52 ELEMENTS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
coasts. Curlews run and walk with ease, though they take to 
flight at the least alarm and fly away very quickly. In summer 
they migrate inland to heaths and marshes, where their loud 
screaming cries are very noticeable. The genus to which it 
belongs is cosmopolitan, though it only breeds in Northern 
regions. It contains about a dozen species, one of which is the 
Whimbrel. f 
The long and curved beak of the Curlew may well recall to 
Fig. 52. 




The Whimbrel (Numenius pheopus). 
the reader’s recollection the similarly long and curved beak of 
the Ibis. One species of the genus, the Glossy [bis (Jbis falei- 
nellus), inhabits Africa and Europe as well as America, so it is 
not wonderful that it is sometimes seen in England. There 
are about two dozen kinds of these birds, whereof the Sacred 
Ibis (bis ethiopica) is the most renowned. Though so familiar 
an object in ancient Egyptian art, it is now rarely seen on the 
Nile north of Khartoum. The Scarlet Ibis of South America 
(1bis rubra) is the most beautiful form. 
