their peculiar cry of seven distinct notes. I have seen
little of the Whimbrel in this country, except on the
autumnal passage to which I have referred, but am well
acquainted with it from personal observation in both
Northern and Southern Spain and various parts of the
Mediterranean shores. In its habits and manner of
feeding, as well as in appearance, this bird closely
resembles the Curlew, but it is less wary than that
exceedingly wide-awake fowl, and its flesh is much
superior to that of its more common relation. On the
lower Guadalquivir in May we found a good number of
Whimbrels feeding upon the mud-banks of the river at
low-water time, and resorting as the tide “ made ” to
some open swampy savannahs in the pine-woods on the
right side in the far-famed Coto de Donana. Here it
was not difficult to drive the birds over our ambush,
and we obtained as many as we required for the table
and for specimens. In my opinion the Whimbrel is
the best of all the marsh-birds for culinary purposes in
the spring-time, although not to compare in autumn
with the Ruff, the Godwits, Snipes, and Knot. This
bird breeds regularly in Iceland, the Faeroes, the
Orkneys, the Shetlands, and throughout the north of
Europe and Asia. Its migration-range is said to extend
to the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon, and from the
Azores to New Guinea.