534 
WHINCHAT. 
WHIM. — A name for the Wigeon. 
WHIMBREL (Numenius Phceopus, Latham.) 
Scolopax Phoeopus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 243. 4. — Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 657. — Numenius 
Phoeopus, Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 711. 6. — Temm. Man. d’Orn, 2. p. 604. — Flem. 
Br. Anim. p. 101. — Numenius minor, Briss. 5. p. 317. t. 27. f. 1 — Arquata 
minor, Raii, Syn. p. 103. A. 2. Will. p. 217. — Corlieu, ou petit Courlis, Buff. 
Ois. 8. p. 27. — Whimbrel, Br. Zool. 2. No. 177. — Ib. fol. 119. — Arct. Zool. 2. 
p. 462. B Will. (Angl.) p. 294 Edw. t. 307.— Lath. Syn. 5. p. 123 — 
Lewin’s Br. Birds, 4. t. 154. — Wale. Syn. 2. t. 134.— -Don. Br. Birds, 3. t. 72. 
Provincial. — Curlew-knot. Curlew-Jack. Half-Curlew. 
Stone- Curlew. Tang-Whaup. 
The weight of this species is about fourteen ounces ; length eighteen 
inches ; the hill is above three inches in length, arcuated ; upper man- 
dible dusky ; under part whitish at the base ; in some, of a reddish 
flesh-colour ; the head, neck, and breast, pale brown down the middle 
of each feather, margined with white, lightest on the forehead, and 
darkest on the crown of the head ; chin and belly white ; the irides are 
dusky, eyelids white ; sides of the body barred with dusky ; the upper 
parts of the body, scapulars, and wing coverts, dusky, margined with 
pale brown ; quill-feathers dusky ; the borders of the internal webs 
barred with white ; the tail is dusky ash-colour, the middle feathers 
darkest, marked with six or seven dusky bars ; legs dusky. 
The Whimbrel has all the manners of the curlew, and indeed is so 
very like it in plumage, that in some places it has obtained the name of 
jack-curlew, from a supposition that it is the male of that bird ; but it 
is by no means so plentiful a species. 
It is a migrative bird, visiting our coasts in August, and continuing 
the winter, keeping together in small flocks of five or six ; it has been 
suspected to breed on the coast of Sussex and Kent, especially about 
Romney Marsh ; but that has not been ascertained with certainty. *It 
breeds in Zetland, on the exposed heaths, laying four or five eggs, but 
more generally in the Arctic Regions, and in the north of Asia. Tem- 
minck had specimens of this bird from North America and Bengal, 
which were in every respect the same as those killed in Europe.* 
WHINCHAT (^Saxicola ruhetra, Bechstein.) 
*Saxicola rubetra, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 252. B. — Sylvia rubetra, Lath. 
Ind. Orn. 2. p. 525. sp. 58. — Turton, Br. Fauna, 1. p. 46. — Motacilla rubetra, 
Linn. Syst. 1. p. 332. 16, — Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 967. sp. l6. — Bubetra major, Briss. 
3. p. 432. 26. t. 24. f. 1. — (Enanthe secunda, Raii, Syn. p. 76. A. 3. — Will. p. 
234 — Grand Traquet ou Tarier, Buff^. Ois. 5. p. 224. — Ib. pi. Enl. 678. f. 2. — 
Traquet Tarier, Temm. Man. d’Orn. 1. p. 244 Braunkeliger, Steinschmatzer, 
Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 684. — Frisch, t. 22. f. 1. B. male. — Whin-Chat, 
Br. Zool. 1. No. 158. — Will. (Angl.) p. 234. — Lath. Syn. 4. p. 454. 54. — 
Mont, Orn. Diet. — Haye’s Br. Birds, t. 39. — Lewin’s Br. Birds, 3. t. 109. — 
