374 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
In plumage and general appearance the Whimbrel 
much resembles the Curlew, so much so that many 
of the boatmen at Burnham—where these birds and 
the Curlew are both common—call them “ Young 
Curlews.” The beak is long and much bent down- 
wards; the upper mandible is black, the lower black 
at the tip, livid flesh-colour at the base; irides dark ~ 
brown; the space from the beak to the eye brown; 
there is a white streak over the eye; the top of the 
head is dark brown, with a streak of white down the 
centre; back and sides of the neck brown, streaked 
with white; feathers of the back and scapulars dark 
brown, margined light grey and white; the rump 
white, some of the feathers irregularly marked with 
brown; tail-coverts barred white and brown; tail 
barred brown and pale brown, inclining to white on 
the outside feathers and under the coverts; the 
lesser wing-coverts are paler brown than the back 
and with broader and lighter margins; the greater 
coverts the same brown, chequered near the margins 
with white; the coverts of the primary quills are 
dusky, tipped with white; the primary quills are 
dusky, glossed in some lights with sap-green, the 
first four are partly barred on the inner web with 
white, all the rest barred on both webs; the shafts 
are white; the secondary and tertial quills the same 
as their coverts; chin white; throat white, streaked 
with brown; breast white, with narrow streaks of 
brown on the shaft of each feather; belly white; 
