WHIMBREL. 199 
most startling fact, however, for modern housekeepers 
appears as follows, in the year 1519:—Itm pd for a 
goos vi. a Pygge iiij4- ij Curlews xij4-” 
Tn the Lord North Accounts we also read, “‘ Kyrlewes 
to be hadde for my Lordes owne Mees at Pryncipall 
Feestes, and to be at xij4. a pece.” 
A curlew, with white primary quills, was seen by 
Mr. Dowell, at Blakeney, in January, 1854. 
NUMENIUS PHAOPUS (Linneus.) 
WHIMBREL. 
The Whimbrel visits us regularly in spring and 
autumn, on its passage to and from its breeding 
grounds, and though a few may be seen occasionally 
in March and April, the appearance of the main body 
in May, on the Breydon and Blakeney muds, is so 
invariable that this species is always spoken of as the 
“ May bird” by the gunners in both localities. Their 
numbers, as with all migratory shore-birds, vary much 
in different seasons, but at times they are very plenti- 
ful,* as was particularly the case in the spring of 1863. 
Of these the chief portion pass on to the northward after 
a few days, but small parties may be seen on different 
parts of the coast up to the middle of June, and even 
as late as July. At Hunstanton in 1863, I found one 
or two small flocks frequenting the mussel-scalps up to 
the second week in June; and Mr. Dowell has observed 
* In the “Zoologist” for 1867 (p. 293), Mr. Cordeaux states 
that a flock of at least two hundred appeared in the Humber 
district, about the 3rd of May; and on the 13th of May, 1868 
(“ Zoologist,” p. 1283), he counted up to sixty-one, in one flock; 
and saw another containing not less than double that number. 
