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SOUTH- WESTERN ASIA 



Curlew and Stilt. 



Although the woodcock breeds in remote places within the region 

 'under consideration, and the common snipe may perhaps occasionally 

 nest in northern Africa, the other snipe, as well as the curlews, are essentially 

 birds of the north. The slender-billed curlew {Nwmenius tenuirostris) is, how- 

 ever, an inhabitant of Asia Minor and Egypt and southern Europe from Portugal to 

 Greece. It differs from the common curlew by the shape of its beak and its smaller 

 size. Some of the sandpipers of Europe and northern Asia breed in the Mediter- 

 ranean area, for instance the redshank whose nest has been found in Asia Minor 

 and Greece, although the majority of this group breed in the far north. The 



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BLACK-WINGED STILT. 



stilts, on the other hand, are dwellers in warmer climates, the black-winged species 

 (Evnumtopus candidus) inhabiting the south of Europe from Spain to southern 

 Russia, although more abundant in the south-east than elsewhere. It also inhabits 

 south-westero Asia, its range extending into China; and it breeds in Africa as far 

 south as Cape Colony. In Europe it nests in Hungary, and all down the Danube, 

 to the Black Sea. Stragglers visit the coasts of Germany, Holland, and Great 

 Britain, but in central Germany and Switzerland the stilt is very rare. In spring 

 and summer stilts build a large nest of reeds and grass. They seek their food by 

 wading deep in soft mud or up to the full length of their long legs in water; and 

 they are always found in muddy, shallow swamps, or on low river-banks, where 



