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WHIMBREL. 
tensity, and having the shafts of the feathers 
umber-brown, which broadens out at the base of 
the feathers, and forms narrow triangular dashes 
or streaks of that colour ; the belly, vent, under 
tail-coverts, and flanks, are pure white, on the 
upper part of the belly and flanks, dashed with 
brown ; the upper parts are deep clove-brown, 
glossed with purple, having the feathers margined 
and cut into with greyish and yellowish-white; 
the lower part of the back white, with the shafts 
of the feathers forming marked streaks ; the quills 
are clove-brown, glossed with purple, and cut into 
half across on the inner webs w ith white nearly 
in the form of bars ; the axillary feathers are 
barred, as in the snipes, sometimes clouded with 
hair-brown ; the tail is white, distinctly barred 
with clove-brown, the edges of the bars irregular, 
often clouded and tinted with reddish-white ; bill 
at the tip deep-brown, shading into pink or tile- 
red towards the base, particularly on the maxilla 
— it often varies considerably in length, — legs and 
feet a tint of greenish-lead colour or bluish-grey. 
The Whimbrel, Numenius pheopus. — Scolopax 
pkeopus, Linn.' — Numenius pheopus, Lath. Ind., 
and modern ornithologists. — The Whimbrel or Whim- 
brel Curlew of British authors. — The Whimbrel, 
though pretty generally diffused, is not nearly so 
common as the Curlew, and is not found breed- 
ing except in the extreme north of Scotland, ap- 
