288 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



regardless, standing high on their ungainly legs, and looking about 

 with apparent surprise and wonderment. 



Besides breeding on the higher ranges of mountains, the Curlew 

 nests on islands in fresh water lakes, especially in places which 

 are solitary and undisturbed. I have repeatedly found its nest on 

 Inch Moin, a low flat island in Loch Lomond, which is not more 

 than twenty or thirty feet above the sea level. Mr Elwes informs 

 me that it does not breed in Islay, though it is found there in great 

 numbers during most of the year. 



From Mr Harvie Brown's journals, I learn that in Suther- 

 landshire, where the Curlew is local, though common in the 

 districts it frequents, four eggs are almost invariably found in the 

 nest, three being the usual number taken in nests throughout the 

 midland and southern counties. In one nest in Sutherlandshire, 

 a shepherd took as many as five eggs, which are now in Mr Harvie 

 Brown's collection. 



THE WHIMBEEL. 



NUMENIUS PH^EOPUS. 

 Eun-bealltuin. 



THIS species is known to breed in various parts of Scotland ; per- 

 haps more numerously in Orkney and Shetland than elsewhere. 

 In the outer islands, it is found in considerable numbers throughout 

 the month of May, in Benbecula and North Uist, from both of 

 which localities I have obtained specimens now in my collection. 

 In these islands it is known, as in other parts of Britain, by the 

 name of May bird the bulk of the migratory flocks moving 

 onwards during that month to higher latitudes. Some of my 

 Hebridean correspondents tell me that the Whimbrel comes 

 regularly about the first of the month; at first only a few are 

 seen, but as the season progresses the flocks become very large.* 

 They are then seen daily feeding on the pasture lands near the 

 sea, chiefly on the west side of Benbecula and North Uist. These 

 pastures, as I have myself observed, are covered with a small 

 land shell (Helix ericetorum), which is so abundant that I have 



* Captain Feilden informs me, that he saw a flock of fifty Whimbrels in the 

 Sound of Wiay, on the 3d Jmie, 1870. 



