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Some of those that remain throughout the summer I have no doubt breed in the Islands, as I have seen the old birds about with their young and shot one in July; and on the 8th of June, 1876, I saw a pair in full breeding plumage in L'Ancresse Bay; I saw them again about the same place on the 16th: these birds were evidently paired, and I believe had eggs or young on a small rocky island about two or three hundred yards from the land, but there was no boat about, and so I could not get over to look for the eggs.
The house stood on the border of L'Ancresse Common, with no view of the sea, but with the soft, undulating brows and hollows of the common lying before it, and a broken battlement of rocks rising beyond them.
And so it came to pass that within a week of my arriving, by great good luck and marvellous dispatch in preparation, the order was given that we should sail for Guernsey. Of the journey of our ships to relieve the Brethren of the Vale, and how we fought a great battle with the Moors outside the Bay of L'Ancresse.
It is, however, by no means confined to the parts near the town, as many were nesting in some ilex trees near the house we had on L'Ancresse Common, although the house had been empty since the previous summer, and the garden uncultivated; so food till we came must have been rather scarce about there.
A fair place was L'Ancresse in the days of Abbot Michael, false Maugher, and the Grand Sarrasin. And a good school of manners and of learning of books and piety, that may aid men in their earthly life, was the Vale Cloister.
French, "Pipit des arbres," "Pipit des buissons." A very numerous summer visitant to all the Islands, breeding in great numbers in the parts suited to it. In the Vale it was very common, many of the furze-bushes on L'Ancresse Common containing nests.
On the 9th July this year , for instance, I saw one fly by me in L'Ancresse Bay; this was either a young bird, or, if an adult, was not in breeding plumage, as I could clearly see that the throat was white not black, as in the adult in breeding plumage.
I do not know that it breeds anywhere in Guernsey itself, but it may do so, for in the Vale in the summer of 1878 I saw more than one pair about the two bays, Grand Havre and L'Ancresse, all through the summer; some of them certainly seemed paired, but I never could find where their nests were; some of the others apparently were non-breeding birds, as they did not appear to be paired.
And all this was done without disorder or confusion, as men-at-arms will form square on parade, and still we rode on the while, and Samson stood watching the pirates' fleet that lay now in a long line in front of L'Ancresse Bay awaiting our attack, as was meet for them to do. The wind sprang up now, I remember, from the east, and I heard Samson say in a glad tone "Thank Heaven for this breeze!
"Not in the least," he answered, cheerily; "for the matter of that, I plunge into it every morning at L'Ancresse. I want to see Tardif. He is one in a thousand, as you say; and one cannot see such a man every day of one's life." There was no help for it, and I gave in, hoping some good luck awaited me.
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