OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 189 



that month until the end of June. Its breeding grounds are the 

 elevated moorlands in the vicinity of the sea. The nest is merely 

 a hollow in the ground amongst heath or other rough herbage, 

 usually in a dry part of the moor, lined with a few bits of dead 

 grass and dry leaves. The eggs are four in number, olive-green 

 of various shades or pale buff in ground colour, spotted and 

 blotched with olive-brown and reddish brown, and with underlying 

 markings of pale gray. They measure on an average 2 -3 inches 

 in length by i'6 inch in breadth. At its breeding grounds the 

 Whimbrel is both courageous and pugnacious, and drives off such 

 intruding birds as Gulls and Skuas with a chorus of angry cries. 

 Only one brood is reared in the year. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Numenius, with a pale stripe down 

 the centre of the dark crown, and with the lower back much 

 paler than the mantle (white in adult birds, streaked with brown 

 in immature examples). Length, 16 to 18 inches. 



