THE WHIMBREL. 197 



are unknown at other times ;* the same is reported of them 

 on the coast of Donegal. They likewise take an inland course of 

 flight, appearing, among other places, at the marshes below Killaloe, 

 on the Shannon, every spring, t and in the high moory ground 

 about Lough Conn, in Mayo. J Their popular name everywhere 

 has the word May connected with it — as May-bird, May-fowl, &c. 

 — in consequence of their appearance in that month. A popular 

 error exists in some places, that they are the young of the curlew. 

 This has arisen, not merely from the general resemblance of the 

 species, and the whimbrel being always much the smaller of the 

 two, but from its being also so much easier of access than the 

 other, believed to be its parent. On the arrival of the flocks in 

 spring, they are often very tame, and may be openly approached 

 within gun-shot ; but persecution soon renders them wild. 



Notes kept of the arrival of the whimbrel in Belfast Bay, for 

 many years, announce its earliest appearance on the 10th of April 

 (in 1843) ; and the next earliest on the 22nd of that month (in 

 1838 and 1845). It remains generally from about four to six 

 weeks. Some were seen so late as the 18th of June in 1843 

 (the year of their earliest arrival), and in the following year, until 

 the 14th of that month. 



They re-appear very soon after the breeding season, having been 

 observed every year, from 1839 to 1848 inclusive, in July, gene- 

 rally about the middle, but in 1845 and 1848 early in the 

 month. || The numbers gradually increase from the time of their 

 being first seen. During August they are most numerous in the 

 bay, whence they are chiefly gone by the end of September. 

 They return in autumn, along the line of the eastern coast, to- 

 wards their winter haunts, in much smaller quantity than they 

 went forth in spring, not more than about one being seen in some 

 years at the former, for ten at the latter, season : an ordinary flock 

 will consist of thirty in the spring and of three in the autumn. 

 The relative number on the entire coast will not, perhaps, be much 



* The late Mr. John Nimmo, jun. f Rev. T. Knox. % Mr. B. Ball. 



II Oil the 1st of August thcv have been shot at Dungarvan on the southern coast. 



