908 NTJMEN1US LINEATTJS. 



the Sambhur Lake, it is, according to Mr. Adam, frequently met with in flocks of seven or eight. In the 

 Calcutta district it is commoner at the beginning and end of the cold season than during the middle. In 

 Burmah it is said to have been procured at Thayetmyo ; and in the Irrawaddy delta it is extremely abundant, 

 says Dr. Armstrong, both along the coast and on the eastern side of the estuary of the river. In Tenasscrim 

 it is pretty common along the coast and a little distance inland. Mr. Davison noticed that the majority left 

 in April ; but many remained during June, July, and August, and these must have been stationary non- 

 breeding birds. In the Andamans it is not uncommon on the creeks along the shores, and was not observed 

 by Mr. Davison after the 8th April ; but Mr. Hume has received specimens, shot in August and September, 

 from Pt. Blair. 



This eastern form of Curlew ranges, according to Messrs. Schlcgel and Swinhoe, from Japan (where 

 it is the N. major of Temminck and the former author) down the coast of China and Formosa to Hainan, 

 and thence into the Malay islands, where it has been found in Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. Mr. Swinhoe 

 procured it in March in Hainan, and says that it was common in Hoehow harbour until the beginning 

 of April. It has been obtained in Sumatra by Henrici, in Java by Kuhl and Van Hasselt, and in Southern 

 Borneo by Crookewit, while in the Leyden Museum there is a specimen from Halmahera. As regards Central 

 Asia, its distribution is not very well defined. Prjevalsky speaks of it as Nu/iicnins major, and writes that it 

 is common in South-east Mongolia from the end of March to the end of April, where it frequents the 

 shores of small lakes and puddles in the burnt-out steppes. He found it breeding in the Hoang-ho valley, and 

 noticed the first migrants arriving at Koko-nor on the loth of March, at the end of which month numerous 

 flocks of fifteen to twenty were seen together. At Lake Hanka they were rather common, arriving about the 

 end of March, and some of them stopping to breed about the middle of April. In Amoor Laud Schrenek 

 seems only to have met with the southern species above referred to, and which he writes of as N. aus trails, 



( iould. 



Concerning its range in Western Asia I am not prepared to speak. Swinhoe, on the evidence of the 

 identity of the South-African form with the Indian, supposes that it is migratory in the cool season down 

 the east coast of Africa from India; but Layard speaks of it as a stationary species in South Africa. It is 

 probably this Curlew that passes through Turkestan, occurring rarely, according to Severtzoff, in the eastern 

 portions of the country. Canon Tristram did not obtain specimens, though he saw them on the coast of 

 Palestine; and the birds that he considered to be the European Curlew may have belonged to this form. 

 1 have not examined skins from Egypt or Abyssinia, and cannot speak as to their identity ; but I have 

 mentioned one Creek specimen above which is labelled Athens (whether correctly or not I cannot say). As 

 regards South Africa, Layard writes : — " The Curlew is not uncommon on our sea-board throughout its whole 

 extent. I never heard of its breeding in the colony, though it is found here throughout the year. I met 

 with it up the east coast as far as the Line." It was obtained at Mozambique by Peters ; and the Curlew 

 procured at the Seychelles and in Rodriguez by Mr. E. Newton must have been this species. The European 

 form, which migrates down the west coast from Morocco, does not seem to extend further south than Ashantee. 



Habits. — In Ceylon the Curlew frequents sand banks and sand flats left bare by the daily receding of the 

 tide, marshy land near the estuaries of large rivers, the margins of salt lagoons, and may sometimes be seen 

 assembled on grass-land near salt lakes and leways. It is, however, seen in far greater numbers on the tidal 

 foreshores of the open coast and the islands on the north-west than it is about backwaters a little distance 

 inland. No shore-bird can be more interesting to the lover of the wild haunts of seafowl than the Curlew. 

 His tine note sounding clearly above the roar of the sea, or startling the ear of the voyager on a moonlight 

 night as he is cruising in a Jaffna canoe on the smooth waters of the north-west coast, has something 

 inexpressibly wild in it, and reminds him of days gone by when he stalked the same wary, cautious bird on 

 the iron-bound coasts of Scotland, or on the grand hill-moors of Yorkshire and Westmoreland, and listened 

 to the same free, far-reaching cry. The time to see them to perfection is when the tide is beginning to 

 leave the waste flats oft' the north-west coast of Ceylon, and small parties of two, three, six, and more are 

 wending their way towards some chosen feeding-ground, on which the water is just becoming shallow enough 

 for them to wade in. From all directions up and down the coast they come, and shortly after the ground 

 is bare a vast flock of several hundreds are stalking about, uttering their sociable note, quite different from 



