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
Professor Ansted does not include the Green Sandpiper in his list,
though he does the Wood Sandpiper, giving, however, no locality for it.
I have never seen this latter bird in the Islands, however; nor have I
been able to find that one has ever passed through the hands of any of
the local bird-stuffers, and I cannot help thinking a mistake has been
made; as both birds may, however, occur, and they are something alike, I
may, for the benefit of my Guernsey readers, mention that they may
immediately be distinguished; the axillary plume or long feathers under
the wing, in the Green Sandpiper, being black narrowly barred with
white; and in the Wood Sandpiper the reverse, white with a few dark bars
and markings; the tail also, in the Green Sandpiper, is much more
distinctly and boldy barred with black and white. Alive and on the wing
they may be immediately distinguished by the pure white rump and
tail-coverts of the Green Sandpiper, which are very conspicuous,
especially as the bird rises; the white on the same parts of the Wood
Sandpiper is much marked with brown, and consequently never appears so
conspicuously. There is one Green Sandpiper at present in the Museum,
which there seems no reason to doubt is Guernsey killed.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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