458 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



visited on passage as well as the seaboard (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 

 1900, p. 310). The spring passage in this species, contrary to the usual rule, is 

 much more marked than the autumnal : the former lasts for about six weeks 

 from the middle of April onwards, and is at its height about the second week of 

 May. A few birds, apart from those breeding, are sometimes found during the 

 summer in various parts. The return passage begins in the latter half of July 

 and lasts till September, after which few birds are met with. The whimbrel is a 

 gregarious migrant, but seldom forms large flocks, while in autumn it associates 

 also with curlews, godwits, and the like. It journeys both by night and by day. 

 In autumn it is apt to be scarce and local, but individuals may linger for a long 

 time ; in spring it is seldom seen to alight, and then only for a short time, being 

 more often recorded as passing high overhead " in compact little flocks during 

 the midday hours " (Solway ; cf. Service, Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 1905, 

 vol. viii. p. 59). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is merely a shallow depression, frequently 

 close to a boulder or stone on a moor or on a hummock in a marsh, lined scantily 

 with fragments of mosses, especially sphagnum, bents, and lichens growing around, 

 apparently picked by the hen-bird while laying or incubating. The eggs are 

 normally 4, sometimes only 3, in number, 1 and are large, broad pyriform in shape, 

 and placed with converging points. The ground-colour varies from olive brownish 

 or greenish brown to bright blue-green, blotched irregularly with sepia-brown, some- 

 times almost blackish brown, with underlying ashy grey shellmarks. The markings 

 are usually heavier at the big end. (PL M.) Average size of 63 eggs, 2*30 x 1*61 

 in. [58*5 x 41 mm.]. Both sexes show brooding-spots and take part in incubation, 

 the hen usually, but she is relieved at times by her mate, especially in the evenings 

 (Hantzsch). The same authority also gives the duration of the period as three to 

 three and a half weeks. In Iceland the eggs are generally laid in the first half of 

 June, sometimes in the last week of May in the Faeroes and islands of Scotland, 

 and in Lapland from about 6th June onward, and even in July, though only a 

 single brood is reared during the season, [r. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Insects and their larvae, worms, land-snails, and berries ; and 

 on the shore, sand-worms, molluscs, and the smaller crustaceans. Is less of a 

 marine feeder than the curlew, and leaves the shore to feed on the adjacent cultivated 

 fields (Slater, British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, p. 177). In the stomach of 

 females from Achill Island in May, Professor Patten found remains of numerous 



1 Huiitzsck records a nest with 5 eggs ( Vogelwelt Islands, p. 256). 



