BIRDS OF THE SHORES 41? 



tliey are marked by widely different characters of 

 shape and plumage. Mighty travellers are they, 

 most of them having seen the light amidst the 

 tundras and black marshes of Siberia, where for 

 centuries their nests and eggs were undiscovered. 



With the exception of the Curlew, the Whimbrel 

 is the largest bird now to be seen on the flats. So 

 like the Curlew is it in shape and plumage, and 

 especially in its long, curved bill, that it is well 

 described by the old fowlers as the Jack or Half 

 Curlew. It differs materially, however, from the 

 larger bird in its manner of life. The "full" 

 Curlew is a resident, nesting annually on English 

 moorlands. The Whimbrel has never been known 

 to breed in England, nor, indeed, in Great Britain, 

 except, on more or less rare occasions, in the Ork- 

 neys and Shetlands. It is a bird of double passage, 

 arriving on our coasts in Alay (often in large 

 numbers, and so regularly that it has come to be 

 known as the ]\Iay-bird) on its wav to its nesting 

 haunts in the far north. 



In the Faroes and in Iceland it is a common 

 breeding species. The nest is a mere depression 

 in the herbage, and the eggs, four in number, are 

 of an olive-green hue blotched with brown. 



The movements of the Whimbrel are so rapid 

 that by the end of July the birds are on their return 

 journey, and are again seen on the flats, the young 

 arriving first. Vast numbers, however, do not 

 appear to tarry, but merely pass over high in the 

 air, and are to be identified only by their whistling 

 cry. 



Of the wandering flocks, those of the Dunlin are 

 27 



