Vv CHARADRIIDAE 289 
brel or May-bird, nests in the Shetlands and perhaps still in the 
Orkneys and North Ronay in the Hebrides; in summer it takes 
the place of the Curlew in the Fiiroes and Iceland, strays to 
Greenland, and occupies Northern Europe and Asia; while it 
visits the Azores, the whole of Africa, the Indian Region, and 
Australia in winter. Specimens from Eastern Asia, with more 
streaked rumps, have been separated as NV. variegatus. In general 
plumage and habits the Whimbrel resembles the Curlew; it. is, 
however, much smaller, the cry consists of sharper and more quickly 
repeated notes, and the parents, though anxious, are less shy at 
the nest. They often descend in a gyrating fashion, closing one 
wing. WV. hudsonicus, of Arctic North America, which winters 
throughout South America, and has once occurred in Spain, re- 
sembles WV. borealis in 1ts cinnamon axillaries, but is larger and 
less ruddy beneath. V. ¢ahitvensis, common in the Pacific Islands, 
and probably breeding in Alaska, is recognisable by the bristly- 
pointed flank-feathers ; WV. minutus, ranging from East Siberia in 
summer to the Malay Islands and Austraha in winter, has the 
back of the metatarsus as well as the front scutellated. 
Sub-fam. 3. Scolopacinae.—Macrorhamphus griseus, the 
“Dowitcher,” breeding in the extreme north of North America, and 
its larger and brighter western race, JZ. scolopaceus, are rutous birds 
with darker variegations, the lower back and tail being white, but 
the latter and its upper coverts shewing blackish barring. The 
bill is widened towards the tip, while in winter the plumage is grey 
and white. One form or the other has strayed to Britain, Western 
Europe, and Eastern Asia, the range on migration reaching 
Brazil and Chili. The habits resemble those of Redshanks.  J/. 
taczanowskit, with black-mottled rump, occupies East Siberia, and 
winters in India, Borneo, and thence to China. 
Scolopax rusticula, the well-known Woodcock, brown, grey, and 
buff in colour, with blackish vermiculations and blotches above 
and bars below, has two transverse buff stripes on the black hind- 
crown. It inhabits Northern and Central Europe and Asia 
with the Atlantic Islands and Japan—and migratesto the Mediter- 
ranean, Persia, India, Ceylon, and China, or even strays to eastern 
North America. Breeding freely in Britain, where large additional 
flocks arrive in autumn, it frequents leaf-strewn woods in which 
marshy spots or rivulets alternate with dry ground; the food 
consists of worms, small molluscs and insects, the first being 
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