2 SCOLOPACID^. 



unfortunately Avithout success. The same birds were again seen ; and from their 

 actions I was convinced there could be little doubt they were nesting. A 

 continuation of stormy weather, which set in with still greater fury, put an end to 

 all hopes of exploring this terribly exposed coast before I left the district." 



Colonel Feilden writes as follows respecting the nesting of this species in 

 the Fseroe Islands, where he spent six weeks in May and June 1872 *: — " Svabo 

 mentions that they arrive about the middle of April and depart by the 29th of 

 September. Herr Miiller has seen some as late as the 3rd of October. On the 

 16th of May I noticed them, though paired, in flocks near to Thorshavn, feeding 

 on the meadows ; soon afterwards they separated and betook themselves to the 

 breeding-grounds. They are so abundant as a breeding species that we never 

 seemed to be able to get out of their sight ; they were constantly flying round us 

 in company with the oyster-catchers. The first nest of the whimbrel that we 

 procured was on the 25th of May, in the Island of Suderoe ; afterwards we found 

 and received them in considerable numbers. On the 17th of June I got twelve 

 nests, each with four eggs, which had been collected for me the week previously 

 from the vicinity of Nordedhal, Stromoe ; all were quite fresh. On the 16th of 

 June I found a nest with four eggs in rather a singular position : it was placed 

 close to a rill, between two blocks of stone, which just gave room enough for the 

 bird to squeeze between. The whimbrel is of a pugnacious disposition whilst 

 breeding, and is constantly on the alert to drive off intruders from the vicinity of 

 its nest ; I have watched them by the hour chasing the lesser blackbacked gull 

 [L.fuscus). When engaged in these combats their flight is rapid and arrow-like, 

 whilst they constantly repeat their trilling cry, which has not inaptly been 

 described as resembling the words ' tetty, tetty, tetty tet,' quickly repeated. A 

 beautiful white variety is in Herr Miiller's collection." 



Messrs. H. H. Slater and T. Carter give the following information respecting 

 the breeding of the Whimbrel in Iceland, which they visited in 1885 f : — " Of 

 Whimbrels' nests we found plenty. One is noteworthy ; it contained only three 

 eggs, much incubated ; close beside the nest, which was on a tussock in a marsh, 

 lay, in a small artificial heap, about a tablespoonful of small rounded pebbles, the 

 size of peas, all of Avhich must have been brought from the river, nearly a mile 

 off. Perhaps they were a supply of accessory molars for the young birds 

 when hatched. 



" Whimbrel rise wild from the nest ; or, more probably, slip off the nest 



* " The Birds of the Fjcroe Islands," 'Zoologist,' 1872, p. 3248. 

 t " Field Notes from Northern Iceland," ' Zoologist,' 18S6, p. 154. 



