2 SLENDUB-BILLED CURLEW. 



head. Length fifteen inches; wing from carpus to tip nine inches and a 

 half; tarsus two inches and a half; middle toe and claw one inch and a 

 half; bill two inches and seven tenths; length of keel of sternum two 

 inches and a half: depth at highest part one inch and one tenth; breadth 

 of sternum superiorly one inch, inferiorly one inch and a fifth. 



The Slender-billed Curlew inhabits chiefly the countries bordering 

 the Eastern Mediterranean. In Sicily M. Malherbe informs us that 

 this bird is the commonest of the three species, and Degland suggests 

 tbe probability of its breeding in that island as -well as in Italy. Count 

 Von der Muhle states, in his " Ornithologie Griechenlands," that it is 

 as plentiful as the Whimbrel in Greece; and he thinks that it builds 

 there, as he has observed single birds seeking food in summer, and 

 has shot young ones in August on the sea-shore. He says it migrates 

 at the end of September. 



Dr. Lindermayer, in his ^'Vogel Griechenlands," says he does not 

 know the periods of its migrations, as he has only killed it in March: 

 nevertheless it is certain that it breeds in the northern provinces. 

 Dr. Baldamus, in " Naumannia''' for 1852, says that it is plentiful, and 

 nests in Greece and the southern provinces of Italy. He killed some 

 specimens some years ago, which were then considered as a chance 

 deviation from the Whimbrel. Lord Lilford, (''Ibis," vol. ii, p. 345,) 

 records its occurrence at Corfu. In Italy, Temminck notices its 

 occurrence near Home, in Venice, and Pisa. Savi confirms this 

 statement, but that it is very rare in Tuscany; and Prince Charles 

 Bonaparte says, in the "Fauna Italica," that it is not uncommon 

 on the marshes which lie near the banks of the Tiber. In France 

 it has been captured in Piedmont, according to Bonelli. Degland 

 records its occurrence in the neighbourhood of Montpellier, Nimes, 

 and Calais; and M. Gerbe says he saw in the museum at Caen, and 

 in the private collection of Dr. Lesauvage, of that town, several 

 specimens which had been shot on the sea-shores of Calvador. 



Naumann includes it among the birds of Germany; and M. Dubois, 

 in his "Oiseaux de la Belgique," records its capture near Louvain, in 

 1834, which specimen is in the collection of M. Isidore Bovie; and 

 also a second specimen near Ostend, in 1836. M. De Selys- 

 Longchamps, in a long and valuable paper in "Naumannia" for 

 1856, entitled "Eemarks on some of the Birds of Europe," states on 

 the authority of MM. Bovie and Robert, that it once nested in the 

 neighbourhood of St. Frond, in Belgium. The same author also 

 alludes, in his "Faune Beige," to its having been observed in 

 Picardy by M. Baillon. 



