428 GRALLATORES. 



food is soug-lit for during- tlie evening or at niglit. 

 It consists of small quadrupeds and reptiles^ but 

 especially of worms and insects. During the day 

 the Thick-knees sit closely squatted beneath a stone, 

 or any other object sufficiently large to hide them ; 

 but if disturbed, they fly to a short distance, and 

 then run off with great rapidity to some place of 

 refuge. The female deposits two eggs on the bare 

 surface of the ground. The young are capable of 

 following their parent as soon as they escape from 

 the egg-shell. 



The type of this sub-family,— 



The Common Thick-knee {G^dicnemus crejntans), or, 

 as it is frequently called, the Norfolk Plover and Stone 

 Curlew^ is a migratory bird, and one of our regular 

 summer visitors. It generally arrives in England about 

 the end of April or the beginning of May, and after per- 

 forming the duties attendant upon incubation, as autumn 

 advances, collects into flocks, and soon after retires into 

 Africa, and the wai-mer latitudes of Europe, to pass the 

 winter months. Wide hilly downs seem to afford 

 situations that suit the economy of this bird, and in such 

 localities it passes the period of its residence with us. 



The Thick-knee is not destitute of courage, and it has 

 been seen to defend its nest with vigour agamst the 

 approach of sheep, or even dogs ; yet it is singularly shy, 

 and carefully avoids human beings. When disturbed, it 

 runs rapidly, and if it does take wing, flies for a consider- 

 able distance near the ground before mounting mto the 

 air. It utters a note which resembles the syllables 

 "Curlui," and from this, and its habit of frequenting 

 waste and stony places, it has been called the Stone 

 Curlew. 



