368 CHARADRITDAs 
young. I have on different occasions seen an exciting chase, 
and on May 4th, 1900, I suddenly surprised a large female 
Peregrine as she was standing on a sand-hill, but seeing 
me, she flew off, leaving behind her some picked bones and 
the feathers of a Whimbrel. 
Flight. — The flight is steady and well sustained ; it 
resembles that of the Curlew, and the two species, except 
for the difference in size, might easily be confounded on the 
wing. 
Fic. 50.—WHIMBREL. 
Voice.—When the nesting-grounds are intruded upon, 
the birds, darting to and fro, utter a very excitable double- 
syllabled note, which is rapidly repeated. It sounds like 
tetty—yetty—yetty—tetty—yetty—tet. he familiar alarm-whistle, 
heard in autumn on the slob-lands, also when the birds pass 
high overhead on migration, may be syllabled whee-whee- 
whee-whee-whee-whee-whee-whit. ‘Each syllable is repeated 
rapidly and receives equal accentuation. 
Food.—Small crabs, sand-hoppers, shrimps, worms, and 
shell-fish, obtained along the sea-shore, are consumed in 
autumn and spring ; away from the tide the Whimbrel eats 
