NUMEXIUS. 



323 



Plates. — Daub. PI. Enl. no. 818; Gould, Birds Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 48; Dresser, Birds of Europe, Literature, 



viii. pi. 578. 

 Habits. — Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 94. 

 Eggs. — Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 33. figs. 1, 2. 



The Common Curlew only requires two characters to diagnose it from all its congeners Specific cha- 

 except from the Oriental Curlew, from which it is only subspecifically distinct. These 

 characters are, lower back and rump much paler than the mantle, and tarsus more than three 

 inches Ion//. 



Tertiary of young. 









Tertiary of adult. 



The Common Curlew is a resident in the British Islands, but can only be regarded as Geographi- 

 ..... . . „ . . cal distribu- 



an accidental visitor on migration to the Faroes and Iceland. It is a summer visitor to the tion. 



whole of Scandinavia, but in West Russia its range does not extend north of the delta of 

 the Dvina, nor in East Russia north of the basin of the Volga. East of the Caspian it is 

 replaced by the Oriental Curlew. It breeds as far south as Holland, and is said to do so 

 in the delta of the Rhone, on the Kirghiz Steppes, and those of the Caucasus. It passes 

 through South Europe, Asia Minor, and Persia on migration, and winters in Africa, occasion- 

 ally visiting the Azores. I found it very abundant in Durban Bay in March, and was 

 assured that a few examples, doubtless immature birds, remained in their South- African 

 winter-quarters, as they are in the habit of doing on the southern coasts of the British 

 Islands. 



2t2 



