GREAT CURLEW. 247 



fly, at a moderate height, with contracted neck, outstretched 

 bill, feet folded back, wide-spread wings moved in regular 

 time. Away they speed, one screaming now and then, and 

 alarming the Gulls and other birds in their course ; nor do 

 they stop until arriving at a suitable spot, a quarter of a 

 mile off, they perform a few circling evolutions, and alight 

 by the margin of the sea, into which some of them wade, 

 while the rest disperse over the sand. All we can see or say 

 of them here is, that at this season they have arrived on the 

 sea-shore, where they frequent the beaches, searching for 

 food in the same way as the Godwits, Longshanks, and 

 Sandpipers ; but in what precise manner they procure it, or 

 of what it consists, remains to be discovered. To see these 

 vigilant and suspicious birds at hand, we must find some 

 place resorted to by them, in which we may draw near 

 without being perceived. Let us imagine ourselves in such 

 a place. 



Here is a low tract of sandy pasture, with a shallow pool 

 upon it, and extending along a large ford or expanse of sand, 

 covered by the tide, and laid bare when it recedes. Many 

 Curlews and Golden Plovers, a few Ringed Dotterels, two 

 or three Mallards, and doubtless hundreds of Snipes, are 

 dispersed over the plashy ground. That old turf fold, in 

 which the cattle have been milked in summer, will enable 

 us to approach the birds unseen, unless some of the Curlews 

 should happen to fly overhead and discover us, when they 

 will be sure to sound an alarm. Now crawl this way, and 

 see that the muzzle of your gun is not filled with sand. 

 From this slap in the wall, cautiously raising our heads 

 until we can bring our eye to bear on them, we may observe 

 their motions. This is one of the few occasions on which a 

 low forehead would be of decided advantage. There, twenty 

 paces off, stalks an old Curlew, cunning and sagacious, yet 

 not conscious of our proximity. He has heard, or fancied 

 that he has heard, some unusual sound ; and there he moves 

 slowly, with raised head and ear attent ; but some ajjpear- 

 ance in the soft sand has attracted his notice, and forgetting 

 his fears, he thrusts or rather works his bill into it, and 

 extracting something, which he swallows, withdraws it, and 



