Aug. 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOS SI P. 



LSI 



red setter attracted its attention, and on being 

 ■whistled to, brought up the bird within shot. 



Those who have had much experience in shore- 

 shooting must have remarked how much Curlews 

 differ from one another in size. Whether this 

 difference is dependent upon age or sex is a point 

 still discussed by naturalists. We have hitherto 

 been inclined to believe that the variation is owing 

 to age ; but as this conclusion has been drawn 

 chiefly from external appearances, and in a few in- 

 stances only from actual dissection (for we generally 

 eat all the Curlews we get), and as in the case 



at the extremity of the bay at Holywood Warren, 

 awaiting the flight of these birds from Harrison's 

 Bay and Conswater, whence the flowing tide would 

 drive them from particular banks respectively two 

 and three miles distant from any station. The call 

 from the first-named locality sounded quite near, 

 and from the latter distinct, though much more 

 faintly ; the state of the tide at the time evincing 

 with certainty that all the banks except the two 

 alluded to were covered too deeply with water for 

 the birds to be on them. Shore-shooters are well 

 aware of this circumstance." 



of other waders, for example the Bartailed Godwit, 

 the female has proved to be invariably much larger 

 than the male, it is possible that the same rule 

 may hold good with the Curlew. 



The note of the Curlew is by far the loudest 

 uttered by any of our grallatorial birds. That ob- 

 servant naturalist William Thompson says, in his 

 " Natural History of Ireland" (Birds, vol. ii. p. 195) : 

 "It will perhaps be scarcely credited that it can be 

 heard at the distance of nearly three English miles ; 

 yet under peculiar circumstances such is the case. 

 I have heard it so on calm moonlight nights when 



Besides its usual cry of " Cou-r-lieu, cour-lieu," 

 there is another which sounds like " wha-up ;" from 

 which latter cry the bird in Scotland has derived 

 the name of " Whaup ;" and in the spring of the 

 year, when pairing, a softer note is frequently 

 heard, which sounds like "whee-ou, whee-ou." 



At one time this bird was a favourite dish with 

 wealthy gourmands, * but is now apparently quite 



* In the Lord North accounts appears the following- item : 

 — " Kyrlewes to be hadde for my Lordes owue Mees at pryn- 

 cipall Feestes, and to be at xijd. a pece." Similar items are 

 to be found also in the L'Estrange *' Household Book." 



