454 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



Wangelin. No accurate notes seem to have been made on the incubation period. 

 The breeding season begins as a rule towards the end of April or early in May, 

 but many birds do not lay till the second week in May. Eggs are said to have 

 been exceptionally taken as early as 12th April. When the earlier clutches are 

 taken, the bird has been known to go on laying till July, but normally one brood 

 only is reared in the season. [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Insects and their larvae, earthworms ; and on the shore, marine 

 worms, small shellfish, and crustaceans, and almost any soft-bodied invertebrate 

 animal of moderate size. The young feed on insects and their larvae, and probably 

 worms and small forms of aquatic life, and are accompanied and no doubt aided 

 in their search for the same by both parents, [w. F.] 



COMMON- CURLEW [Numeniiis arqudtus (Linnaeus). Whaup, stock- 

 whaup (Scotland). French, courlis cendre ; German, grosser Brachvogel ; 

 Italian, chiurlo maggiore]. 



I. Description. The curlew is readily distinguished by its large size, brown 

 striated plumage, and long decurved beak. There is a slight seasonal change of 

 coloration, and the sexes are alike. (PI. 130.) Length 26 in. [660'38 mm.]. The 

 adult, in nuptial dress, is of a pale creamy brown, heavily striated with darker 

 brown on the head, neck, and under parts, which are white. The mantle is of a 

 darker brown, owing to the broadening of the central dark areas of the feathers, 

 and glossed with green, but the hinder scapulars and long inner secondaries are 

 barred with brown. The rump is white, and the shortest upper tail-coverts are 

 white streaked with dark brown, the longest white, suffused with rufous and 

 barred with dark brown. The central tail feathers are pale brown barred with 

 darker brown, the outer white barred with brown. The primaries are dark brown, 

 the outermost with white bars across the inner webs ; the innermost with white 

 bars across both webs ; while the secondaries are barred with brown and white. 

 The breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts are white, the latter finely striated 

 with brown. Beak fleshy brown, legs pale slate-grey, iris hazel. The female is 

 somewhat larger than the male, and has a longer beak. After the autumn moult 

 the striations on the under parts and the bars on the flanks are narrower, the 

 upper parts are somewhat paler, and the upper tail-coverts less barred. The 

 juvenile plumage differs from the summer dress of the adult in being somewhat 

 more rufous on the upper parts, and has the bars on the scapulars and inner 



