( 124 ) 

 THE SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW, 



Numenius tenuirostris Vieill. 

 A New British Bird. 



BY 



M. J. NICOLL. 



Towards the end of September, 1910, a small flock of 

 Slender-billed Curlews — Numenius tenuirostris — arrived 

 on Romney Marsh, near Brookland, Kent, and of these 

 three were shot. The first two — an immature pair — 

 were obtained on September 21st, and the male was sho^\^l 

 to me in the flesh the same day. 



Two days later a somewhat worn adult male was shot, 

 and this also I examined before it Avas skinned. The 

 first two of these are now in the collection of Mr. J. B. 

 Nichols, the male of which is, by his kind permission, 

 here figured. 



That the Slender-bifled Curlew should occur on our 

 coasts is not surprising^ seeing that so long ago as 1830, 

 or thereabouts, one was shot as close as Heligoland, 

 while it has occurred, so I am informed, three times in 

 Holland, twice in Belgium, once at least in northern 

 France, and four times in Germany. 



It winters in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, 

 and was for a long time thouglit to breed there, but there 

 now seems to be no doubt that it breeds in western 

 Siberia. Mr. H. E. Dresser exhibited the first authenti- 

 cated egg at the British Ornithologists' Club in December, 

 1909, and announced that Russian correspondents of his 

 had taken eggs on the borders of Lake Tschany near 

 Taganowskiye, and in the Tara District in the south- 

 eastern part of the Tobolsk Government, Siberia, in 1909 

 {Bull B.O.C., XXV., pp. 38-39). 



This species is easily recognizable by its short and very 

 slender bill, and by the pear-shaped black markings on 

 the flanks. In size it nearly approaches the Whimbrel, 

 but differs from it in the coloration of the crown, which 

 js streaked with buff and black, hke the Common Curlew. 



