190 SCOLOPACHLE. 



and day-feeder. On examination of the stomachs of six birds, 

 killed in different months, two were found to contain the remains 

 of worms, and one, of vegetable matter in addition to them ; a third 

 was filled with insect larvse ; a fourth contained the fragment of a 

 cock]e and some sand ; a fifth was filled with the remains of crabs 

 which could not have been less than an inch and a half across the 

 carapace, or body ; the sixth was half filled with pebbles, some of 

 which were one-third of an inch in diameter. A fowler once re- 

 marked to me, that he had seen crabs of so large a size in the 

 curlew that it was " a marvel" to him how the bird could swallow 

 them. " The curlew (according to Mr. Poole) is sometimes very 

 much infested with intestinal worms, which, in some cases, literally 

 cover the folds of the viscera and the parietes of the abdomen." 

 I have noticed that the bill of this species is a longer time attain- 

 ing its full dimensions — about six inches — than the body is, 

 its full size. 



Variety in Colour. — A white curlew, shot by Mr. David Stewart, 

 in the winter of 1848, on his farm at Tulnakill, near Ardmillan, 

 on the shore of Strangford Lough, was (through the kind at- 

 tention of Mr. Caughey of the latter place) forwarded to Belfast 

 for my examination. It is an adult bird of full size ; bill, nearly 

 five inches long from rictus to point, &c. It would be called 

 wholly white, as there is not a dark spot or marking in its entire 

 plumage. The whitish colour which prevails throughout, how- 

 ever, is not pure. A very faint brownish- white hue appears in 

 front and on one side of the neck and breast, as well as on the 

 central portion of the dorsal plumage : the quills near the shafts 

 are likewise of this colour. All the rest is white, of a very pale 

 cream-coloured tinge. The bill is whitish horn-colour : one tar- 

 sus is of the ordinary hue, the other lighter; but both would 

 doubtless have become whitish had the bird been permitted to 

 live long enough. This curlew had been observed occasionally, 

 during two years, in the district in which it was killed. It was 

 then in company with several others of its species. 



Breeding -places. — The curlew breeds only in the least frequented 

 boggy tracts. In the county of Antrim, it is believed to do so in 



