288 



CHARADRIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



latter barred with dark brown ; the belly is white, the breast 

 nearly so in winter. Found on our shores from autumn to spring, 

 its wary habits are as well-known as its wild rippling note ; the 

 food consists of insects, worms, berries, and so forth ; while four 

 large pear-shaped olive-and-brown eggs are deposited in an ample 

 depression formed on boggy or heathery ground. N. cyanopus, a 

 distinct East Siberian form, met with in Australia and occasionally 

 from New Guinea to Borneo in winter, has the rump-region brown 



FIG. 59. Curlew. Numenius arquata. x -?. 



and black. N. tenuirostris, of the Mediterranean and South Eussia r 

 resembles the Curlew, but is much smaller ; JV. longirostris of 

 temperate North America, migrating to Central America and the 

 Antilles, has cinnamon axillaries like all the New World mem- 

 bers of the genus and a dark rump. The remaining species, or 

 Whimbrels, have a pale central streak down the crown, less dis- 

 tinct in N. borealis, the Eskimo Curlew, which has rufous axillaries 

 barred with brown, and a rump like the back. This bird wanders to 

 Britain, but breeds in the extreme north of America, and in winter 

 reaches the south of that Continent. N. phaeopus, the typical Whim- 



