THE CURLEWS. 319 



and so heavily striped, when compared with others in the 

 British Museum, that I was for a long time doubtful as to 

 whether there was not a smaller race of Curlew to be dis- 

 tinguished. I am, however, now convinced that the specimen 

 is nothing but a male, with the summer plumage unusually 

 advanced. 



Adult Female in Breeding Plumage. — Similar to the male, but 

 larger, and with a longer bill. Total length, 24 inches ; cul- 

 men, 6*i ; wing, 12 ; tail, 57 ; tarsus, 3*2. 



Adults in Winter Plumage. — Very similar to the breeding- 

 plumage, but paler, and much less heavily striped, especially 

 on the under surface of the body ; the black spots and streaks 

 on the rump scarcely apparent, and concealed by the white 

 plumage ; upper tail-coverts white, with very few brown cross- 

 bars ; tail white, barred with brown ; feet pale leaden-grey, 

 claws blackish ; bill blackish-brown, flesh-colour at the base of 

 the lower mandible. 



Young. — Differs from the adult in being much more tawny, 

 and, as Seebohm has pointed out, young birds may always I e 

 distinguished from old ones by the much lighter pattern of 

 the notches and bars on the innermost secondaries, these 

 markings being tawny-buff, and the black centres to the feathers 

 being much broader. The nestling is figured below. {Plate 

 XCIII. Fig. 3.) 



Range in Great Britain. — The Curlew is a resident species in 

 the British Islands, breeding throughout Scotland, the north of 

 England, and also in Wales, as well as on the high moor-lands of 

 Southern England^ from Wiltshire and Hampshire to Cornwall. 

 Mr. Ussher records it as breeding in nearly every county in 

 Ireland, on the bogs and moors. In the autumn and winter 

 numbers of immature Curlews frequent the coasts of Great 

 Britain, and many of them do not breed, but remain through- 

 out the whole summer, and examples have often been found 

 inland when any sudden floods cause a wide expanse of \vater. 



Range outside the British Islands. — Throughout Scandinavia the 

 Curlew nests, as well as in Northern Europe, generally from 

 Brittany to Northern Germany, Poland, and Russia, and as far 

 east as Lake Baikal ; for I am unable to find any specific difference 

 between the so called N. li?ieatus^ which occurs on the shores 



