CURLEW AND WHIMBREL 537 



successive days ; three or four days may elapse between the laying of 

 each, and frequently a clutch is not completed in less than ten or 

 twelve days. 



Incubation takes about a month. As a rule the young do not 

 leave the nest immediately they are hatched. If not actually in the 

 nest they are sure to be very near it. 1 Dr. Heatherley says they 

 remain in the nest for about sixty hours, which may be quite correct 

 in some cases but is certainly not in all. In appearance the chicks 

 closely resemble those of some of the genus Totanus. The bill is 

 short and straight, and shows no sign of the curve or the length to 

 which it will attain in a few weeks' time. Like the young of other 

 Waders, they scatter and crouch flat on the ground when danger 

 threatens, and are then very difficult to find. The parents now 

 become very bold and aggressive if their breeding-grounds are 

 invaded, and are prompt to attack other species. (PL 130.) They fly 

 angrily overhead, flap their wings vigorously, and continually utter 

 a loud alarm-note " guck-guck guck-guck" 



The whimbrel also is very bold and pugnacious at nesting time ; 

 it furiously attacks and drives away other birds that trespass on its 

 breeding-grounds. It has been seen fearlessly to attack the Arctic 

 skua, 2 the raven, 3 and even the Iceland falcon, 4 and Colonel Feilden 

 stated that on the Faeroes they were constantly chasing lesser black- 

 backed-gulls. In these encounters the whimbrel's flight was observed 

 to be rapid and arrow-like. 5 



I can find no record of either species " feigning injury " when the 

 young are hatched, but the curlew does so occasionally when suddenly 

 flushed from eggs. 6 



In those parts of the British Isles where both species breed, 

 the whimbrel begins nesting operations a week or two later than 

 the curlew. Colonel Feilden found them in the Fseroes feeding in 



1 See also Bird-life of the Borders, p. 30. a Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 508. 



5 Slater, British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 176. 



4 Aquatic Birds, p. 369. * Zoologist, 1866, p. 3248. 



6 Mr. Owen R. Owen (in. litt.). 



