125 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
tawny; crown of head like the back, hut with narrower black 
stripes ; lores, eyebrow, and a band below the eye white, ex- 
tending across the ear-coverts, tire upper margin of which is 
blackish-brown continued into a black line underneath the eye 
and ending in front of the latter ; cheeks and throat white ; 
lower throat and fore-neck tawny-buff, streaked with black, 
these streaks becoming narrower on the breast and sides of the 
body, which are paler tawny-buff ; breast, abdomen, and thighs 
white; under tail-covcrts tawny; under wing-coverts and axii- 
laries white; bill greenish-yellow, black at the point; feet 
yellow ; iris very large and golden-yellow. Total length, i6 
inches; culmen, i-6; wing, 9-35; tail, 47; tarsus, 3-1. 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male in colour. Total length, 
16 inches; culmen, 1-65 ; wing, 9-5; tail, 4-9; tarsus, 275. 
Young Birds. — ^Very similar to the adults, but distinguished by 
the colour of the wing-coverts, which are dusky-blackish at the 
base, with broad white ends. In the old birds the bases of 
these coverts are white, and the lips are white with a broad 
sub-terminal bar of black. The general colour of the young 
birds is more tawny than the adults. 
Nestling. — Entirely clothed in sandy-coloured down, paler on 
the throat and abdomen, and streaked with bands and lines of 
black, distributed over the body in regular patterns. 
Range in Great Britain. — To most parts of England the Stone- 
Curlew is only a summer visitor, arriving in April and leaviiv^ 
in October, but a certain number pass the winter in the south 
of Devonshire and Cornwall. It has been found breeding in 
the southern and eastern counties, as well as in the midlands, 
but becomes rare to the north of Yorkshire, and only one in- 
stance of its occurrence in Scotland is known, while Ireland 
has received but a few visits. In Wales, also, it is almost un- 
known. 
Range outside the British Islands. — An inhabitant of the tem- 
perate portion of Europe, visiting Northern Germany in sum- 
mer, and straggling occasionally into Denmark. In the Medi- 
terranean countries it is mostly resident, but an immigration 
takes place in the winter, when the Thick-knee visits North- 
eastern Africa down to the latitude of Aden. Eastwards the 
