194 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
As shown by the measurements and descriptions 
given by Montagu in his “Supplement” these birds vary 
much both in size and colouring, the females being 
somewhat smaller than the males, and in their imma- 
ture stages showing more white about the head and 
neck, 
NUMENIUS ARQUATA (Linneus). 
COMMON CURLEW. 
The Curlew is another of those grallatorial species 
which, although observed on our coast during every 
month of the year, has never been known to nest 
in this county. Further north* it breeds in April and 
May, but throughout the latter month I have remarked 
them at Hunstanton, and have heard their loud 
whistle in June, when out at sea, and seen strag- 
glers at the same date both at Cromer and Salthouse. 
Yet, though such may be considered as exceptional 
cases, the bulk of those which annually visit us in 
autumn and winter are absent only for a very short 
period. By the 1st of July Mr. Dowell has known 
them arrive at Blakeney in some numbers, and has 
seen them there in flocks of forty or fifty by the end of 
* In Mr. A. G. More’s paper “on the distribution of Birds in 
Great Britain during the nesting season” (“ Ibis,” 1865, p. 434), 
the curlew is described as “rare in the south during summer, 
though a few pairs afe recorded as breeding in Cornwall and 
Devonshire.” Its breeding in Dorset and Wiltshire is considered 
doubtful, the stone curlew (Hdicnemus crepitans) being probably 
mistaken for it in those counties, but “further north there are one 
or two breeding stations in Shropshire, and Mr. O. Salvin finds 
its nest in Derbyshire.” We also learn from the same authority 
that “the curlew breeds in North and South Wales, and from 
Yorkshire northwards, extending as far north as the Shetland 
Islands.” 
