CURLEW 233 
I note them earliest on 14th April; by the end of that 
month and during May they are most abundant. 
On the return migration I heard a single bird passing 
Castletown on 13th July 1897, and on 24th July 1898 saw 
one on Fort Island, and on 27th July 1901 another at 
Scarlett, and during August and September a few are noted, 
but their numbers at this season are still smaller than in 
spring. 
Whimbrel appear, as might be expected, in the migration 
reports from Langness in May and August. On all the 
British coasts the Whimbrel is of double passage; in 
Galloway it is rather scarce, and generally on our neigh- 
bouring shores its distribution is the same as in Man. It 
breeds sparsely in Orkney and Shetland, but abundantly 
in the Faroes and Iceland. 
NUMENIUS ARQUATA (Linn.). CURLEW. 
Manx, *@rottag (M.S. D.) (pronounced ‘Crothag’), i.e. Cruit- 
tagh=crooked or humped, in allusion to the beak. (Cf. Sc. 
Gaelic, Crotachmhara, Crotag-mara ; Irish, Crotach.) 
The Curlew is common along our shores wherever it 
finds a considerable surface of sand and rock exposed at 
low water, together with retirement sufficient for its safety. 
It is rarely seen in the bays of Douglas and Laxey (in the 
latter of which, sandy as it is, it is quite rare to meet with 
any shore bird), and it is absent from the stretches of sheer 
coast, and is most plentiful on the long reaches of sand and 
shingle, interspersed with stony pools of the northern flat, 
and again among the low weedy rocks and boulders of the 
south. I have met with a number on the Calf Island. 
