no Stone Curlew 



into night, and pursue their usuahy nocturnal avocations on their 

 own account by day as by night. 



Although the Stone Curlew is one of our earliest arrivals, he is 

 not a very early breeder. I do not think I have a note of finding 

 any eggs before the early days of IMay. The eggs are hvo in rumiber. 

 (Books say two, rarely three : I must have seen a great number of 

 nests hi my life, but I have never seen more than two in a clutch.) 

 The eggs themselves are very characteristic, and are quite unlike 

 those of any other British Bird, the nearest approach being the 

 eggs of the O^^ster-catcher, which sometimes bear a superiicial 

 resemblance. 



They vary, however, very widely in ground colour ; in the 

 colour and arrangement of the overlying spots and streaks ; in shape 

 and hi size. In fact, no two clutches are alike, and a large series 

 exhibiting these diverse foi-ms would be of great interest. As I 

 have always considered the continued existence of the bird of more 

 importance than a large collection of its eggs in a cabinet, I have 

 only taken three clutches. 



The ground-colour is stoney-buff, with blotches, spots and streaks 

 of various shades of brown irregularly scattered over tlie surface. 

 Some are large, and some are small ; some pj^riform, some oval, and 

 it is difficult to find eggs from different nests that will match each 

 other. 



Of nest proper there is none. The eggs are deposited on the 

 bare ground. The position chosen is always a very open one, and 

 there is seldom cover of any sort near at hand. The birds are thus 

 able to sneak away at the first sign of danger, leaving the eggs,. 

 which are protectively coloured to take care of themselves. The 

 selected site is generally bare, brown, peaty earth with little or no 

 vegetation growing on it ; a number of irregular grey and brown 

 flints are often scattered in the neighbourhood, adding greatly to 

 the difficulty of seeing the eggs. 



Heather is never burnt systematicall} on these commons, as 

 is the case in Scotland, but patches are occasionally dug right up 

 and used for litter, drainage and other purposes. These patches 

 are not simply cut with a scythe, but the top spit is bodily removed 

 with the heather and underlying peat. For the next two or three 

 years, these areas remain bare, and then slowly become reclothed 

 with heather unless prevented by the sheep. 



These are favourite situations for a nest. I have also found the 

 eggs on a spot where a whin has been cut down. Here the black 

 earth shows through in places about the cut stubbs of the whin bush, 

 but the surface is in the main formed by the dead brown gorse needles 

 which have fallen and covered the ground below the bush. 



In the year i8qi (May 23rd — June ist), I had an excellent 

 opportunity of watching a pair of tliese birds which laid in their 

 usually exposed situation on the common, but within about 70 

 yards of a large whin-bush. I constantly tried to observe them by 



