1 82 British Birds ^ 



seen along the line of oozy shores or the sandy flats 

 which are laid bare by the receding tide. When the 

 water is sufficiently high to cover all its feeding 

 grounds, it betakes itself to some higher ground in 

 the vicinity, to rest during those hours of inactivity 

 in food-search. When removing from one place, or 

 one part of the coast to another, it usually flies in long 

 lines, which, however, scarcely maintain the same 

 degree of accuracy as in the case of Wild Geese or 

 other line-flying wild fowl. On the arrival of spring 

 the Curlews leave the coast and retire to their breeding 

 haunts in the hills of the extreme north of England, 

 the highest moorlands of Scotland, and other similar 

 places in more northerly latitudes yet. It is very 

 abundant on the North Yorkshire moors. Near 

 Aysgarth and Bolton I have often seen from ten to 

 twenty flying and settling quite near an intruder on 

 their breeding haunts. Its note once heard is suffi- 

 ciently noticeable to be easily recognised on any 

 future occasion. It makes a very careless or rude 

 nest, and lays four eggs, which vary a good deal in the 

 depth of the ground-colour and the amount of their 

 spots. It is pale greenish dun, varying to olive- 

 green, and spotted with darker shades of green and 

 dark brown.— /z^. ^, plate VIIL 



WHIMBREL— (A'/z/z/r/^zW phceopus). 



Whimbrel Curlew, Curlew Jack, Curlew Knot, Half 

 Curlew, Jack Curlew, Stone Curlew, Tang Whaap. — 

 No wonder it has the name of Half Curlew, for it 

 does most strongly resemble a diminutive Curlew in 

 its plumage, shape, fashion of bill, haunts, and many 



