loo THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



they were not known to have nested there. Mr. 

 Thompson, from whom I received this information, 

 added that he saw a Bar-tailed Godwit there in Sep- 

 tember of the same year, which was probably one of 

 the two above mentioned. Several were seen in 

 Kimmeridge Bay during the winter of 1859; and 

 four were shot on the Wareham river, and one at 

 Poole, in the winter of 1872-73. 



CUKLEW. Numenias arquata, L. 



Yarrell, iii. p. 499; Harting, p. 53; Dresser, viii. p. 243; 

 Seebohm, iii. p. 94; Ibis List, p. 179; Scolopax arquata, 

 Pulte7ieij's List, p. 14. 



The Curlew is common in the Poole estuary, and 



breeds in that neighbourhood. Mr. Pike once killed 



twenty at a shot on the plain in Littlesea. An egg 



(one of four) was sent me. May 2, 1873, containing a 



mature chick, which is now in the County Museum 



collection, the egg being in the possession of Professor 



Newton. Subsequently (May 2, 1877), in company 



with Professor Newton and his brother Sir Edward 



Newton, we found a nest in which the brood had been 



recently hatched, and which the keeper, who knew of 



it, told us contained four eggs, and that the brood went 



off safely. An interesting account of the breeding of 



the Curlew in Dorsetshire is given by Mrs. Panton 



in her pleasantly written " Sketches in Black and 



White," published in 1882 (pp. 63-64) ; an account 



subsequently confirmed by Professor Newton in 



The Field of August 19, 1882. This bird sometimes 



wanders inland a considerable distance from the 



