COMMON CURLEW. 505 



red colour, as much like a fox as possible, is employed to 

 attract the attention of the birds and induce them to pursue 

 him, when he entices them within shot of his master, who 

 lies hidden in a dyke. 



The plumage of the male and female is very similar. 

 The beak is dark brown, except the basal portion of the 

 under mandible, which is pale brown ; the irides dark 

 brown ; head and neck pale brown, the centre of each 

 feather bearing a longitudinal streak of dark brown ; the 

 feathers on the upper part of the back brownish-black, 

 with pale brown edges ; the lower part of the back and 

 the rump white ; upper tail-coverts white, with a lanceo- 

 late streak of dark brown towards the end ; tail-feathers 

 barred with dark brown and dull white ; the smaller wing- 

 coverts blackish-brown with almost white edges, making this 

 part of the wings appear lighter in colour than the back ; 

 the greater wing-coverts and the first five primary quill- 

 feathers black, the latter with white shafts ; the secondary 

 wing-feathers and the tertials blackish-brown in the centre, 

 and barred transversely on the edges with dark and light 

 brown ; axillaries white, more or less barred with brown ; 

 the chin white ; front of the neck and uj^per part of the 

 breast pale brown, streaked longitudinally with dark brown ; 

 lower part of the breast nearly white, and spotted rather 

 than streaked with dark brown ; vent and under tail-coverts 

 white, the latter with an occasional dusky streak ; legs and 

 toes pale blue, becoming lead-blue a few days after death. 



In the young of the year the under parts are washed with 

 pale rufous, and the brown lineations are less defined, and 

 the spots are cream-coloured. During August and Septem- 

 ber, when the old birds are moulting their quill-feathers and 

 unable to fly well, the young birds are strong on the wing : 

 in fact, early-bred birds can fly by the end of June. They 

 begin to get their first feathers replaced by more ash- 

 coloured ones towards the end of September, and this moult 

 extends over the back and breast before the winter. 



The females are the larger, and, in a pair of Curlews now 

 under consideration, remarkably so : the female measured 



VOL. III. 3 T 



