COMMON CURLEW. 501 



birds which had wintered in the southern parts of the 

 kingdom. Be this as it may, our estuaries, even in summer, 

 are seldom without birds which are not breeding, and early 

 in autumn the young birds begin to make their appearance 

 from the moors ; the old ones arriving in October and 

 November. Mr. Cordeaux says that there is no shore-bird 

 which so frequently strikes against lanterns and light-ships 

 as the present, especially in fogs, or on dark rainy nights. 

 Mr. Stevenson, on the other hand, says that though Curlews 

 fly round and round for hours, they are never known to strike 

 the glasses of the lanterns. 



In spite of the gradual reclamation of waste land, and the 

 spread of cultivation, the Curlew still breeds in a good many 

 counties of England. Mr. Rodd states that it nests annually 

 in Cornwall on the large moors about Rough-tor and Brown- 

 willy, where the young are eagerly sought as delicacies by 

 the moor-men ; and in Devonshire it breeds on Dartmoor 

 and Exmoor. In Somersetshire and Dorsetshire its nests 

 have occasionally been found ; and a few pairs may be 

 scattered through Wilts and Hants ; but in the south-eastern 

 and eastern counties it has never been known to breed ; nor 

 does it even appear to nest at the present day in Lincoln- 

 shire, although^ as Mr. Cordeaux informs the Editor, it 

 does so on Thorne Waste, near Doncaster, just beyond the 

 boundary of that county. On the moorlands and hills of 

 Wales it is a tolerably abundant breeder, and it nests near 

 Church Stretton in Shropshire. The high moors of Derby, 

 Yorkshire, and Lancashire offer many congenial resorts, and 

 northwards it is to be found breeding as far as the Scottish 

 border. About the Sol way it is abundant, and Mr. Duck- 

 worth informs the Editor that he has found the nest within 

 four miles of the centre of the city of Carlisle. It also breeds 

 in the Isle of Man ; and in Ireland it nests in many of the 

 large bogs, both in Queen's Co. and other central districts, 

 and also in Mayo and Sligo. In Scotland, where it is 

 generally distributed during the breeding- season in suitable 

 localities, frequenting the coasts during the rest of the year, 

 the Curlew is called a Whaap, or Whaup, which in Jamieson's 



