Stone Curlew icy 



It is only on these moorland wastes that the Stone Curlews are 

 found, and not only are they very regular in the time of their arrival, 

 but also quite extraordinarily constant in the locality where they 

 first appear. Thus, for live or six years consecutively, wlien I liad 

 the opportmiity of making personal observation of the fact, I noticed 

 the first bird of tlie year within 150 yards of the same spot. This was 

 an old disused riiie-range on the Crown Farm Common, Sizewell. 

 They are equally conservative in their choice of a nesting site — a 

 pair of birds for four years in succession deposited their eggs close 

 to an old bank between these rifle-butts and the " square covert." 

 I found the eggs in three separate years myself, and in the fourth 

 one of the keepers told me that he found them in the same place. 

 I believe a four-\'ard circle, or less, would have co\-ered the four nests 

 of the four different years. 



Spring is very sluggish on the Suffolk coast, the biting East 

 winds keeping the vegetation back ; the whins and heather look 

 black and burnt, the grass is short and yellow, and there is little 

 cover on the ground e\-en in April — beyond a few dead bracken 

 of last year. Notwithstanding this, the Stone Curlew is often 

 enough a very difficult bird to see, unless you stumble on him 

 b}' chance. The general effect of the streaky yellow-brown plumage 

 is remarkabl}- protective, and the bird almost alwa^'S trusts to 

 crouching motionless on the ground, rather than seeking safetj' b\- 

 running or by flight. Indeed, on the wing, the bird is exceptionally 

 conspicuous by reason of the markings on the secondary quills. 

 Their vision, as I have mentioned before, is very acute, though one 

 might expect from the size and appearance of the eyes that they 

 would be dazzled and confused in bright daylight. 



The Olds — the common British Owls I mean — are, with the 

 exception of the Short-eared Owl, very stupid and helpless if flushed 

 from their hiding-places in the daytime and driven out into the 

 bright sunshine ; but I never could observe that the strongest 

 sunshine caused the Stone Curlew any incon\Tnience whatever. 



This may be largely a question of the sudden increase in the 

 illumination. The three Owls instanced above habitually roost 

 during the day in the darkest holes and recesses they can find, or 

 in the densest shade of the thickest tree available. If they are 

 suddenly driven out of the semi-darkness into bright daylight, the 

 retina for a time is unable to deal with the excess of light — just as 

 we ourselvTS are unable to see clearly for a moment if taken from a 

 dark room into full daylight. 



The eyes of the Stone Curlew, of the Nightjar, and of the Short- 

 eared Owl, were all primarih* made for nocturnal purposes. All 

 three birds rest by day, but more or less in the open, where there is 

 plenty of diffused daj-light around them ; never in the dark and 

 gloomy situations selected by the Barn Owl, for instance. None of 

 the three birds mentioned above seems seriously inconvenienced b}' 

 being flushed in the davlight. At times, they actually convert day 



