534 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



caution, satisfaction, anger, anticipation, etc., and says that when 

 living in his house-boat on Breydon during the month of August, he 

 has noticed some eleven or twelve distinct notes or calls. 1 He 

 mercifully abstains from rendering them all in words ! 



From these renderings it is of interest to turn to those in German 

 of Naumann. At first sight they appear to differ so absolutely from 

 the English renderings as to be impossible of association with them, 

 but with correct German pronunciation they may be made to 

 correspond. They give, moreover, a more musical impression ; for 

 instance, "tau tail tau" and "tlauid tlauid" the three vowels pro- 

 nounced separately. A variant of the latter is rendered " trrauith" 

 and the notes of birds in large flocks about to settle are given as " twi 

 twi" or "twii twi." 



The call-notes of the whimbrel are rendered in Naumann as " toil 

 tou " or " toiii troui tloui" and the alarm as "guck guck." The courting 

 song is described as a jodel with the call-note occasionally introduced. 3 

 In English the call of the whimbrel has been expressed as " tetty-yetty- 

 yetty-tetty-yetty-tetty-tet" by Col. Feilden, 4 and Mr. Boyes in the Field 

 renders it " chitty, chitty, chitty, chitty, chitty, chitty, chitty" 5 The " chitty " 

 or " tetty" is generally repeated seven times, from which the species in 

 some districts is known as the " seven whistler." The same note, or 

 a modification of it, uttered as an alarm-whistle in autumn, and also 

 when the birds are flying high overhead on migration, is expressed 

 by Professor Patten "whee, whee, whee, whee, whee, whee, whee, whit." 

 The whimbrel indulges in a spring soaring flight and a trilling song. 

 The latter is said to be similar to but softer than that of the curlew. 7 



The curlew usually nests high up on the hills, and although the 

 nest is frequently among heather, this is due rather to the fact that 

 heather abounds on the curlew's breeding-grounds than to any 

 predilection of the species for that plant. In fact, in many localities 



1 Nature in Eastern Norfolk, p. 241. 2 Vogel Mitteleuropas, ix. p. 146. 



' Ibid., ix. p. 155. 4 Feilden, Zoologist, 1866, p. 3248. 



6 Field, 1889, vol. Ixxiv. p. 476. " Aquatic Birds, p. 368. 



7 Evans and Buckley, Fauna of the Shetlands, p. 176. 



