jersey, only having been in
that island once some years ago, and then only for
a short time, and not because I think a notice of
the birds of Jersey would have been devoid of interest,
though whether it would have added many to my list
maybe doubtful. Professor Ansted’s list,
included in his large and very interesting work on
the Channel Islands, is hitherto the only attempt
at a regular list of the Birds of the Channel Islands;
but as he, though great as a geologist, is no ornithologist,
he was obliged to rely in a great measure on information
received from others, and this apparently was not
always very reliable, and he does not appear to have
taken much trouble to sift the evidence given to him.
Professor Ansted himself states that his list is necessarily
imperfect, as he received little or no information
from some of the Islands; in fact, Guernsey and Sark
appear to be the only two from which much information
had been received. This is to be regretted, as
it has made the notice of the distribution of the
various birds through the Islands, which he has denoted
by the letters a, e, i, o, u appended to
the name of each bird, necessarily faulty. The
ornithological notes, however, supplied by Mr. Gallienne
are of considerable interest, and are generally pretty
reliable. It is rather remarkable, however, that
Professor Ansted has not always paid attention to
these notes in marking the distribution of the birds
through the various Islands.
No doubt many of the birds included
in Professor Ansted’s list were included merely
on the authority of specimens in the museum of the
Mechanics’ Institute, which at one time was a
pretty good one; and had sufficient care been taken
to label the various specimens correctly as to place
and date, especially distinguishing local specimens
from foreign ones, of which there were a good many,
would have been a very interesting and useful local
museum; as it is, the interest of this museum is considerably
deteriorated. Some of the birds in the museum
are confessedly foreign, having been brought from
various parts of the world by Guernsey men, who when
abroad remembered the museum in their own Island,
and brought home specimens for it. Others, as
Mr. Gallienne, who during his life took much interest
in the museum, himself told me had been purchased
from various bird-stuffers, especially from one in
Jersey; and no questions were asked as to whether the
specimens bought were local or set-up from skins obtained
from the Continent or England. Amongst those
so obtained may probably be classed the Blue-throated
Warblers, included in Professor Ansted’s list
and marked as Jersey (these Mr. Gallienne himself
told me he believed to be Continental and not genuine
Channel Island specimens), the Great Sedge Warbler,
the Meadow Bunting, the Green Woodpecker, and perhaps
a few others.
This museum, partly from want of interest
being taken in it and partly from want of money, has
never had a very good room, and has been shuffled
and moved about from one place to another, and consequently
several birds really valuable, as they could be proved
to be genuine Channel Island specimens, have been
lost and destroyed; in fact, had it not been for the
care and energy of Miss C.B. Carey, who took great
pains to preserve what she found remaining of the collection,
and place it in some sort of order, distinguishing
by a different coloured label those specimens which
could be proved to be Channel Island (in doing this
she worked very hard, and received very little thanks
or encouragement, but on the contrary met with a considerable
amount of genuine obstructiveness), the whole of the
specimens in the museum would undoubtedly have been
lost; as it is, a good many valuable local specimens valuable
as being still capable of being proved to be genuine
Channel Island specimens have been preserved,
and a good nucleus kept for the foundation of a new
museum, should interest in the subject revive and
the local authorities be disposed to assist in its
formation. In my notices of each bird I have
mentioned whether there is a specimen in the museum,
and also whether it is included in Professor Ansted’s
list, and if so in which of the Islands he has marked
it as occurring.
No doubt the Ornithology of the Channel
Islands, as is the case in many counties of England,
has been considerably changed by drainage works, improved
cultivation, and road-making; much alteration of this
sort I can see has taken place during the thirty years
which I have known the Islands as an occasional visitor.
But Mr. MacCulloch, who has been resident in the Islands
for a much longer period in fact, he has
told me nearly double has very kindly supplied
me with the following very interesting note on the
various changes which have taken place in Guernsey
during the long period he has lived in that island;
he says, “I can well recollect the cutting of
most of the main roads, and the improvement, still
going on, of the smaller ones. It was about the
beginning of this century that the works for reclaiming
the Braye du Valle were undertaken; before that time
the Clos du Valle was separated from the mainland
by an arm of the sea, left dry at low water, extending
from St. Samson’s to the Vale Church. This
was bordered by salt marshes only, covered occasionally
at spring tides by the sea, some of which extended
pretty far inland. The meadows adjoining were
very imperfectly drained, as indeed some still are,
and covered with reeds and rushes, forming excellent
shelter for many species of aquatic birds. Now,
as you know, by far the greater part of the land is
well cultivated and thickly covered with habitations.
The old roads were everywhere enclosed between high
hedges, on which were planted rows of elms; and the
same kind of hedge divided the fields and tenements.
Every house, too, in those days had its orchard, cider
being then universally drunk; and the hill-sides and
cliffs were covered with furze brakes, as in all country
houses they baked their own bread and required the
furze for fuel. Now all that is changed.
The meadows are drained and planted with brocoli for
the early London market, to be replaced by a crop of
potatoes at the end of the summer. The trees are
cut down to let in the sun. Since the people
have taken to gin-drinking, cider is out of favour
and the orchards destroyed. The hedges are levelled
to gain a few perches of ground, and replaced in many
places by stone walls; the furze brakes rooted up,
and the whole aspect and nature of the country changed.
Is it to be wondered at that those kinds of birds that
love shelter and quiet have deserted us? You
know, too, how every bird from the Wren
to the Eagle is popped at as soon as it
shows itself, in places where there are no game laws
and every man allowed to carry a gun.”
This interesting description of the
changes agricultural and otherwise which
have taken place in the Islands, especially Guernsey,
during the last fifty or sixty years (for which I have
to offer Mr. MacCulloch my best thanks), gives a very
good general idea of many of the alterations that
have taken place in the face of the country during
the period above mentioned; but does not by any means
exhaust them, as no mention is made of the immense
increase of orchard-houses in all parts of Guernsey,
which has been so great that I may fairly say that
within the last few years miles of glasshouses have
been built in Guernsey alone: these have been
built mostly for the purpose of growing grapes for
the London market. These orchard-houses have,
to a certain extent, taken the place of ordinary orchards
and gardens, which have been rooted up and destroyed
to make place for this enormous extent of glass.
But what appeared to me to have made the greatest change,
and has probably had more effect on the Ornithology
of the Island, especially of that part known as the
Vale, is the enormous number of granite quarries which
are being worked there (luckily the beautiful cliffs
have hitherto escaped the granite in those parts,
probably not being so good); but in the Vale from
St. Samson’s to Fort Doyle, and from there to
the Vale Church, with the exception of L’Ancresse
Common itself, which has hitherto escaped, the whole
face of the country is changed by quarry works and
covered with small windmills used for pumping the water
from the quarries. These quarry works and the
extra population brought by them into the Island,
all of whom carry guns and shoot everything that is
fit to eat or is likely to fetch a few “doubles”
in the market, have done a good deal to thin the birds
in that part of the Islands, especially such as are
in any way fit for sale or food, and probably have
done more to make a change in the Ornithology of that
part of the Island than all the agricultural changes
mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch. Indeed, I am rather
sceptical as to the agricultural changes above described
having produced so much change in the avifauna of the
Islands during the last fifty years as Mr. MacCulloch
appears to think; there is still a great deal of undrained
or badly drained land in the Island especially
about the Vale, the Grand Mare and L’Eree which
might still afford a home for Moorhens, Water Rails,
and even Bitterns, and all that class of wading birds
which delight in swampy land and reed beds. Though
no doubt, as Mr. MacCulloch said, many orchards have
been destroyed to make room for more profitable crops
or for orchard-houses, still there are many orchards
left in the Island. I think, however, many, if
not all the cherry orchards (amongst which the Golden
Orioles apparently at one time luxuriated) are gone.
There is also still a great deal of hedgerow timber,
none of it indeed very large, but in places very thick;
in fact, I could point out miles of hedges in Guernsey
where the trees, mostly elm, grow so thick together
that it would be nearly impossible to pick out a place
where one could squeeze one’s horse between
the trees without rubbing one’s knees on one
side or the other, probably on both, against them,
if one found it necessary to ride across the country.
True, on a great extent of the higher part of the Island,
all along on both sides of what is known as the Forest
Road, there is little or no hedgerow timber, the fields
here being divided by low banks with furze growing
on the top of them. Furze brakes also are still
numerous, the whole of the flat land on the top of
the cliffs and the steep valleys and slopes down to
the sea on the south and east side of the Island,
from Fermain Bay to Pleimont, being almost uninterrupted
wild land covered with heather, furze, and bracken;
besides this wild furze land, there are several thick
furze brakes inland in different parts of the Island.
All these places seem to me to have remained almost
without change for years. The furze, however,
never grows very high, as it is cut every few years
for fuel; in consequence of this, however, it is more
beautiful in blooming in the spring than if it had
been allowed several years’ growth, covering
the whole face of the ground above the cliffs like
a brilliant yellow carpet; but being kept so short,
it is not perhaps so convenient for nesting purposes
as if it was allowed a longer growth.
The Guernsey Bird Act, which applies
to all the Islands in the Bailiwick, and has been
in force for some few years, seems to me to have had
little effect on the numbers of the sea-birds of the
district, though it includes the eggs as well as the
birds, except perhaps to increase the number of Herring
Gulls and Shags (which were always sufficiently numerous)
in their old breeding-stations, and perhaps to have
added a few new breeding-stations. These two birds
scarcely needed the protection afforded by the Act,
as their nests are placed amongst very inaccessible
rocks where very few nests can be reached without the
aid of a rope, and consequently but little damage was
done beyond a few young birds being shot soon after
they had left the nest while they were flappers, and
the numbers were fully kept up; other birds, however,
included in the Act, and not breeding in quite such
inaccessible places, seem to gain but little advantage
from it, as nests of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls,
Terns, Oystercatchers and Puffins are ruthlessly robbed
in a way that bids fair before long to exterminate
all four species as breeding birds; perhaps, also,
the increase in the number of Herring Gulls does something
to diminish the numbers of other breeding species,
especially the Lesser Black-backs, as Herring Gulls
are great robbers both of eggs and young birds.
The Act itself, after reciting that “lé
nombre des oiseaux de mer sur les
côtés des Isles de cet Bailliage
a considérablement diminue depuis plusieurs
années; que les dits oiseaux sont
utiles aux pécheurs, en ce qu’ils
indiquent les parages où les poissons
se trouvent; que les dits oiseaux sont
utiles aux marins en ce qu’ils
annoncent pendant la durée des brouillards
la proximité des rochers,”
goes on to enact as follows: Il
est defendu de prendre, enlever
où détruire les ceufs des oiseaux
de mer dans toute I’entendue
de la jurisdiction de cette isle, sur
la peine d’une amende qui
ne sera pas moindre de sept
livres tournois et n’excedera pas trente
livres tournois.” Se enacts, “Depuis
ce jour au 15 Octobre prochain,
il est defendu de tuer, blesser,
prendre où chasser les oiseaux
de mer dans toute l’entendue
de la jurisdiction de cette isle.”
Se, “Ceux qui depuis ce
jour au 15 Octobre prochain auront été
trouves en possession d’un oiseau
de mer récemment tue, blesse
où pris, où qui auront été
trouves en possession de plumage frais appartenant
d’un oiseau de mer seront
censes avoir tue, blesse où pris
tel oiseau de mer sauf e
eux de prouver lé contraire.
Pareillement ceux qui depuis ce
jour au 15 Octobre prochain auront été
trouves en possession d’un oeuf
de l’annee d’un oiseau de
mer seront censes avoir pris et
enlève lé dit oeuf sauf a eux
de prouver lé contraire. The penalty in
each case is the same as in Section 1. Section 4 contains the list of the
oiseaux de mer which come under the protection of the Act, which is as follows: Les Mauves
Mouettes, Pingouins, Guillemots, Cormorans,
Barbelotes, Hirondelles de mer, Pies-marants,
Petrel, Plongeons, Grèbes, Puffins,
Dotterells, Alouettes de mer, Toumpierres,
Gannets, Courlis et Martin pécheur.
As far as the eggs of many of the
species actually breeding in the Islands are concerned,
this Act seems to be a dead letter: the only
birds of any size whose eggs are not regularly robbed
are the Herring Gulls and Shags, and they take sufficient
care of themselves; were the Act strictly enforced
it would probably be found that there would be as
would be the case in England a good deal
of opposition to this part of it, which would greatly
interfere with what appears to be a considerable article
of food with many of the population. Probably
the only compromise which would work, and could be
rigidly enforced, would be to fix a later date for
the protection of the eggs say as late as
the 15th June; this would allow those who wanted to
rob the eggs for food to take the earlier layings,
and the birds would be able to bring up their second
or third broods in peace; and probably the fishermen
and others, who use the eggs as an article of consumption,
would be glad to assist in carrying out such an Act
as this, as they would soon find the birds increase
so much that they would be able to take as many eggs
by the middle of June as they do now in the whole
year, especially the Black-back Gulls and the Puffins,
which are the birds mostly robbed, the
latter of which are certainly decreasing considerably
in numbers in consequence.
This plan is successfully carried
out by many private owners of the large breeding-stations
of the Gannets, Eider Duck, and other sea-birds in
the north of England and Scotland. Of course,
it must not be supposed that all the birds mentioned
in the Act whose eggs are protected breed in the Islands,
or anywhere within ten or fifteen degrees of latitude
of the Islands; in fact, a great many of them are
not there at all during the breeding-season, except
perhaps an occasional wounded bird which has been
unable to join its companions on their migratory journey,
or a few non-breeding stragglers.
It has often struck me that a small
but rigidly collected and enforced gun-tax would be
a more efficacious protection not only to
the oiseaux de mer, but also to the inland birds,
many of which are quite as much in want of protection
though not included in the Act than the
Sea-bird Protection Act is. I am glad to see
that there is some chance of this being carried out,
for, while this work was going through the press, I
see by the newspaper (’Gazette Officielle
de Guernsey’ for the 26th March, 1879)
that the Bailiff had then just issued a Billet d’Etat
which contained a “Projet de loi”
on the subject, to be submitted to the States at their
next meeting; and in concluding its comments on this
Projet de loi the Gazette says, “Il
n’est que juste en fait que
ceux qui veulent se lier au
plaisir de la châsse paient pour
cette fantaisie et que par
ce moyen lé trop grand nombre de
nos chasseurs maladroits et inexperimentes se
voit reduit au grand avantage de nos
fermiers et de nos promeneurs;”
and probably also to the advantage of the chasseurs
themselves.
In regard to the nomenclature, I have
done the best I can to follow the rule laid down by
the British Association; but not living in London,
and consequently not having access to a sufficiently
large ornithological library to enable me to search
out the various synonyms for myself and ascertain
the exact dates, I have therefore been obliged to rely
on the best authorities whose works I possess, and
accept the name given by them. In doing this,
I have no doubt I have been quite as correct as I
should have been had I waded through the various authors
who have written on the subject, as I have invariably
accepted the name adopted by Professor Newton in his
edition of Yarrell, and by Mr. Dresser in his ‘Birds
of Europe’, as far as these works are yet complete:
for the birds not yet included in either I have for
the most part taken the scientific names from Mr.
Howard Saunders’s ’Catalogue des
oiseaux du midi de L’Espagne,’ published
in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Societe
Zoologique de France; and for the names
of the Gulls and Terns I have entirely followed Mr.
Howard Saunders’s papers on those birds published
in the ‘Proceedings’ of our own Zoological
Society, for permission to use which, and for other
assistance, especially in egg-hunting, I
have to give him my best thanks.
As French is so much spoken in Guernsey
and the other Islands included in my district, I have
(wherever I have been able to ascertain it) given
the French name of each bird, as it may be better known
to my Guernsey readers than either the English or
the scientific name. I have also, where there
is one and I have been able to ascertain it, mentioned
the local name in the course of my notes on each bird.
It now only remains to give my best
thanks to the various friends who have assisted me,
especially to Mr. MacCulloch, who, though he says he
is no naturalist, has supplied me with various very
interesting notes, which he has taken from time to
time of ornithological events which have occurred
in Guernsey, and from which I have drawn rather largely;
and I have, also, again to thank him for the interesting
accounts he has given me of the various changes agricultural
and otherwise which have taken place during
his memory, and which may have had some effect on the
ornithology of the Islands, especially of Guernsey.
My thanks are also due to Col.
L’Estrange for the assistance he has given me
in egg-hunting, and also to Captain Hubback for his
notes from Alderney during the times he was quartered
there.