PLOVERS, GULLS, AND AUKS 8i 



of Great Britain. Now, alas ! it is extinct, as a breeding species. 

 And this is due, partly to the extensive drainage and reclamation of 

 land, and partly to the greed of egg collectors. 



Occasionally, as a rare straggler, this bird wanders to the 

 American Continent, and has been obtained in the Eastern 

 United States. 



The Redshank (Plate XV. fig. 5) brings us back, as it were, once 

 again to more normal birds. Still fairly common in the fenlands and 

 marshes of Great Britain and Ireland, this bird derives its name 

 from the orange colour of the legs. Although it has distinct summer 

 and winter plumages, these do not differ very conspicuously one from 

 another. Thus, in the summer dress, the upper parts are of a huffish 

 brown, streaked and barred with umber ; while the under parts are 

 white streaked on the neck, breast, and belly, and barred on the 

 flanks with ash-brown. In winter the upper parts are ash-coloured, 

 the under parts white, faintly streaked on the neck and breast with 

 ash colour. The lower part of the back is always white. 



In the Curlew (Plate XIV. fig. 7) we bring this description of 

 the Plovers to a close. With a beak like an Ibis, it may always 

 be distinguished therefrom by its sober coloration of pale brown, 

 relieved by darker streaks and spots — a livery which is worn 

 the year round (there is no *' summer " plumage). And in this 

 uniformity of plumage it agrees, it will be remembered, with the 

 Snipe and Woodcock. 



Known as the Curlew on account of its cry, this bird is to be 

 reckoned among the commonest of the wading-birds of Great 

 Britain, breeding in the moorlands wherever sufficiently secluded — 

 a love of solitude immortalised by Kingsley in the lines : 



On the lonely moorlands, 

 Where the Curlew pipe. 



It is also common in Ireland. The American representative of 

 this bird is larger, and has the feathers known as the *' axillary " 

 feathers — from their relation to the arm-pit — of a rufous colour. 



The Whimbrel is a bird very closely resembling the Curlew, but 

 smaller. A few pairs breed annually in Scotland. 



II 



