Birds of Guernsey (1879) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 203 pages of information about Birds of Guernsey (1879).

Birds of Guernsey (1879) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 203 pages of information about Birds of Guernsey (1879).
selected, and return in the morning, and the distance would in many places be nearly as great.  These flocks of Starlings seem to have continued in the Island quite into the winter, as Miss Carey notes, in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1872, seeing a flock in the field before the house at Candie close to the town as late as the 6th of December, 1871.  At the same time that there were so many in Guernsey, Starlings were reported as unusually numerous in Alderney, but how long the migratory flocks remained there I have not been able to ascertain.

The Starling is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but marked as only occurring in Guernsey and Sark.  There are two specimens in the Museum and some eggs.

74.  CHOUGH. Pyrrhocorax graculus, Linnaeus.  French, “Crave.”—­The Chough is a common resident in Guernsey, breeding amongst the high rocks on the south and east part of the Island, and in the autumn and winter spreading over the cultivated parts of the Island, sometimes in considerable flocks, like Rooks.

As Jackdaws are by no means numerous in Guernsey, and as far as I have been able to make out never breed there, the Choughs have it all their own way, and quite keep up their numbers, even if they do not increase them, which I think very doubtful, though I can see no reason why they should not, as their eggs are always laid in holes in the cliffs, and very difficult to get at, and at other times of year the birds are very wary, and take good care of themselves, it being by no means easy to get a shot at them, unless by stalking them up behind a hedge or rock; and as they are not good eating, and will not sell in the market like Fieldfares and Redwings, no Guernsey man thinks of expending powder and shot on them; so though not included in the Guernsey Bird Act, the Choughs on the whole have an easy time of it in Guernsey, and ought to increase in numbers more than they apparently do.  In Sark the Choughs have by no means so easy a time, as the Jackdaws outnumber them about the cliffs, and will probably eventually drive them out of the Island—­indeed, I am afraid they have done this in Alderney, as I did not see any when there in the summer of 1876, nor in this last summer (1878); and Captain Hubbach writes me word he has seen none in Alderney himself this year (1878).  I, however, saw some there in previous visits, but now for some reason, probably the increase of Jackdaws, the Choughs appear to me nearly, if not quite, to have deserted that Island.  In Herm and Jethou there are also a few Choughs, but Jackdaws are the more numerous in both Islands.  No Choughs appear to inhabit the small rocky islets to the northward of Herm, though some of them appear to be large enough to afford a breeding-place for either Choughs or Jackdaws, but neither of these birds seem to have taken possession of them; probably want of food is the occasion of this.  Mr. Metivier, in his ‘Rimes Guernseaise,’ gives “Cahouette” as the local Guernsey-French name of the Chough, though I suspect the name is equally applicable to the Jackdaw.

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Birds of Guernsey (1879) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.