Whimbrel

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

in ornithology, the Numenius phæopus, widely distributed from the N. of Europe and Asia to the N. of Africa and India, visiting England in its spring and autumn migra- WHIMBREL tion, occasionally breeding in the Shetland Islands. It but is smaller, and has a proportionately It resembles the curlew shorter bill; length of male 16 inches, female somewhat larger; plumage bright ash color, with streaks of brown on neck and breast; a band of yellowish white on middle of head, with a wider brown band on each side; belly and abdomen white ; feathers of back and scapulars deep brown in the middle, bordered with brighter brown; tail ashy blackish, inclining to red at base; feet brown, with oblique brown bands; bill lead color. Its flesh is esteemed for the table, and its eggs are as highly valued as those of the plover . See CURLEW. American literary critic; born in Glou- WHIPPLE , EDWIN PERCY, lished: "Essays and Reviews" (2 vols. cester, Mass., March 8, 1819. He pub- 1848-1849); "Lectures on Subjects connec an (1849); "Character and Characteristic nected with Literature and Life" Men" (1867); "The Literature of the Age of Elizabeth" (1868 ); "Success and its Conditions" ( 1871); and posthumously published " Recollections of Eminent Men" (1887); " American Literature and Other Papers " (1887); and Politics" (1888). He died in Boston, "Outlooks on Society, Literature, and June 16, 1886. Caprimulgus (antrostomus) vociferus, a the United States; about 10 inches long; goat-sucker common in the E. parts of plumage tawny brown, much mottled and indistinctly marked with small transverse bands; top of the head streaked with black , and a narrow white the bird is derived from the cry, which collar on throat. The popular name of bears some resemblance to these words. The habits of the bird are like those of the European goatsucker.