172 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Faviily—SCOL OP A CID.'E. 



Curlew. 



Mumeiiius arqiiata, LiNN. 



THE Curlew is a common ornament to our coasts, northern and southern, 

 from September to March or April, mostly retiring inland to the moors at 

 the latter date to breed. But odd individuals may be seen on the Norfolk coast, 

 and elsewhere, all the season through ; non-breeders, of course. In the south the 

 Curlew breeds in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorsetshire (probably also in 

 Wilts and Hants, but there is a certain amount of confusion owing to the present 

 bird and the Stone Curlew having the same name). Throughout Wales, and from 

 Yorkshire and Derbyshire northwards, and in a good many parts of Ireland, it is 

 a breeder in some numbers. It is a visitor to the Faeroes, but only a casual, and 

 not breeding, so far as I can ascertain ; from Scandinavia to Japan and as far 

 south as Brittany completes its breeding range, and it winters in the Mediterranean 

 basin, on all the coasts and islands of Africa, India, and the Malay Archipelago, 

 passing through Palestine, Persia, Turkestan, and the China coasts on migration. 

 I have willingly followed Dr. Sharpe in uniting Ntmienius /.meatus (Cuvier), the 

 Oriental form (hardly amounting to a variety) with our bird. In America our 

 Curlew has not occurred, being replaced by a species fN. lojtgirostrisj with the 

 axillaries and under side of the wing rufous. The evidence of the Curlew's 

 occurrence in Iceland seems to leave something to be desired. 



The adult in summer {$ Riding- Mill- on-Tyne, May, 1877, ? Do-> June, '78) 

 has the bill much decurved, dark brown, yellower at the base (length 5 to 7J 

 inches, the latter only attained by Oriental females, but I have an Bnglish female 

 with a bill 6| inches) ; iris umber ; upper parts, including the head (almost) neck 

 and breast, hair brown, with bold dark brown shaft-stripes to the feathers, giving 

 a distinctly striped effect to the whole plumage ; on the breast, wing-coverts, and 

 tertiaries, these dark stripes throw out lateral bars ; primaries sooty-brown, with 

 a white saw-tooth pattern on the inner web ; chin, lower back, and belly white ; 

 upper tail-coverts and tail white, barred with black, the central feathers of the 

 latter shaded with brown; legs and feet light blue-grey. Length 21 to 26 inches 

 (female larger in body, as well as longer in bill), closed wing iif to 12^. 



