CURLEW-SANDPIPER. I45 



of the area very variable ; the rest of the under parts are white. 

 The upper parts are ashy grey in winter, and the under parts, 

 except for an indistinct band on the breast, are white. The 

 black is lost gradually in autumn ; in September I have seen 

 birds in almost unaltered summer dress, and Mr. G. Bolam 

 records full winter plumage in June ; indeed, he says no bird is 

 " more casual in its change of dress." In the young the brown 

 upper parts are mottled with rufous, buff, and black, and the 

 dark head is streaked with rich brown ; the breast is suffused 

 with buff, and the white under parts are dotted and splashed 

 with brown. The bill and legs are black, the irides very dark 

 brown. Length, 7-5 ins. Wing, 4*6 ins. Tarsus, o'8 in. 



Curlew-Sandpiper. EroUa fermginea (Briinn.). 



The Curlew-Sandpiper (Plate 59) breeds in Arctic Siberia, 

 and in winter ranges as far south as the Cape, the Malays, and 

 Australia. To the British Isles it is a passage migrant, irregular 

 in numbers, but sometimes abundant ; exceptionally, it is a 

 winter visitor. Indeed, though it is never present in any 

 numbers except when migration is at its height, there is no 

 month in the year in which it has not been recorded. Autumn 

 immigration begins in July, and often birds are about until 

 November ; spring migration lasts from March until June, and 

 there are scattered records for the other three months. Though 

 the largest numbers visit the east and south coasts it is by no 

 means rare in the west, and its frequent occurrence inland, 

 especially in September, indicates more or less regular overland 

 migration. 



In spite of the long, curved bill, from which it gets the rather 

 trivial name of Pigmy Curlew, and the fact that its legs are 

 longer, it is not always easy to distinguish from the Dunlin, 

 when with this and other waders it is feeding on the shore. 

 When, however, the flock takes wing, its white upper tail-coverts 



Series II. L 



