226 BIRDS. 
♦ 
Mr. Osborne considers this a resident species. In his MSS. 
he says : " The whimbrel, little whaup or half curlew, is an 
indigenous Caithness species, but its numbers are few as 
compared with the common curlew, and it is not so well 
known. In winter it resorts to the sandy shores of the 
sea, or the mud-banks at the mouths of rivers, but in the 
summer, like the allied species, it betakes itself to the 
moors and barren wastes in the upland districts, where it 
breeds. One of its breeding stations in this county is in a 
retired moorland district in Watten parish, where the 
ground is broken by dhulochs and marshes, and studded 
with many hillocks, and where also resort in the season 
common and black-headed gulls, Arctic skuas, ducks, etc." 
(0. MSS., 1868.) This account we consider is open to 
criticism, for it is most improbable that the bird should 
remain during winter on the sandy shores of Caithness, 
when it is only a spring and autumn migrant elsewhere. 
323. Numenius arquata {L.). Curlew. 
Eesident in the east ; most abundant in the breeding season. 
These birds breed all through the moorland districts, coming 
to the green places in the straths about the third week in 
March ; shortly after this they pair and go to their nesting- 
grounds. 
Common in the west, but local in the extreme west. 
Increased around Loch Awe by 1877. 
Common and resident, breeding on the moors, and retiring to 
the sea-coast in the autumn (0. MSS.). 
Not observed as an abundant species by us in 1885 
along the outer edges of the moors and inner edges of the 
cultivated areas. 
