THE CURLEWS. 
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and so heavily striped, when compared with others in the 
British Museum, that I was for a long time doubtful as to 
whether there was not a smaller race of Curlew to be dis- 
tinguished. I am, however, now convinced that the specimen 
is nothing but a male, with the summer plumage unusually 
advanced. 
Adult Female in Breeding Plumage. — Similar to the male, but 
larger, and with a longer bill. Total length, 24 inches; cul- 
men, 6'i ; wing, r2; tail, 57 ; tarsus, 3'2. 
Adults in Winter Plumage. — Very similar to the breeding- 
plumage, but paler, and much less heavily striped, especially 
on the under surface of the body ; the black spots and streaks 
on the rump scarcely apparent, and concealed by the white 
plumage ; upper tail-coverts white, with very few brown cross- 
bars ; tail white, barred with brown; feet pale leaden-grey, 
claws blackish ; bill blackish-brown, flesh-colour at the base of 
the lower mandible. 
Young. — Differs from the adult in being much more tawny, 
and, as Seebohm has pointed out, young birds may always Le 
distinguished from old ones by the much lighter pattern of 
the notches and bars on the innermost secondaries, these 
markings being tawny-buff, and the black centres to the feathers 
being much broader. The nestling is figured below. {Plate 
XCIII. Fig. 3.) 
Range in Great Britain. — The Curlew is a resident species in 
the British Islands, breeding throughout Scotland, the north of 
England, and also in Wales, as well as on the high moor-lands of 
Southern England, from Wiltshire and Hampshire to Cornwall. 
Mr. Ussher records it as breeding in nearly every county in 
Ireland, on the bogs and moors. In the autumn and winter 
numbers of immature Curlews frequent the coasts of Great 
Britain, and many of them do not breed, but remain through- 
out the whole summer, and examples have often been found 
inland when any sudden floods cause a wide expanse of water. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Throughout Scandinavia the 
Curlew nests, as well as in Northern Europe, generally from 
Brittany to Northern Germany, Poland, and Russia, and as far 
east asEakeBaikal; forlam unable to find anyspecific difference 
between the so called N. lineatus, which occurs on the shores 
