402 



dible to the ear-coverts ; back, rump, and least wing- coverts pale brown, each feather with a central 

 dark blackish-brown stripe ; quills blackish, the first and second quills with a large white patch towards 

 the end, and some of the secondaries tipped with white ; larger wing-coverts greyish brown, becoming 

 white towards the tip, with a subterminal blackish bar; median coverts similar, but darker towards the 

 base; the white on the coverts forming two distinct bars when the wing is extended; tail with the 

 basal portion mottled with pale and darker brown, then nearly white, and finally tipped with black, the 

 central feathers pale greyish clay-brown, mottled with darker brown; chin and upper throat pure 

 white ; rest of the underparts white ; the lower throat, breast, and flanks washed with buff, and streaked 

 with blackish brown ; under tail-coverts pale warm rufous buff ; bill blackish at the point and greenish 

 yellow at the base ; iris yellowish ; legs pale yellow. Total length about 14 inches, culmen T55, wing 

 9-1, tail 5-0, tarsus 3-0. 



Adult Male. Does not differ from the female. 



Young. Resembles the adult, but is larger, the central tail-feathers are less boldly marked, and the markings 

 in general on the upper parts are less clearly defined. 



Young in down (Norfolk) . Covered with close, short down ; above sandy grey or stone-buff, delicately varied 

 with pale brown ; underparts buffy white ; on each side and in the middle of the crown there is a black 

 stripe; two similar stripes run along the back from the hind neck to the rump; one passes on each side 

 of the hinder portion of the body ; and there is also a small stripe at the base of each wing. 



Obs. There is a considerable difference between the summer and autumn plumage of this bird. In the 

 autumn, usually in August or September, the moult is completed, and the colours of the plumage are 

 then very pure; but ere long the edges of the feathers become abraded, and the general coloration 

 becomes duller, so that by the spring the entire plumage is much faded and very pale compared with 

 what it was in the autumn. The Stone-Curlew moults only once in the year; and old birds frequently 

 commence moulting as early as June. 



Generally distributed, in suitable localities, throughout temperate and Southern Europe, the 

 Stone-Curlew ranges into Africa, where, in the northern portion, it is a resident ; and to the 

 eastward it is found as far as India. 



In Great Britain it is somewhat local in its distribution, and of latter years it has gradually 

 become rare to what it was formerly. Mr. A. G. More states (Ibis, 1865, p. 430), the Stone- 

 Curlew " breeds in Dorset, Hants, Sussex, Kent, Herts, Oxford, Bucks (perhaps extinct), Suffolk, 

 Norfolk, Cambridge, Worcester (Bli/th), Lincoln, Rutland, Nottingham, and in both divisions of 

 Yorkshire, but is described as rapidly decreasing in most of its localities. I have no authority 

 for its breeding in Devon, Essex, or Lancashire." Mr. Cecil Smith informs me that it is only 

 known in Somersetshire as an occasional straggler, generally occurring in the autumn, though it 

 is occasionally seen also in the spring. In South Devon it appears very early in the year, as he 

 received one from Exmouth on the 27th March. It Guernsey it appears as an occasional 

 straggler ; and Mr. Smith saw one exposed for sale in the market in the first week in November 

 1871. It appears to be more numerous on the east side of England than elsewhere, and more 

 especially in Norfolk and Suffolk, where it finds so many suitable localities ; but even there it is 

 becoming scarcer every year. Mr. J. Cordeaux says that it is now restricted to a few localities 

 in Yorkshire. In East Yorkshire, he says, a few nest annually on Spalding Moor, near Holme, 

 Beverley, also on Tollington Moor, near Market Weighton. In Scotland it is extremely rare : 



