276 WHIMBREL. 



tensity, and having the shafts of the feathers 

 umber-brown, which broadens out at the base of 

 the feathers, and forms narrow triangular dashes 

 or streaks of that colour ; the belly, vent, under 

 tail-coverts, and flanks, are pure white, on the 

 upper part of the belly and flanks, dashed with 

 brown ; the upper parts are deep clove -brown, 

 glossed with purple, having the feathers margined 

 and cut into with greyish and yellowish-white ; 

 the lower part of the back white, with the shafts 

 of the feathers forming marked streaks ; the quills 

 are clove-brown, glossed with purple, and cut into 

 half across on the inner webs with white nearly 

 in the Yorm of bars; the axillary feathers are 

 barred, as in the snipes, sometimes clouded with 

 hair-brown ; the tail is white, distinctly barred 

 with clove-brown, the edges of the bars irregular, 

 often clouded and tinted with reddish-white ; bill 

 at the tip deep-brown, shading into pink or tile- 

 red towards the base, particularly on the maxilla 

 it often varies considerably in length, legs and 

 feet a tint of greenish-lead colour or bluish-grey. 



THE WHIMBREL, NUMENIUS PHEOPUS. Scolopax 

 pheopus. Linn. Numenius pheopus. Lath. Ind., 

 and modern ornithologists The Whimbrelor Whim- 

 Irel Curlew of British authors. The Whimbrel, 

 though pretty generally diffused, is not nearly so 

 common as the Curlew, and is not found breed- 

 ing except in the extreme north of Scotland, ap- 



