SCOLOPACIDJ;. 



Early in April the Curlews begin to retire from the 

 coast and seek the breeding grounds. Mr. Selby feels 

 assured, from observations he has been able to make, that 

 this movement is not so confined in extent as is supposed ; 

 that the winter visitors of the coast of Northumberland 

 do not satisfy the migrative impulse by a flight of a few 

 miles into the interior ; but that these retire to the High- 

 lands, or northern parts of Scotland and its isles, and many 

 visit high northern latitudes to be hereafter mentioned, 

 thus giving place upon the moors and open grounds of 

 the border counties to those birds which have wintered in 

 the southern parts of the kingdom. Mr. Thompson says 

 the Curlew breeds in some of the large bogs of Ireland. 

 Mr. Eyton says it breeds near Holyhead, and on Whixan 

 Moss in Shropshire. Mr. Couch, in his Cornish Fauna, 

 says some few breed on the high grounds in Cornwall. 

 Montagu states that they bred in his time on the high 

 hills of Exmoor; and Mr. Bellamy says that this bird 

 now breeds on Dartmoor. Montagu also mentions that 

 he had taken the young on the mountains of North- 

 umberland and in the low swampy grounds of the Isle 

 of Mull in Scotland. Mr. Selby mentions the Curlew 

 as very abundant during the breeding-season in all the 

 central parts of the county of Sutherland, where heath 

 and marshy tracts prevail. Mr. Dunn says the Curlew is 

 rather plentiful in Orkney and Shetland, resorting to the 

 most retired parts of mossy hills, in which situation it 

 lays its eggs, procuring its food from the muddy banks of 

 lakes. Throughout Scotland and its isles the Curlew is 

 called a Whaap, or Whaup, which in Jamieson's Scottish 

 Dictionary is said to be a name for a goblin, supposed to 

 go about under the eaves of houses after nightfall, having 

 a long beak. Sir Walter Scott refers to this supposed 

 connection of a long beak with a suspicious character in 



