BRITISH BIRDS 



THE SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW. 



Numenius tenuirostris, Vieillot. 

 Plate 69. 



Three examples of this rare bird were obtained on Romney Marsh, Kent, in 

 September 1910, and recorded by Mr. M. J. Nicoll in Witherby's British Birds, 

 vol. v. p. 124. This species breeds in Western Siberia, and in winter visits 

 Southern Europe and North Africa. 



The late H. E. Dresser, in his Eggs of the Birds of Europe, has given the 

 following notes on the breeding habits of the Slender-billed Curlew, received from 

 Mr. Buturlin : "The present species inhabits fenlands, either. such as are open or 

 such as are covered with birch trees, or sometimes marshes adjoining the pine 

 forests. Its nest is placed on a large hillock, or on a small dry island, often on one 

 ten to fifteen yards square. Mr. Ushakov always found it nesting in single pairs, 

 and often side by side with Numenius arquata, but he was informed by local 

 sportsmen that it also breeds in colonies of several dozen pairs. . . . The nest is a 

 mere depression in the ground, not more than an inch deep, scantily lined with dry 

 grass, or sometimes with a low border of dry grass, in which case the nest takes the 

 form of a somewhat deep cup. 



"The full clutch of four eggs may be found from the 30th of May to the 10th of 

 June, and the young are hatched about the end of June, but the birds remain for 

 some time at their nesting place, then undertake short wanderings till about the 

 middle of August, and finally leave for the south in the latter half of that month." 

 The eggs "vary in ground-colour from greyish-olivaceous to ochreous brown, or 

 occasionally reddish-brown, but always with a greenish tinge, and are marked with 

 ashy-grey or pale olivaceous underlying shell-spots and greyish-brown and dark 

 olivaceous surface-dots, spots, lines, streaks, and irregular blotches." 



This species is smaller than our Curlew, has a shorter and more slender bill, and 

 may also be distinguished by the distinct spade-like dark markings on the flanks. 



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