CHARADRIIDAE 289 



brel or May-bird, nests in the Shetlands and perhaps still in the 

 Orkneys and North Eonay in the Hebrides ; in summer it takes 

 the place of the Curlew in the Faroes and Iceland, strays to 

 Greenland, and occupies Northern Europe and Asia ; while it 

 visits the Azores, the whole of Africa, the Indian Kegion, and 

 Australia in winter. Specimens from Eastern Asia, with more 

 streaked rumps, have been separated as N. variegatus. In general 

 plumage and habits the Whimbrel resembles the Curlew ; it is, 

 however, much smaller, the cry consists of sharper and more quickly 

 repeated notes, and the parents, though anxious, are less shy at 

 the nest. They often descend in a gyrating fashion, closing one 

 wing. N. hudsonicus, of Arctic North America, which winters 

 throughout South America, and has once occurred in Spain, re- 

 sembles N. borealis in its cinnamon axillaries, but is larger and 

 less ruddy beneath. N. tahitiensis, common in the Pacific Islands, 

 and probably breeding in Alaska, is recognisable by the bristly- 

 pointed flank-feathers ; N. minutus, ranging from East Siberia in 

 summer to the Malay Islands and Australia in winter, has the 

 back of the metatarsus as well as the front scutellated. 



Sub-fam. 3. Scolopacinae. Macrorhamphus griseus, the 

 "Dowitcher," breeding in the extreme north of North America, and 

 its larger and brighter western race, M. scolopaceus, are rufous birds 

 with darker variegations, the lower back and tail being white, but 

 the latter and its upper coverts shewing blackish barring. The 

 bill is widened towards the tip, while in winter the plumage is grey 

 and white. One form or the other has strayed to Britain, Western 

 Europe, and Eastern Asia, the range on migration reaching 

 Brazil and Chili. The habits resemble those of Eedshanks. M. 

 taczanowskii, with black-mottled rump, occupies East Siberia, and 

 winters in India, Borneo, and thence to China. 



Scolopax rusticula, the well-known Woodcock, brown, grey, and 

 buff in colour, with blackish vermiculations and blotches above 

 and bars below, has two transverse buff stripes on the black hind- 

 crown. It inhabits Northern and Central Europe and Asia 

 with the Atlantic Islands and Japan and migrates to the Mediter- 

 ranean, Persia, India, Ceylon, and China, or even strays to eastern 

 North America. Breeding freely in Britain, where large additional 

 flocks arrive in autumn, it frequents leaf- strewn woods in which 

 marshy spots or rivulets alternate with dry ground ; the food 

 consists of worms, small molluscs and insects, the first being 

 VOL. ix u 



