THE COMMON CURLEW 273 



summer, from which fact the inference is fairly drawn that they 

 do not breed in this country. Their habits differ in no material 

 respects from the other seaside Waders, with whom they frequently 

 mingle while feeding, not, seemingly, for the sake of good fellowship, 

 but attracted by a motive common to all, that of picking up food 

 wherever an abundance is to be met with. Their note is a loud, 

 shrill cry, often uttered while on the wing. The female is much 

 larger than the male. 



This bird is sometimes called the Sea Woodcock. Its flesh is 

 good eating, but is far inferior in flavour to that of the true 

 Woodcock. 



THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT 



lim6sa belgica 



Beak nearly straight ; middle claw long and serrated ; upper parts ash-brown 

 the shafts of the feathers somewhat deeper ; breast and adjacent parts 

 greyish white ; tail black, the base, and the tips of the two middle 

 feathers, white ; beak orange at the base, black at the point; feet dusky. 

 Summer — much of the plumage tinged with red. Length seventeen and 

 a half inches. Eggs deep olive, spotted with light brown. 



This birdis, in outward appearance, mainly distinguished from the 

 preceding by having two-thirds of the tail black, instead of being 

 barred throughout with white and black. Like its congener, it is 

 most frequently seen in autumn and spring, while on the way to 

 and from its breeding-ground in the north ; but it does not stay 

 with us through winter, though occasionally a few pairs used to 

 remain in the fen-countries to breed. It is by far the less common 

 of the two, and seems to be getting annually more and more rare. 

 Its habits, as far as they have been observed, approach those of 

 the other Scolopacidae. In its flight it resembles the Redshank. 

 Its note is a wild screaming whistle, which it utters while on the 

 wing. It builds its nest in swamps, among rushes and sedges, 

 simply collecting a few grasses and roots into any convenient hole, 

 and there it lays four eggs. 



THE COMMON CURLEW 



NUMENIUS ARQUATA 



General plumage reddish ash, mottled with dusky spots ; belly white, with 

 longitudinal dusky spots ; feathers of the back and scapulars black, 

 bordered with rust-red ; tail white, with dark brown transverse bars ; 

 upper mandible dusky ; lower, flesh-colour ; irides brown ; feet bluish 

 grey. Length varying from twenty-two to twenty-eight inches. Eggs 

 olive-green, blotched and spotted with brown and dark green. 



Dwellers by the seaside — especially where the tide retires to a 

 great distance leaving a wide expanse of muddy sand, or on the 



B.B. * 



