mid-April to June 12, but is very frequently noted during the first
days of May, from which it derives one of its local names, the “May
bird.” On migration it prefers to haunt the low-lying coast and the
adjacent country, feeding on the mud flats and marshes. When on the
wing they fly at a great height, but can be recognized by their clear
seven-syllabled whistle, _tetty, tetty, tetty, tet_.
_Courtship._--Practically nothing is recorded in the standard works
on British ornithology on the courtship of this species, but some
observations have been made both in Iceland and on the Shetlands.
Reimschneider writes that in Iceland one hears its notes all through
the long summer day and far into the night, a very long-drawn _kwiu_,
uttered with inflated throat and scarcely opened bill. The nuptial
song of the male is a long-drawn fluty trill, much slower and longer
than the alarm note. The bird hardly rises above the ground, but flies
with half opened bill for short distances, trilling, then makes quick
and short wing strokes and slowly descends to earth again with extended
wings, when the cry is again uttered. Bernard Hantzsch (1905) gives a
fuller description, which, however, varies in some details. The male is
perched on some hillock, from which with wide-opened bill he utters a
rolling _di-di-di_. Now he is off, with his long feet trailing behind
and head and neck outstretched. With short and very rapid wing strokes
he rises high in the clear sky till almost out of sight, meanwhile
uttering his soft fluty _du-du-du_, sometimes for minutes together.
Then follows a slightly higher and quicker series of notes, ending with
a beautiful, soft trill, louder and faster than that of the golden
plover. He then descends spirally toward the nesting place, thence
again starting on his upward flight. The female also trills, but the
song flight is peculiar to the male.
_Nesting._--The breeding grounds of the whimbrel are the vast
expanses of moorland, overgrown with heather and mosses, which are
characteristic of the Arctic tundra. The actual nest is a well-defined
hollow among the heather or rough grass, scantily lined with a few bits
of ling or dry grass and moss. Some nests contain hardly any material
and are merely pressed down and hollowed by the bird. They do not nest
as a rule close together and the breeding place is jealously guarded
by the male who rises fearlessly to attack and drive off almost any
bird which approaches within a 100 yards of the eggs. Even skuas are
attacked in this way, but where they are numerous the whimbrel stands
but a poor chance of rearing young. In the Shetlands the eggs are laid
in the last days of May and early in June, while in Iceland the normal
time is at the beginning of June and exceptionally late in May.
_Eggs._--These are normally four in number, exceptionally three only,
especially in late layings, and Hantzsch (1905) records one clutch of
five. They are pyriform, and large for the size of the birds, with thin
shells. The ground color varies as a rule from pale olive green to
pale brownish buff, blotched and spotted with olive brown or reddish
brown and with ashy grey shell markings. In some varieties the ground
is a beautiful clear green and the blotches very bold and conspicuous,
while another scarce type has a bluish grey ground with only large
brownish ash blotches. The measurements of 100 eggs, by Doctor Rey and
the writer, average 58.9 by 41.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four
extremes measure =65.1= by 41.7, 57 by =44=, =52= by 41.6 and 55.3 by
=36= millimeters.
_Young._--Both sexes have incubation patches and from Chislett’s (1923)
observations, confirmed also by Hantzsch, both share in the work. The
only note we have as to the length of the period is that of Hantzsch
(1905) who gives it as three to three and one-half weeks. In the case
of a nest watched by Chislett the first two young hatched were led away
by one bird while the other continued to incubate. This was on June
23 and the following day was cold with a high wind. The third chick
wandered from the nest and was sometimes brooded by the incubating
bird, which left the fourth egg for that purpose, but she never seemed
thoroughly at ease except when covering both egg and chick. By the
following morning the last chick had hatched out. Only one brood is
reared in the season.
_Plumages._--The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical
Handbook of British Birds edited by H. S. Witherby (1920).
_Food._--This species feeds largely on earthworms, and also during
the winter months on sandworms (_Arenicola_). Insects are also
freely taken, chiefly beetles (Coleoptera), but also Orthoptera,
especially earwigs (_Forficula_) and crickets (_Acheta_), larvae
of flies (Diptera) etc. During the breeding season many small land
mollusca are eaten, especially snails (_Helix ericetorum_), slugs
(_Limax agrestris_), etc., and in the autumn, marine mollusca, both
univalves and bivalves. Small Crustacea, including small crabs, shrimps
(_Crangon_) and Gammaridae are also freely taken and the berries of
moorland plants such as _Empetrum nigrum_ (crowberry) and _Vacinium
myrtillus_.
_Behavior._--The boldness of this species in defending its nest has
already been referred to. It has been frequently seen to attack and
drive off birds much larger and more powerful than itself, such as
the raven and the larger gulls. During the winter months it appears
to be less of a shore feeder than the curlew, frequently visiting the
inland marshes in preference to the mud flats and shores. Chislett
(1923) describes its gait as quite different to that of the curlew, its
progress being much more rapid and direct. Instead of approaching the
nest in a leisurely way with many detours and pauses, it walks with
rapid, jerky strides, almost directly to its objective.
_Enemies._--The large gulls and skuas, though often successfully driven
off when approaching singly, are often successful in destroying the
eggs or young where present in numbers and the enormous increase in the
numbers of the great skua in the Shetlands has proved very detrimental
to this species. In Iceland the Arctic fox is also an enemy to be
counted with and the crow tribe (raven and hooded crow) are always
ready to take advantage of any chance opportunity.
_Fall._--The young are fledged according to Hantzsch (1905) within a
month of hatching and about the beginning of August begin to collect
into flocks which increase in size daily. In the second half of August
he records great flocks of over a hundred birds which leave the island
about the middle of September. The latest date on which Jönsson records
them on the Westmann Isles is October 10.
_Winter._--Exceptionally, small parties remain in Iceland during the
winter. Thus in the winter of 1899–1900 they were noticed by many
observers over Hjalteyri and the adjacent district. On the other hand,
many individuals remain all the year round in their winter quarters,
keeping together in small parties and evidently non-breeding birds.
DISTRIBUTION
_Breeding range._--In the British Isles, very sparingly and almost
exterminated on certain islands in the Shetland group. A few pairs are
said to have bred at various localities on the mainland, chiefly in
the north of Scotland and perhaps also on some of the outlying isles.
Breeds freely on the Faroes and Iceland and probably in southwest
Greenland. On the continent and northern Scandinavia and Finland and in
North Russia, south to Kanzan, Samara, Ufa, Perm, and Orenburg; also in
West Siberia at least to Tara and Tobolsk, but in East Siberia replaced
by _N. ph. variegatus_. Possibly also breeds in Russia in Voronezh,
Kief, and the middle Urals, but proof still lacking.
_Winter range._--Passes through Europe and western Asia to the coasts
of Africa south to Cape Province, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Comoro
Isles, Aldabra, and Mauritius. In Asia to Arabia, passing through Iraq
to West India, south to Ceylon and the Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
_Spring migration._--The average date of arrival of the migrating
flocks at the Faroes is given as mid April, while in Iceland they
arrive about the end of April or early in May; at the Westmann Isles on
the south coast the earliest and latest dates are given as April 20 and
May 5 by Jönsson.
_Fall migration._--The departure from Iceland begins about mid
September, on the Westmann Isles between September 20 and October
10 (Jönsson), while the Faroes are abandoned by September 29
(exceptionally as late as October 3).
_Casual records._--It has occurred several times on Jan Meyen, once
Bear Island (June 14, 1898), several times on Spitsbergen, and also
on Kolguev. In the Atlantic it occurs on the Canaries, Madeira, the
Azores, and the Cape Verde Islands. A specimen came on board a steamer
in the vicinity of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, on May 23, 1906 (Latitude
43° north, Longitude 60° west); and one was obtained at Gilgo Inlet,
Great South Bay, Long Island, N. Y., on September 4, 1912.
_Eggs dates._--In Scotland, May 19 to June 11 (13 dates); Faroes, June
4 to 24 (34 dates), May 25 (1 date); Iceland, June 4 to 23 (22 dates).
NUMENIUS TAHITIENSIS (Gmelin)
BRISTLE-THIGHED CURLEW
HABITS
Although this species has been recognized for over 140 years,
surprisingly little has been learned or published about it. It was
discovered by Latham in 1785 from Tahiti, the largest of the Society
Islands, hence the specific name given by Gmelin in 1788, _Scolopax
tahitiensis_. But the credit is due to Peale for discovering the most
peculiar character of the species, the elongated shafts of some of the
flank feathers which are lacking in barbs and from which we derive the
name, “bristle-thighed.”
It was long supposed to be a bird of the South Pacific islands and the
first birds captured in Alaska were regarded as accidental stragglers.
During the last century there were only three published North American
records, all for Alaska; the first specimen was taken by Bischoff on
May 18, 1869, on the Kenai Peninsula, the second by Nelson on May 24,
1880, at St. Michael, and the third by Townsend on August 28, 1885, on
the Kowak River. Since then it has been found to be a fairly common
fall migrant in Alaska and it probably breeds somewhere in the interior
of that territory.
_Spring._--Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) gives the following account of the
capture of his bird:
On May 24, 1880, while I was shooting black brant, a
pair of these birds settled near by on a rising stretch
of land covered with large tussocks. They uttered a loud
whistling call note very much like that of _hudsonicus_,
but something in their general appearance led me to stalk
and secure one of the birds. To my gratification it was a
bristle-thighed curlew, and I made great efforts to secure
the mate, which had stopped a hundred yards or so beyond.
As she raised on my approach I fired at long range and the
bird fell mortally hurt on a distant hillside, where it was
lost amid a host of large tussocks.
Bischoff’s bird was taken on May 18; and H. B. Conover (1926) collected
one at Hooper Bay on May 22, 1924. These three dates, only six days
apart, probably indicate the normal time of arrival of birds of this
species in Alaska after their long flight over the Pacific Ocean from
the Hawaiian Islands, the nearest of their winter resorts. This is a
really wonderful flight and it is surprising that we have no evidence
to indicate that they deviate from their direct course at all, as we
have no records of any specimens from any point to the westward or to
the southward of the Alaska Peninsula. The species is comparatively
scarce on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska, from which we might infer
that an overland flight is made from the vicinity of the Kenai
Peninsula to the breeding grounds somewhere in the northern interior of
Alaska.
_Summer._--The breeding grounds and the nesting habits of the
bristle-thighed curlew are entirely unknown, an interesting problem
for some enterprising ornithologist to work out. Mr. Conover (1926)
suggests that “the main breeding ground is probably above the timber
line on some of the mountain ranges” of Alaska. Herbert W. Brandt says
in his notes:
From the native information I was able to gather I believe
that these birds may breed at the eastern end of the
Askinuk Mountains, or in the Kusilvak Mountains and perhaps
the mountains to the northward of Mountain Village on the
Yukon River. Their early loitering appearance at Hooper Bay
so shortly after nesting makes it entirely unlikely that
they had traveled very far, but it seems rather strange
that we did not encounter them in their spring migration
and further it is apparently doubtful that they should
enter the Bering Sea coast territory by following down
either the Yukon or the Kuskoquim River valleys.
Dr. Charles H. Townsend shot a specimen of this curlew at Kotzebue
Sound (Kobuk River) on August 25; it was a young bird which had
evidently recently come from its breeding grounds. We saw none of this
species about Nome in July; but after I left, Rollo H. Beck, a member
of our expedition, collected quite a series of them in August. Two of
his birds, now in my collection, were taken at Cape Nome on August 24,
1911. Mr. Conover (1926) writes:
By the end of July we had entered the Kashunuk Slough and
traveled down it until we were about 20 miles from where
it enters Hooper Bay. At this place was an Eskimo village
where we stopped for a few days to have a goose drive;
and it was here that we saw the bristle-thighed curlew in
abundance. On July 31 a pair was seen and collected, and
on August 3 one more was taken. August 4 was the big day,
as several hundred of these birds were seen on the tundra
feeding on blueberries. About a dozen were taken by our
party, and I personally believe I saw over a hundred, while
another member of the expedition, who was off in another
direction, estimated that he saw three times as many. All
the specimens taken were old birds.
The above facts would seem to indicate that the main breeding grounds
are somewhere in the interior of extreme northern Alaska, probably on
the barren grounds; that the spring migration is well inland; and that
there is a heavy fall migration along the Bering Sea coast. The eggs
and downy young are entirely unknown and there are not enough specimens
available to work out the molts and plumages, which probably correspond
to those of closely related species.
_Food._--Probably the feeding habits of this curlew are not very
different from those of the Hudsonian curlew, but the only food
mentioned by observers consists of berries. Birds collected in Alaska
were feeding on blueberries. They are said to feed on _Canthium_
berries in the Hawaiian Islands; and birds shot on Midway Island by Dr.
Paul Bartsch (1922) were “crammed full of _Scaevola_ berries.”
_Behavior._--Doctor Bartsch (1922) found this bird “quite abundant on
both” Midway Islands in November, “where in company with the golden
plover it frequents all parts of the island excepting those covered by
brush. These birds were quite tame as well as curious and when flushed
would frequently fly about us, emitting their peculiar cry.”
Dill and Bryan (1912) reported about 250 on Laysan Island in the
spring; they say:
Just before sunset and early in the morning the
bristle-thighed curlews would come up around our camp
uttering their peculiar complaining notes. They roosted on
the roofs of the old buildings at night, sometimes as many
as 20 birds in one flock. We saw them feeding on different
parts of the island but usually about the lagoon or along
the beaches.
Donald R. Dickey photographed a bristle-thighed curlew on Laysan Island
in the act of robbing a nest of the man-o-war bird, of which he tells
me:
This was not a sporadic bit of deviltry engaged in by
one perverted individual. Instead, it was characteristic
of most, if not all, of the curlews present on Laysan at
the time we were there. In other words, they indulged in
organized banditry, working about the island in troupes
accompanied by numbers of turnstones and an occasional
golden plover which were partners in crime with the curlew.
The turnstones jammed their bills straight into the
lighter-shelled eggs, but the curlew, frequently at least,
got access to the contents of the larger eggs by raising
them in their bills and then dropping them back on the hard
sand until they broke. They can pick up and run away with
an egg up to the size of a man-o-war bird’s egg. In the
case of the latter, the more dexterous birds seized the egg
and held it endwise in the bill. It seems difficult for
them to pick it up otherwise.
Dr. Alexander Wetmore has sent me the following notes on this subject:
That a bird of the shore-bird family should destroy eggs
may seem almost unbelievable in view of the habits ordinary
in this group, yet in work in the Hawaiian Bird Reservation
in 1923 we found the bristle-thighed curlew, as well as
the turnstone, making regular practice of eating the
eggs of the birds nesting on these distant islands. The
sooty and gray-backed terns were the greatest sufferers,
as the curlew drove their long bills through the eggs
with ease, or seized them in their long mandibles to
carry them away and eat them at their leisure. On close
observation we found that curlews attacked the eggs of all
birds indiscriminately, even pulling an egg from beneath
a frigate bird when the incubating bird raised on the
nest for a moment, the theft being committed so adroitly
that the egg seemingly was not missed. Mr. Donald Dickey
in his motion pictures succeeded in filming a spirited
scene in which a bristle-thighed curlew after a number of
attempts accomplished the seemingly impossible feat of
carrying away a frigate bird’s egg held firmly between its
mandibles, while a group of apparently admiring turnstones,
robbers themselves but incapable of such herculean acts
of banditry, scurried about in the background. On another
occasion a curlew flew up to a red-footed booby’s nest in a
bush several feet from the ground in the temporary absence
of the owner, impaled the egg, and dragged it away to be
devoured. The booby was still brooding disconsolately in
her empty nest two days later. On another day a curlew
deliberately opened an old albatross egg found in the sand
and ate eagerly from the putrid interior. As this egg had
been lying unprotected from the sun for at least four
months previous, its condition may be imagined, yet the
bird returned avidly again and again to continue its horrid
repast though I approached within 10 feet.
_Voice._--Mr. Conover (1926) says:
The call and appearance of this species are entirely
different from that of the Hudsonian curlew. The latter
gives a very short whistling call, which is roughly as
follows: _Whe-whe-whe-whe_. The former, on the other hand,
has a call very similar to one of the black-bellied plover
and sounds something like wheeeu-whu. In appearance the
bristle-thigh is tawnier above and has a very reddish-brown
unbarred rump, which is a very good field mark.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Alaska and islands in the Pacific Ocean.
_Breeding range._--Unknown, but considered probable in northern or
northwestern Alaska.
The bristle-thighed curlew does not seem to be abundant and
consequently has been under observation at comparatively few points.
Specimens have been observed or taken in summer in Alaska at Kotzebue
Sound, Hooper Bay, Kobuk River, Lopp Lagoon, and Mint River. One also
was taken on St. George Island, of the Pribilof group, on May 26, 1917.
_Winter range._--During the winter they are found north to the Hawaiian
Islands (Lisiansky, Laysan, French Frigate Shoal, Bird Island, and
Hawaii); east to Hawaii, Palmyra Island, Fanning Island, Christmas
Island, Marquesas Islands, Society Islands (Tahiti), and the Paumotu
Archipelago (Vincennes Island); south to the Low or Paumotu Archipelago
(Vincennes Island), Cook Islands (Palmerston Island), and probably New
Caledonia; west to probably New Caledonia, Phoenix Islands (Canton and
Phoenix Island), Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands (Jaluit Island),
and the Hawaiian Islands (Lisiansky Island).
_Migration._--Early dates of arrival for bristle-thighed curlews in
Alaska are: Fort Kenai, May 18, 1869; Nome River, May 23, 1905; and
Cape Mountain, May 28, 1922.
They have been detected in the Kotzebue Sound region as late as August
26, 1885.
Family CHARADRIIDAE, Plovers
VANELLUS VANELLUS (Linnaeus)
LAPWING
_Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain_
HABITS
The status of this bird in North America is a remarkable one. Up
to 1927, with the exception of Greenland, where according to Lehn
Schiöler, it is an occasional visitor, it had only been recorded on
about seven occasions from the American Continent. Excluding Alaska,
all the other records are from the eastern seaboard, the Bahamas
and Barbados. In December, 1927, large flocks, numbering thousands,
according to one reporter, were recorded from a number of places along
the east coast of Newfoundland, in the middle of the country and
also on the west coast. Among the birds obtained was one sent from
Bonavista, Newfoundland, by Canon A. G. Bagley on December 31, which
still bore the ring with which it had been marked as a nestling in May,
1926, at Ullswater, Cumberland, England, by Dr. H. J. Moon.
_Spring._--In the British Isles the migratory movements are rather
complicated and irregular, but many birds which have wintered in the
south and near the great estuaries and marshes begin to work their way
back to their breeding places inland, and to the north of Scotland
which is practically deserted by them during the winter months.
_Courtship._--The lapwing is a highly gregarious species and even in
the height of the breeding season, when territorial jealousy on the
part of the males is apparent, several pairs are generally to be found
nesting within a short distance of one another. The courtship habits
have been closely studied by the late S. E. Brock in Scotland, and more
recently by William Farren, R. H. Brown, and J. K. Stanford, so that
there is plenty of material at hand.
Even in the autumn and early winter months when the weather is open,
especially after frosts, a certain amount of sexual activity is
evident. Some of the males show indications of territorial defense
and fighting takes place intermittently. It is not till the winter
is over and the males have returned to their breeding grounds, which
is generally from late February to early March, that the nesting
territory is definitely parceled out among the males. The areas may
vary considerably in shape and size and are not always clearly defined,
but each bird shows distinct signs of jealousy at any invasion on the
part of a neighbor and aerial combats take place from time to time,
though sometimes a male will desert the group of “scrapes” which marks
his territorial center and adopt a new series. These “scrapes” form
an important part in the ritual of courtship. On the appearance of
a female the male utters a grating note while standing upright and
moving wings and tail up and down rhythmically. He then drops to the
ground and, as Brock describes it, “lying far forward on his breast,
shuffles the body, and scrapes energetically with the feet, which may
be seen in rapid motion. At short intervals the tail is spasmodically
bent downwards, the action corresponding with energetic footwork.” He
then rises jerking bits of stubble over his shoulder, and in this way a
little group of hollows or “scrapes” is formed, one of which ultimately
becomes the nest. Apparently the female makes choice from several sites
originally selected by the male.
From time to time the male makes the spring flight which has been well
described by Brock.