WHIMBREL. 145 
WHIMBREL. 
Numentus pomopus, Linn. 
Pl. XXL, fig. 5. 
Geogr. distr.—Entire Palxarctic region; Indo-Malaysia; Africa to 
the Cape: in Great Britain during the summer it occurs far to the 
north, breeding in Scotland, especially in the Orkney and Shetland 
Islands. 
Food.—Worms, Mollusca and Crustacea. 
Nest.—A mere depression in the soil lined with a few leaves and 
grass-stalks, or without lining. 
Position of nest.—On a slight elevation in marshy ground where 
the soil is peaty and mossy. 
Number of eggs.—4. 
Time of nidification.—V-VI. 
Captain Henry W. Feilden, in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1872, 
mentions having taken a nest of this bird with four eggs 
on the 16th June in a singular position, in the Faroe 
Islands; the nest was placed near a rill, between two 
blocks of stone which only just allowed sufficient space for 
the bird to squeeze between them. He states that, when 
breeding, the Whimbrel is pugnacious, and constantly on 
the alert to drive away intruders from the vicinity of its 
nest ; and that he has watched it by the hour chasing the 
Lesser Black-backed Gull. When engaged in these combats 
its flight is rapid and arrow-like, and it constantly repeats 
its trilling cry, which has not inaptly been described as 
resembling the words ‘‘tetty, tetty, tetty, tet” quickly 
repeated. (See p. 8248). 
Mr. Seebohm says that ‘‘ the favourite breeding-grounds 
of the Whimbrel are the moors and heaths in close 
proximity to the sea. When the vicinity of their nest is 
intruded upon the Whimbrels fly into the air and circle 
round and round. The nest is very slight, a little hollow 
amongst the heath, or under the shelter of a tuft of coarse 
grass in a dry part of the swamp, and is lined with a few 
scraps of dry herbage. The eggs are usually laid at the 
end of May, and from that date they may be obtained until 
the end of June.”—(Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. 1i1., p. 102.) 
I have a very badly-blown egg of this bird, said to have 
been taken in Mid-Kent; but this is most improbable. 
