646 



WHIMBREL. 

 Numenius phreopus (.) 



Bird of passage in spring and autumn ; common. Leaves for 

 its breeding haunts in May, returning in July and August. Odd 

 individuals have remained at Spurn throughout the summer. Some- 

 times occurs inland. 



The earliest known allusion to this, as a Yorkshire bird, 

 is contained in the accounts of the expenses incurred by 

 Sir John Neville of Chevet, near Wakefield, during his term 

 of office as High Sheriff in 1528. At the Lammas Assizes 

 in that year there appears the item " Curlew Knaves, 32, 

 i I2s." In the same century, and the year 1560, the value 

 of " Wildfowl at Hull " was fixed by proclamation, the price 

 of a " Curlew Knave " being placed at 4d. 



Of peculiar interest to Yorkshiremen is the description, 

 the first British, given by that old Yorkshire ornithologist, 

 Ralph Johnson of Brignall, near Greta Bridge, and contained 

 in a communication to Francis Willughby, who, in his 

 " Ornithology," wrote : " The Whimbrel Arquata minor. 

 Mr. Johnson, in his papers communicated to us, describes 

 this Bird by the name of a Whimbrel, thus : ' It is less by half 

 than a Curlew, hath a crooked bill, but shorter by an inch 

 or more ; The Crown deep brown without speckles. The 

 Back under the Wings white, which the Curlew hath not. 

 Besides the colour of the whole body is more duskish or dull. 

 It is found upon the sands in the Teezmouth.' " (Will. " Orn." 

 1678, p. 294.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : 



Numenius phaopus. The Whimbrel Rare at Hebden Bridge, 

 very rarely met with about Halifax or Huddersfield ; occasionally 

 obtained at York, and not uncommon on the moors in the vicinity 

 of Sheffield, and in the neighbourhood of Doncaster. Arthur Strickland 

 never met with it himself in this county, although he has been told 

 it is sometimes met with ; he thinks the young Curlews may at times 

 be mistaken for it. 



It seems passing strange that Strickland, who resided at 



