WHIMBBEL. 83 



187. SPOON-BILL (Platalea leucorodia). 

 A bird which is said to have bred in former days in our country, 

 but which has certainly become, for a long time past, a mere 

 visitor, and not a frequent one. 



188. GLOSSY IBIS (Ibisfalcinellus). 

 This visitor has been met with in late years, even in some 

 small numbers. There was one about the moors in this district 

 four or five years since, which I saw myself and heard of as seen 

 in the same neighbourhood by others ; and about the same time I 

 noticed that birds of the same species had been observed in 

 several other parts of Yorkshire, and elsewhere. Still it is only a 

 visitor, and a casual one. 



iv. scoLOPAcnm 



189. CURLEW (TV^^s arquata). 

 Whaup. As common a bird as almost any along: the whole of the 

 British coasts. Sometimes singly and sometimes in groups of eight 

 or ten, it may be seen along the line of oozy shores or the sandy 

 flats which are laid bare by the receding tide. When the water is 

 sufficiently high to cover all its feeding grounds, it betakes itselt 

 to some higher ground in the vicinity, to rest during fchose hours 

 of inactivity in food-search. When removing from one place, or 

 part of the coast, to another, it usually flies in long lines, which 

 nowever scarcely maintain the same degree of accuracy as in the 

 case of Wild-geese or other line-flying wild fowl. On the arrival 

 of spring the Curlews leave the coast and retire to their breeding 

 haunts in the hills of the extreme north of England, the highest 

 moorlands of Scotland, and other similar places in more northerly 

 latitudes yet. Its note once heard is sufficiently noticeable to be 

 easily recognised on any future occasion. It makes a very care- 

 less or rude nest, and lays four eggs which vary a good deal in 

 the depth of the ground-colour and the amount of their spots. 

 It is pale greenish dun, varying to olive-green, and spotted with 

 darker shades of green and dark-brown. Fig. 3, plate VIII. 



190. WHIMBREL (Numenim phceopus). 

 Whimbrel Curlew, Curlew Jack, Curlew Knot, Half Curlew, 

 Jack Curlew, Stone Curlew, Tang Whaap. No wonder it has 

 the name of Half Curlew, for it does most strongly resemble a 

 diminutive Curlew in its plumage, shape, fashion of bill, haunts, 

 and many of its habits. It is seen, in no great numbers, on many 

 of our coasts in winter ; but I have met with it on the Essex 

 Saltings only in the early spring and previous to its retirement 

 to the north to breed. It is difficult to assert positively that it 

 frequents any part of tho main British Island for that pur 



