ioo THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



they were not known to have nested there. Mr. 

 Thompson, from whom I received this information, 

 added that he saw a Bar-tailed Godwit there in Sep- 

 tember of the same year, which was probably one of 

 the two above mentioned. Several were seen in 

 Kimmeridge Bay during the winter of 1859; and 

 four were shot on the Wareham river, and one at 

 Poole, in the winter of 1872-73. 



CURLEW. Numenius arquata, L. 



Yarrett, iii. p. 499 ; Hurting, p. 53 ; Dresser, viii. p. 243 ; 

 Seebohm, iii. p. 94; Ibis List, p. 179; Scolopax arquata, 

 Pultemy's List, p. 14. 



The Curlew is common in the Poole estuary, and 

 breeds in that neighbourhood. Mr. Pike once killed 

 twenty at a shot on the plain in Littlesea. An egg 

 (one of four) was sent me, May 2, 1873, containing a 

 mature chick, which is now in the County Museum 

 collection, the egg being in the possession of Professor 

 Newton. Subsequently (May 2, 1877), in company 

 with Professor Newton and his brother Sir Edward 

 Newton, we found a nest in which the brood had been 

 recently hatched, and which the keeper, who knew of 

 it, told us contained four eggs, and that the brood went 

 off safely. An interesting account of the breeding of 

 the Curlew in Dorsetshire is given by Mrs. Panton 

 in her pleasantly written " Sketches in Black and 

 White," published in 1882 (pp. 63-64) ; an account 

 subsequently confirmed by Professor Newton in 

 The Field of August 19, 1882. This bird sometimes 

 wanders inland a considerable distance from the 



