PLATE I 

 COMMON CURLEW. Numenius arquata 



May i6///, 1896. While walking along the side of Loch Scridain in Mull 

 I saw the old Curlew rise from this nest, and as the eggs were singularly 

 beautiful, I took a photograph of the nest. 



On the island of Eorsa, on the west coast of Mull, the Curlew is very 

 abundant. It is a small island rising from the sea-level at the west side, and 

 getting gradually higher till it ends on the south-west side in precipitous rocks 

 some ninety feet high ; on the grassy top of the island we found no less than 

 eight nests, and there must have been many more which we did not see. I 

 counted twenty-three birds wheeling about in the air above us at one time. 

 Many of the nests were placed in a hollow overgrown with little bushes of 

 bog-myrtle, and the nests were usually among the stems of this plant. 



Nearly all the eggs were very highly incubated, although it was only 

 the middle of May, so it must have been an early season with the Curlews, 

 though the Kittiwakes that year were surprisingly late, in spite of the mild 

 early spring. 



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