194 BIKDS OF NORFOLK. 



As shown by the measurements and descriptions 

 given by Montagu in his "Supplement" these birds vary 

 much both in size and colouring, the females being 

 somewhat smaller than the males, and in their imma- 

 ture stages showing more white about the head and 

 neck. 



NUMENIUS ARQUATA (Linnams). 

 COMMON CUELEW. 



The Curlew is another of those grallatorial species 

 which, although observed on our coast during every 

 month of the year, has never been known to nest 

 in this county. Further north* it breeds in April and 

 May, but throughout the latter month I have remarked 

 them at Hunstanton, and have heard their loud 

 whistle in June, when out at sea, and seen strag- 

 glers at the same date both at Cromer and Salthouse. 

 Yet, though such may be considered as exceptional 

 cases, the bulk of those which annually visit us in 

 autumn and winter are absent only for a very short 

 period. By the 1st of July Mr. Dowell has known 

 them arrive at Blakeney in some numbers, and has 

 seen them there in flocks of forty or fifty by the end of 



* In Mr. A. G. More's paper " on the distribution of Birds in 

 Great Britain during the nesting season " (" Ibis," 1865, p. 434), 

 the curlew is described as " rare in the south during summer, 

 though a few pairs are recorded as breeding in Cornwall and 

 Devonshire." Its breeding in Dorset and Wiltshire is considered 

 doubtful, the stone curlew (CEdicnemus crepitans) being probably 

 mistaken for it in those counties, but " further north there are one 

 or two breeding stations in Shropshire, and Mr. 0. Salvin finds 

 its nest in Derbyshire." We also learn from the same authority 

 that "the curlew breeds in North and South Wales, and from 

 Yorkshire northwards, extending as far north as the Shetland 

 Islands." 



