i6o British Birds, 



MACQUEEN'S BUSTARD— (aV^ Macqueeni). 



Only one occurrence as far as I know. Accidental 

 even in Europe. 



ORDER.— LIMICOLiE. 

 FAMILY I.— GSDICNEMID^. 



STONE QX^^l^'^—iCEdicnemus crepitans). 



Great Plover, Norfolk Plover, Whistling Plover, 

 Stone Plover, Thick-knee. — The Stone Curlew is a 

 summer visitor, and strictly a local one. The Nightin- 

 gale, for instance, is very much more extensively 

 diffused than the bird just named. It was found abun- 

 dantly enough on the wide sandy plains of Norfolk, 

 and I used (1840) to hear it very commonly in the 

 fields a few miles to the north-west of Bury St. 

 Edmunds. Besides the counties just named, it is met 

 with in parts of Essex and Kent, in Hampshire, and 

 Cambridgeshire, and two or three others. Its peculiar 

 shrill cry or whistle, once heard, is not likely to be 

 forgotten. The female lays two eggs on the bare 

 ground, among white-coated flints and stones. An 

 idea of their ground-colour may be given by the 

 mention of what the painters call stone-colour, in pale 

 shades, and this is streaked and spotted, or marbled 

 with dark brown. — Fig. 1, plate VIL 



