58 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



1881 respectively, but when it does happen, then spring has 

 assuredly come too. At one time, a long while ago now, I made 

 an investigation into the source of the food sought for by the 

 Curlews when they first arrive on the moors. It was a matter 

 of wonder to me what they could be getting in sufficient quantity 

 at a period which has apparently little to offer. Beetles were 

 what I found in the stomachs, and in comparatively huge 

 quantities. As a result, I compiled quite a long list of species 

 of Coleoptera. One has only to turn over a stone at the date 

 referred to, when the beetles will be found either newly awakened 

 from hibernation or freshly emerged from pupation. How t the 

 Curlews get them is another question, for only the finest sun- 

 shine seems to tempt these insects forth. The Curlews of 

 Solway, for the most part, have clutches of four eggs, although 

 a clutch of three is frequent enough, and two is a figure quite 

 common. On some two occasions I have found clutches of five. 



With the opening days of July the stay of the Curlews on the 

 moors and mosses is beginning to draw to a close. The old or 

 young bachelors and a few immature or feeble birds have 

 remained along-shore during the breeding season. But even of 

 these a few will go with the others to the breeding places. It 

 is these latter or the barren birds that leave first, and they seem 

 always to make straight off for the shore or its immediate 

 vicinity. Those with broods are in less hurry to go doAvn 

 country. They gather together in small parties of one or two, 

 or sometimes more, families, coming or going for the first week 

 or two of July from their nesting haunts to the grass parks and 

 meadows or along the turnip fields. The principal business 

 at this time of the year on the part of the old birds is the 

 teaching of their young to avoid the arch enemy — man — and 

 every other thing or animal that seems the least bit suspicious. 

 As the young become stronger on the wing and more self- 

 reliant, the daily journey becomes longer and more varied, till 

 by the middle of August considerable flocks have gathered along 

 the seaboard districts. The autumn -days progress into darker 

 and longer and more chilly nights, and the Curlews spend a 

 greater length of time in seeking their food on the broad 

 stretches of sand and mud left bare by the ebbing tide. 



Now the home-bred birds are joined by those of more northern 



