Birds of Guernsey (1879): And the Neighbouring Islands: Alderney, Sark, Jethou, Herm; Being a Small Contribution to the Ornitholony of the Channel IslandsSmith, Cecil
History
Birds of Guernsey (1879): And the Neighbouring Islands: Alderney, Sark, Jethou, Herm; Being a Small Contribution to the Ornitholony of the Channel Islands
Smith, Cecil
Birds -- Channel Islands
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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