WHIMBREL. 509 



backed Gulls, uttering its trilling cry, tetty, tetty, fetty tet, 

 whilst darting to and fro with arrow-like flight. Its food 

 consists of insects, worms, small crustaceans, and small land- 

 shells, such as Helix ericetorum, for it is much more of a 

 land-feeder during its visits to our islands than the Curlew, 

 and it is said to be partial to bilberries. 



The Whimbrel has occurred as a straggler in various parts 

 of Greenland, and in Iceland it is one of the most characteristic 

 breeding species. In Norway its summer range extends to 

 the north of the fells, and in Sweden to the limits of pine- 

 growth ; it is a common breeding species in Northern Eussia, 

 and also on the lofty plains of the Ural much further south. 

 Over the rest of Europe and along the Mediterranean it is 

 only known as a migrant, and, touching at the Canaries, 

 Madeira, and the Azores, it goes down the west coast of 

 Africa to the Cape in winter. It occurs on the east side of 

 that continent, as also in Madagascar, Mauritius, and other 

 islands of the Indian Ocean ; is abundant about Kurachee 

 in winter, and visits other parts of India and Ceylon in 

 moderate numbers. To the north its summer range extends 

 across Siberia to Kamtschatka, and if a doubtfully distinct 

 form — N. variegatus, Scopoli (A^". urojyygialis, Gould), which 

 has the rump barred instead of white — is united with 

 it, then its range extends to Japan, China, Formosa, the 

 Philippines, and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago down 

 to New Guinea. In America our Whimbrel is rej^resented 

 by N. hudsonicus, with rufous axillaries — a species which 

 has been known to straggle to the south-west of Spain (Ibis, 

 1873, p. 98). In Southern Europe and Northern Africa is 

 found A"", tenuirostris, a species of the size of the Whimbrel, 

 but with the very distinct head-markings of the Curlew, 

 and white under wing-coverts and axillaries. 



The Whimbrel appears to have been designated by the 

 name of * Spowe ' in the L'Estrange Accounts, a term 

 which corresponds with the ' spoi,' ' spou,' * spof ' and 

 ' spove,' of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark (Steven- 

 son, 'B. Norfolk,' ii. p. 202). But by the time of Wil- 

 lughby, it appears to have been generally known under its 



