90 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
in mystery. Mr. P. L. C. O'Shanassy, an observer 
at Hastings Western Port, where the conditions are 
similar to those at the Barwon Estuary, made some 
interesting observations on this species in the year 
191 2, which he communicated to The Argus Nature 
Notes. He found that in April and early May they 
were present in thousands. They were even fairly 
plentiful in June, when, according to received ideas, 
they should have been nesting in north-western Asia. 
And in the end of July the large flocks began to 
appear again, so that at the most these had been 
away two months — a very short time in which to 
travel say twenty thousand miles and rear a family 
between-whiles. Two great flocks were seen to 
arrive from the open sea by daylight, flying slowly 
and at a great height, and keeping up a continuous 
call as if bird after bird in succession kept uttering 
each a single note. By August 23rd Westernport 
Bay was swarming with them, though the observer 
notes that usually they do not return in full force 
before the end of August or beginning of September. 
The general plumage of the Curlew is of varying 
shades of brown, blotched and striated ; the bill is 
about 7 inches long. 
WHIMBREL 
Phceopus phceopus variegatus 
One evening, in the autumn of the year 1878, Mr. 
J. F. Mulder was tramping back to Geelong after a 
