123 



tawny ; crown of head like the back, hut with narrower black 

 stripes ; lores, eyebrow, and a band below the eye white, ex- 

 tending across the ear-coverts, the upper margin of which is 

 blackish-brown continued into a black line underneath the eye 

 and ending in front of the latter ; cheeks and throat white ; 

 lower throat and fore-neck tawny-buff, streaked with black, 

 these streaks becoming narrower on the breast and sides of the 

 body, which are paler tawny-buff; breast, abdomen, and thighs 

 white; under tail-coverts tawny; under wing-coverts and axii- 

 laries white; bill greenish-yellow, black at the point; feet 

 yellow; iris very large and golden-yellow. Total length, 16 

 inches; oilmen, r6; wing, 9*35; tail, 4*7; tarsus, 3-1. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male in colour. Total length, 

 16 inches; culmen, 1*65; wing, 9*5; tail, 4/9; tarsus, 275. 



Young Birds. Very similar to the adults, but distinguished by 

 the colour of the wing-coverts, which are dusky-blackish at the 

 base, with broad white ends. In the old birds the bases of 

 these coverts are white, and the tips are white with a broad 

 sub-terminal bar of black. The general colour of the young 

 birds is more tawny than the adults. 



Nestling. Entirely clothed in sandy-coloured down, paler on 

 the throat and abdomen, and streaked with bands and lines of 

 black, distributed over the body in regular patterns. 



Range in Great Britain. To most parts of England the Stone- 

 Curlew is only a summer visitor, arriving in April and leaving 

 in October, but a certain number pass the winter in the south 

 of Devonshire and Cornwall. It has been found breeding in 

 the southern and eastern counties, as well as in the midlands, 

 but becomes rare to the north of Yorkshire, and only one in- 

 stance of its occurrence in Scotland is known, while Ireland 

 has received but a few visits. In Wales, also, it is almost un- 

 known. 



Range outside the British Islands. An inhabitant of the tem- 

 perate portion of Europe, visiting Northern Germany in sum- 

 mer, and straggling occasionally into Denmark. In the Medi- 

 terranean countries it is mostly resident, but an immigration 

 takes place in the winter, when the Thick-knee visits North- 

 eastern Africa down to the latitude of Aden. Eastwards the 



