530 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



of the axillaries and other under wing feathers. Other species exist, 

 but it is unnecessary to mention them here. 



The whimbrel, unlike most species, is far more numerous with us 

 on the spring than on the autumn passage. 1 Dr. Ticehurst thinks 

 that this is due to the fact that in autumn many flocks pass high 

 overhead without stopping on the coast, as of all the Waders the cries 

 of the whimbrel are most frequently heard, and are most easily 

 recognised. 



Our resident curlews leave their inland breeding-places for the 

 coast in July and August, going, as a rule, to the estuaries nearest to 

 their nesting-places ; as the autumn advances many of them move 

 southwards, others from farther north filling their places. Fair 

 numbers, however, reach the eastern and southern counties by the 

 beginning of August or even earlier. In 1909 numbers were heard 

 at night in Hertfordshire on July 14th and 15th, and in Norfolk on 

 the 24th and 25th ; and the first arrivals were observed on the East 

 Sussex coast on the 19th. 2 Dr. Ticehurst says that in Kent the first 

 birds arrive in August. 3 



The first curlews that arrive in East Anglia from the Continent in 

 August are small bands of immature birds with a few adults. The 

 bulk, in flocks of considerable size, do not arrive until September 

 and October. These are said to be generally smaller, and to have 

 longer bills than the home-breeding birds. In East Norfolk they 

 are known as "harvest curlews," and are, owing to their having fed 

 inland, esteemed by wild-fowlers as being better flavoured than those 

 that have fed on the shore for some time. 4 Immigration continues to 

 November, but Dr. Ticehurst considers that in Kent most of the 

 migrants have passed by the beginning of October, leaving behind the 

 regular winter residents. 5 Overseas emigration in autumn probably 



1 Ticehurst, Birds of Kent, p. 486 ; Patterson, Nature in Eastern Norfolk, p. 241 ; Ussher and 

 Warren, Birds of Ireland, p. 310. 



2 B. 0. C. Migration Report, 1911, xxviiL p. 256. 



3 Birds of Kent, p. 458. Nature in Eastern Norfolk, p. 240. 

 5 Birds of Kent, p. 485. 



