194 THE GAME- BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



at an immense altitude, only their faintly-sounding call-notes informing us of 

 their presence overhead. During their stay with us they frequent much the same 

 localities as the Curlew, mud-banks, salt marshes, and flat, low-lying coasts. At 

 first they are by no means shy, as is usual with birds breeding in the Arctic 

 regions, where they are seldom or never molested by man, but the gunners of the 

 coast soon teach them wariness. Their actions on the coast are very similar to 

 those of their larger congener. Their flight is equally rapid and well-sustained, 

 and they possess the same habit of flying about the air, uttering repeated cries 

 when alarmed. Perhaps they do not feed so much on the actual beach as the 

 Curlew, being more partial to the swampy salt marshes, full of streams and pools 

 left by the tide. They wade repeatedly, and are said even to swim occasionally ; 

 and they have been observed to be very fond of bathing, throwing the water over 

 themselves as they stood breast-deep in the sea. In autumn and winter the Whim- 

 brel appears to be just as gregarious as the Curlew, but does not associate with 

 other wild fowl to the same extent. The notes of this bird are very similar to 

 those of the Curlew. The bird also possesses the same rippling or bubbling cry 

 a shrill tet-ty tet-ty tet-ty tet, which is heard repeatedly in the air, and has gained 

 for the Whimbrel the local name of " Titteral." During summer the Whimbrel 

 occasionally perches in trees. The food of this species consists of insects, worms, 

 snails, various ground fruits, and berries in summer, and of crustaceans, sand- 

 worms, and other small marine animals during winter. 



Nidification. The breeding season of the Whimbrel begins about the 

 middle of May, and the eggs are laid from the end of that month until the end of 

 June. Its breeding grounds are the elevated moorlands in the vicinity of the sea. 

 The nest is merely a hollow in the ground amongst heath or other rough herbage, 

 usually in a dry part of the moor, lined with a few bits of dead grass and dry 

 leaves. The eggs are four in number, olive-green of various shades or pale buff in 

 ground-colour, spotted and blotched with olive-brown and reddish-brown, and 

 with underlying markings of pale grey. They measure on an average 2'3 inches 

 in length by 1'6 inch in breadth. At its breeding grounds the Whimbrel is both 

 courageous and pugnacious, and drives off such intruding birds as Gulls and Skuas 

 with a chorus of angry cries. One brood only is reared in the year. 



Diagnostic characters. Numenius, with a pale stripe down the 

 centre of the dark crown, and with the lower back much paler than the mantle 

 (white in adult birds, streaked with brown in immature examples). Length, 

 16 to 18 inches. 



