86 



PLOVER GROUP 



brown to greenish olive, with spots and blotches of various shades of 

 brown, generally evenly distributed, but sometimes aggregated at the 

 larger end, and underlying markings of faint purple. White curlews 

 arc not uncommon, but dark-coloured, or mclanistic, specimens are 

 very rare. The excellence of its flesh causes the curlew to be much 

 sought after for the table, but its wariness calls into requisition all the 

 wiles of the fowler. Whauj) is a local name. 



Whimbrel 

 (Numenius 

 phoeopus). 



It is somewhat curious that birds so closeK- re- 

 sembling one another as the curlew and the 

 whimbrel should have entirely distinct English 

 names, as it might have been thought that the title 

 of lesser curlew would have sufficed to distinguish the present species 

 from its larger relative. The whimbrel, of which the cock measures 



I 5 inches in total 

 length, is chiefly a 

 passing visitor to the 

 British Islands, appear- 

 ing on the coasts 

 during its northern 

 journey in April and 

 May, and returning in 

 August and Septem- 

 ber, although the birds 

 of the )-ear show them- 

 selves on their way 

 south a month earlier. 

 As in the case of the 

 curlew, a certain num- 

 ber of non - breeding 

 birds pass the summer 

 with us ; but as a 

 breeding-species its British resorts are the Orkneys, Shetlands, and 

 North Rona in the Outer Hebrides. In the Faroes it apparently takes 

 the place of the curlew as a nesting-bird ; and from these islands and 

 Iceland its breeding-range extends eastwards through Scandinavia and 

 the north of Russia to the Petchora valley on the western side of the 

 Urals, while in nvinter it visits the south of Europe, Africa, and the 

 Indo-Malay countries. In Ireland, somewhat curiously, it is much 

 more abundant during the spring-migration than on the return journey. 

 Apart from its inferior size, the whimbrel may be distinguished 



WHIMIIKKI,. 



