PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 455 



secondaries more sharply defined, while the dark central areas of the feathers of 

 the mantle show a tendency to form marginal bars, giving a more chequered 

 appearance to the plumage. The under parts are more markedly barred and 

 striated, and the ground of the neck and breast inclines to rufous ; the flanks also 

 have a rufous tinge. The young in down are of a pale buffish grey obscurely mottled 

 on the upper parts, [w. p. p.] 



a. Distribution. At the present time the curlew breeds on the moors of 

 Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, in small numbers in Dorset, Wilts, and Hants, 

 and occasionally in Surrey, while a nest was found in Norfolk in 1910. It is 

 tolerably common in Wales, and also breeds in the Border counties ; a few pairs 

 breed on the heaths of Staffordshire, and from the Derbyshire moors northward 

 along the Pennine range, and on some of the low-lying moorlands in the northern 

 counties. It nests in the Isle of Man, and is widely distributed over the mainland 

 of Scotland and the Inner Hebrides, as well as on the Orkneys and Shetlands, 

 but apparently not on the Outer Hebrides. In Ireland it is common both on the 

 mountains and in the bogs. On the Continent it breeds on the moors of Brittany, 

 Belgium, and Holland, locally in N. Germany and Bavaria, Carniola (?), Austria, 

 Galizia, and in Russia in the Baltic provinces, Poland, and from the Perm govern- 

 ment on the east to the Varanger Fjord, the Dwina delta, and the Lower Petschora 

 (65 J N.) in the north. In Denmark it breeds in Jylland, and in Scandinavia on 

 the west coast of Norway, and in Sweden to Jemtland. East of the Kirghis steppes 

 in Asia it is replaced by an allied race, which ranges to Lake Baikal, while another 

 species (N. cyanopus) is found in Eastern Siberia. There is some evidence that 

 it has bred in the Canaries. On migration it occurs through Europe west to the 

 Azores and Canaries, and winters in Africa and Madagascar south to Cape Colony 

 and Natal ; Asiatic birds wintering in Southern Asia to the Indian Ocean and the 

 Malay Archipelago (Borneo, Java, and Sumatra). [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A resident and a winter visitor. In the inland districts 

 where it breeds it is only present from March or April till July or August, but on 

 the coast, where immature birds are to be met with during the breeding season, 

 it is known all the year round. From August till the middle of November a 

 considerable influx from Northern Europe takes place on the eastern seaboard 

 of Great Britain (cf. Nelson, B, of Yorte., 1907, p. 644). For the evidence of 

 southward passage or emigration see p. 530. A gregarious and at least partially 

 nocturnal migrant. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is a mere depression in the ground, lined with 



