AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 71 



9th September, 1887, and is now in my collection at 

 Lilford. This species is a tolerably common visitor 

 to our coasts and tidal estuaries in autumn and 

 spring, but seldom occurs at any great distance from 

 salt water. Its numbers are, as stated in Yarrell, 

 " extremely variable," and it seems that in the 

 autumn to which I have just referred, these birds 

 were very unusually abundant on the shores of our 

 eastern and southern counties. 



Although the nest and eggs of the Curlew Sand- 

 piper are still unknoAvn to ornithologists, specimens 

 in full summer plumage are met with by no means 

 uncommonly on our coasts in late spring, and we 

 found it in large numbers in summer dress as late as 

 the second week of May in the extreme south of 

 Spain. 



In general habits the Curlew Sandpiper, or, as it 

 is frequently called, the Pigmy Curlew, much resem- 

 bles the Dunlin, but may at all times be distin- 

 guished from that bird by the white feathers of the 

 rump and the slightly arched bill from which it takes 

 its name. In summer plumage no mistake can be 

 made between the two species, as at that season 

 this bird assumes a bright red chestnut hue on the 

 breast and belly, whilst in the Dunlin those parts 

 become more or less black. 



The Curlew Sandpiper is generally very tame and 

 easy of approach, unless, as often occurs, the flock is 

 put upon the " qui vive ! " by some individual of a 

 less confiding species. 



The note of this bird is a low purring whistle that 

 somewhat resembles and yet is easily to be distin- 

 guished from the usual call of the Dunlin. 



Mr. W. Tomalin informed me by letter, that whilst 



