WHIMBEEL 137 



uttered with inflated throat and scarcely opened bill. The nuptial 

 song of the male is a long-drawn fluty trill, much slower and longer 

 than the alarm note. The bird hardly rises above the ground, but 

 flies with half opened bill for short distances, trilling, then makes 

 quick and ^hort wing strokes and slowly descends to earth again 

 with extended wings, when the cry is again uttered. Bernard 

 Hantzsch (1905) gives a fuller description, which, however, varies 

 in some details. The male is perched on some hillock, from which 

 with wide-opened bill he utters a rolling di-di-di. Now he is off, 

 with his long feet trailing behind and head and neck outstretched. 

 With short and very rapid wing strokes he rises high in the clear 

 sky till almost out of sight, meanwhile uttering his soft fluty du- 

 du-du, sometimes for minutes together. Then follows a slightly 

 higher and quicker series of notes, ending with a beautiful, soft trill, 

 louder and faster than that of the golden plover. He then descends 

 spirally toward the nesting place, thence again starting on his up- 

 ward flight. The female also trills, but the song flight i^ peculiar 

 to the male. 



Nesting. — The breeding grounds of the whimbrel are the vast 

 expanses of moorland, overgrown with heather and mosses, which are 

 characteristic of the Arctic tundra. The actual nest is a well-defined 

 hollow among the heather or rough grass, scantily lined with a few 

 bits of ling or dry grass and moss. Some nests contain hardly any 

 material and are merely pressed down and hollowed by the bird. 

 They do not nest as a rule close together and the breeding place is 

 jealously guarded by the male who rises fearlessly to attack and 

 drive off almost any bird which approaches within a 100 yards of 

 the eggs. Even skuas are attacked in this way, but where they are 

 numerous the whimbrel stands but a poor chance of rearing young. 

 In the Shetlands the eggs are laid in the last days of May and early 

 in June, while in Iceland the normal time is at the beginning of 

 June and exceptionally late in May. 



Eggs. — These are normally four in number, exceptionally three 

 only, especially in late layings, and Hantzsch (1905) records one 

 clutch of five. They are pyriform, and large for the size of the 

 birds, with thin shells. The ground color varies as a rule from pale 

 olive green to pale brownish buff, blotched and spotted with olive 

 brown or reddish brawn and with ashy grey shell markings. In 

 some varieties the ground is a beautiful clear green and the blotches 

 very bold and conspicuous, while another scarce type has a bluish 

 grey ground with only large brownish ash blotches. The measure- 

 ments of 100 eggs, by Doctor Rey and the writer, average 58.9 

 by 41.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 65.1 by 41.7, 57 by 44, 52 by 41.6 and 55.3 by 36 millimeters. 



