COMMON CURLEW. 



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most secondaries takes the form of obscure bars on the marginal portion. 

 The rump is white; the shortest upper tail-coverts are white, broadly 

 streaked with dark brown, and the longest upper tail-coverts are white, 

 suffused with reddish brown and broadly barred with dark brown; the 

 quills are dark brown with white bars, which on the first five are confined 

 to the outer half of the inner web ; the four centre tail-feathers are pale 

 brown barred with dark brown, and the four outer on each side are white 

 barred with dark brown. The underparts are white, suffused with pale 

 brown on the neck and breast, which are broadly streaked with dark 

 brown ; the flanks and axillaries are white, more or less irregularly barred 

 and streaked with dark brown, and there are a few faint streaks on the belly 

 and under tail-ceverts. Bill dark brown, paler at the base of the lower 

 mandible ; legs, feet, and claws dull slate-grey ; irides hazel. The female 

 very closely resembles the male, but has a somewhat longer bill ; the centre 

 of the rump is streaked like the upper tail-coverts, and the streaks and 

 bars on the whole of the underparts are more developed. After the 

 autumn moult the streaks on the underparts are narrower, the bars become 

 less conspicuous on the flanks, and often disappear altogether from the 

 axillaries. Young in first plumage closely resemble adults, but the brown 

 of the upper parts is more rufous, the bars on the scapulars and innermost 

 secondaries are more clearly defined, and the black centres of the feathers 

 of the rest of the plumage show a tendency to become bars on the marginal 

 portion, giving to the whole of the upper parts a much more spotted 

 appearance. The underparts are more profusely barred and streaked, 

 especially on the flanks, and the ground-colour of the neck and breast is 

 much more buff and extends to the flanks ; but the axillaries are pure 

 unspotted white. Birds of the year are intermediate between adults 

 and young in first plumage, and do not quite assume the fully adult 

 plumage after the first spring moult. Young in down are pale buffish 

 grey, obscurely mottled with dark brown on the upper parts. 





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