2260 PLOVERS, SANDPIPERS, SNIPE, JACANAS, GULLS 



European form pass the winter in Africa, the Oriental variety is met with at that 

 season in India. The whimbrel (N. phczopus) is a smaller bird than the curlew, 

 measuring only sixteen to eighteen inches, and having a relatively-shorter beak, 

 and may be distinguished, in common with some other species, by the crown of the 

 head being of a uniform pale brown color, with a lighter median longitudinal 

 streak, its distinctive specific characteristic being that the lower portion of the back 

 is much lighter than the rest of the upper parts. Although a more northern species 

 than the curlew, not breeding in the British Islands south of the Orkneys and Shet- 

 lands, the distribution of the whimbrel is very similar, the common form being re- 

 placed in Eastern Asia by a variety which winters in India and Australia. The 

 nearly-allied American whimbrel {N. hudsonianus) , whose winter range extends to 

 Patagonia, differs by the chestnut axillaries and under wing coverts, and the sim- 

 ilarity in the color of all the upper parts. The still smaller Eskimo whimbrel (N. 

 borealis), which breeds in Arctic America, and occasionally straggles during migra- 

 tion to Britain, differs by the absence of barring on the primary quills, while the 

 least whimbrel (TV. minutus), which breeds in Eastern Siberia and winters in Mala- 

 yana and Australia, may be distinguished from the latter by the metatarsus being 

 covered with scutes both in front and behind. 



All the members of the genus are of very similar habits, frequent- 

 ing moors, inland marshes, and uplands during the summer, and seek- 

 ing the coasts more while on migration and during the winter. Even more wary 

 than the oyster catchers, curlews take wing at the least alarm, and rarely allow 

 themselves to be approached within gunshot range. Whenever alarmed, they utter 

 their well-known piercing cry as they rise in the air; and these 'weird notes, es- 

 pecially when the whole flock of birds join in the chorus, may be heard at great 

 distances across the moors. Gregarious in winter, the birds break up into pairs in 

 the spring, and in the breeding season lay, in a slight nest on the ground, four 

 somewhat pear-shaped eggs, of which the ground color is olive green, marked with 

 spots of brown and gray. In summer, the food of the European species consists of 

 insects, larvae, and worms, sometimes supplemented with berries, but in winter it is 

 largely composed of small marine crustaceans and mollusks. Although generally so 

 shy and wary, in the breeding season curlews are far bolder, and when the young 

 are hatched, both parent birds will often fly anxiously round and round the head of 

 any intruder on their domain. Geologically these birds are known to date from 

 the period of the middle Miocene, remains of small species having been obtained 

 from strata of that age in France, and it is not improbable that they date from the 

 still older upper Eocene beds of the Paris basin. 



The three species of phalarope, two of which are met with in Britain, 

 are readily distinguished from other members of the family by the sides 

 of the three front toes being provided with lobe-like expansions, some- 

 what similar to those of the coots, and likewise by the marked lateral compression 

 of the metatarsus, which is covered with scutes on both aspects. The beak is of 

 medium length, straight, somewhat depressed and relatively weak, with the oval 

 nostrils at its base surrounded by an elevated rim. The first toe, although small, 

 is present, and a small portion of the tibia is bare. In the elongated and pointed 



