WHIMBREL 369 
bilberries and earth-worms. Im the gizzards of female 
Whimbrels obtained on Achill Island, co. Mayo, in May, 
1900, I found remains of numerous beetles, the heads of 
which measured 5 x 4 mm.; also smooth brown larve 2 
em. in length, and pebbles measuring 4 x 4 mm. 
Nest.—Like the Curlew, the Whimbrel makes for its 
nest a shallow hollow in the ground, as a rule amid coarse 
herbage. The eggs, four in number, are rather similar to 
those of the Curlew, but smaller. Incubation begins about 
the end of May. 
The pugnacity evinced when an intruder appears at 
the breeding-haunts is very marked. Mr. Coburn tells me 
that, when in Iceland, he saw this species mob an Iceland 
Falcon; while Mr. Saunders has seen it attack an Arctic 
Skua. 
The Whimbrel is not known to breed with certainty on 
the mainland of Great Britain, but a few pairs do so on 
some of the Orkneys, and larger numbers on the Shetlands. 
North Rona, in the Outer Hebrides, also bears records of 
it as a nesting-species. 
Geographical Distribution.—Abroad, it breeds numerously 
in Iceland and the Faroes, also in the Arctic and Sub-arctic 
regions-of Norway and Sweden; more sparingly in North 
Russia and Western Siberia. The autumn and winter 
migration extends over the Kuropean Continent, across the 
Mediterranean, along the African sea-board to the Cape. 
Westward this species visits the Canaries and Azores, east- 
ward, India and other parts of Southern and South-western 
Asia, meeting with N. variegatus, the Eastern represen- 
tative (vide infra). 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. —'The Whimbrel so 
closely resembles the Curlew in the greyish and chequered 
pattern of the plumage-markings that it is quite unnecessary 
to give a detailed description of the former species. The 
chief points of difference are to be seen on the top of the 
head. Here, in the Whimbrel, two broad brown bands 
pass from the front to the back, separated by a median 
stripe of buffish-white (Fig. 50). These markings are 
present in both adult and immature birds, and at all 
seasons of the year. The back and wings of the adult 
Whimbrel are rather less chequered than the same parts 
of the adult Curlew. 
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