198 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



where it seeks its food when the tide has retired, and during 

 the season of incubation is met with in the wilder inland dis- 

 tricts of our land. Its nest is placed in some dry part of the 

 moor or tuft in the moss, also at times in a furrow of fallow 

 or newly-sown land, and is simply a hollow smoothed by the 

 bird, having in some instances a few grasses or other leaves 

 lining the bottom. The eggs, which are large, are much 

 pointed at the smaller end ; they are four in number, of an 

 ash-green colour spotted with grey and olive-brown. 



THE ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. Numenius borealis. But 



one instance of the occurrence of this bird in Britain is 







recorded, as far as we are aware; and this specimen was 

 obtained in Scotland, in September 1855, not far from 

 Aberdeen. 



In summer this species frequents the barren wastes within 

 the Arctic Circle, where it incubates, laying three or four 

 eggs of a pyriform shape, and of a greenish colour marked 

 with a few large irregular spots of bright umber-brown. 

 As the colder season advances, it retires southward, return- 

 ing to its breeding stations in the spring. 



THE WHIMBREL. Numenius pheopus. The Whimbrel, 

 though pretty generally diffused, is not nearly so common as 

 the Curlew, and breeds with us only in the more northern 



