120 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



by no means uncommon with the Redshank and Greenshank ; and 

 what surprised us more than all was, to see the Longlegged Cur- 

 lew alight, as it frequently did, on the tip-top of the Pine forests, 

 and to hear it, as it passed from tree to tree, utter its loud whistle.*' 

 It is well known that the Herons, Storks, and Ibises, perch a good 

 deal ; also, it may be added, the Common Gallinule. 



Two figures of the egg of the Whimbrel Curlew succeed, which 

 are delicately represented. These are much rarer in collections 

 than the last, and are of a greener tint, more boldly spotted. Mr. 

 Hewitson is *' unaware of any building place in this country besides 

 the Shetland Isles, upon two of which (Yell and Hascovea) only 

 they are to be met with, in very small and rapidly decreasing num- 

 bers, their eggs being there considered a delicacy." The party who 

 visited Sutherland in the summer of 1834 observed this species 

 upon the margin of Loch Shin, in that county, but no eggs or 

 young were obtained. " Its note," says Mr. Hewitson, " when dis- 

 turbed by your approaching its nest, is, like that of the other, in 

 loud, clear, and closely repeated ejaculations." In all this tribe of 

 birds the female exceeds her partner in size ; a fact particularly no- 

 ticeable in the larger Snipes, the Godwits, and Curlews : this has 

 been popularly noticed, whence a prevalent error has arisen that the 

 Whimbrel is the Jack Curlew, as it is not unfrequently designated, 

 and that the Scolopax gallinula is the male or Jack Snipe : the lat- 

 ter is an extremely common notion in most parts of the country. 



Two faultlessly represented eggs of the Redshank Sandpiper; 

 No. 2 exhibiting rather the more ordinary aspect. Plenty of these 

 may be obtained every season in the London markets, as may also, 

 now and then, a few of those of the Common Curlew. 



Next follow two capital figures of the Common Sandpiper's egg. 

 This pretty little bird, so frequent in many of the northern coun- 

 ties, is of comparatively rare occurrence in the south of England, 

 scarcely commoner in those bordering the metropolis, than its rare 

 and estimated congener, the Green Sandpiper, which is often met 

 with in the districts margining the Thames. The little Temminck's 

 Sandpiper is closely allied to it, and resembles it in habit, but is still 

 more rare. The beautiful T. glareola is, in the same parts, hardly 

 more frequent than the last-mentioned species, if, indeed, so common. 

 It is no easy matter to procure the eggs of certain members of this 

 and some allied genera. 



A fine example of the Wood Snipe's (or Woodcock's) egg, consider- 

 ably differing from those of the Common Snipe, which are well 

 known. We have several times met with the young of this species, 

 and very near London, but never the egg. An individual, about 

 one-third grown, came into our possession on the 20th of last April, 

 notwithstanding the excessive backwardness of the season : it was 

 caught in Surrey, by a cat ; and a day or two afterwards we saw 

 many of the adults exposed for sale in Leadenhall market. We are 

 acquainted with at least one situation within a few miles of the 

 metropolis, where this species annually breeds ; and what leads us 



