416 Scolopacldce. 



Lord Nelson possesses a specimen killed at Trafalgar. Mr. Grant 

 records a pair shot at Swindon in April, 1865, one at Overton 

 in May, 1873, and one at Enford by Mr. Sargent in May, 1882. 

 Then in 1876 a flock of six was seen at Berwick Bassett on May 13th, 

 and one of these was shot by a labourer who was scaring birds. 

 It was an adult male, in very fair plumage, and extremely fat : 

 its gizzard contained the remains of earthworms with a blade or 

 two of grass, and a few small stones ; all of which particulars 

 were recorded in the Zoologist* Since that date Mr. Swayne, of 

 Wilton, in a letter dated November 14th, 1883, informed me 

 that about the middle of October Lord Pembroke shot a 

 Whimbrel on the hill above Butteridge, and said that he had 

 seen four or five fly over his head the previous year in the 

 meadows just out of shot, but, except that they looked too small, 

 he thought they were Stone Curlews, of which there are generally 

 some about the hill, and several of which Mr. Swayne has seen 

 killed. The specific name, phceopus, means ' dusky-foot/ from 

 <ato?, ' dusky,' and TTOU?, ' a foot,' and marks one point in which 

 it differs from its larger congener, whose feet are light blue. 

 Mr. Cecil Smith says that they are called by the fishermen on 

 the Somerset coast ' Young Curlews '; and Mr. Knox that in 

 Sussex they are locally designated ' Titterels,' from the trilling 

 note which they utter while on the wing. Elsewhere they are 

 known as the ' May Bird/ because they arrive on migration so 

 regularly in that month. These, too, are the genuine ' Seven 

 Whistlers/ a term which is now applied to several other species, 

 but belongs by right to the Whimbrel alone, whose whistle is 

 supposed to be repeated just seven times. Mr. Cordeaux gives 

 the ' Knot Curlew ' as one of its many names in Yorkshire, and 

 adds : They are very partial to washing and bathing ; coming 

 down to the tide edge each day and wading out breast deep, they 

 scatter the water with their wings in sparkling showers over 

 their backs and bodies. After the bath they stand on the fore- 

 shore, gently fanning their wings to and fro, or preening and 

 arranging their plumage. When migrating they advance at an 



For 1876, 2nd series, p. 5166. 



