CURLEW 85 



The range of the curlew includes the whole of northern Europe 

 and Asia as far east as Lake Baikal, and in winter Africa and 

 Madagascar, India, Ceylon, Burma, the south of China, and the Malay- 

 Peninsula. In Great Britain this handsome bird breeds on the high 

 moorlands of the south of England from Cornwall to Hampshire and 

 Wiltshire, in Derbyshire and the north of England, in Wales, and 

 throughout Scotland and the Isles. In the bogs and moors of Ireland 

 it nests in abundance ; and in autumn and winter, as in Great Britain, 

 a number of immature birds, some of which remain to breed, visit the 

 coasts. 



In addition to its large size (total length 21 inches in the cock, 

 and rather more in the hen), the curlew is characterised by the 

 plumage of the upper-parts in summer being pale brown with the 

 middle of the feathers darker ; the white lower portion of the back 

 and tail-coverts, the latter being streaked with dark brown and the 

 tail barred with the same ; the neck and breast of the same pale 

 brown streaked with dusky as the back, and the hinder portion of 

 the under-parts white. The winter-dress differs only in being paler. 

 Young birds are more buff-coloured than the adults, from which they 

 may be distinguished by the lighter colour of the triangular patches 

 and bars on the inner secondaries. The chick is pale grey tinged with 

 buff and mottled with dark brown above, and white below. 



During winter, curlews are chiefly found on the coasts, where they 

 associate in flocks, but in spring resort to open inland districts and 

 pair-off for the breeding-season, although a certain number of non- 

 breeding birds remain in their winter haunts. Probably many North 

 British curlews wing their way to still more northern lands to nest, 

 their places being taken by migrants from the south. The eggs are 

 laid in April, or, more usually. May, and there seems to be only one 

 clutch in a year. Curlews have a quick flapping flight, with their 

 long legs carried straight out behind, and utter a peculiarly plaintive 

 and long-drawn cry of two syllables, in addition to which they have 

 a distinctive alarm-note. While near the sea, the food of these birds 

 comprises, of course, various littoral creatures, but in summer consists 

 chiefly of worms, insects, and grubs, varied when on the moors by 

 berries. Despite its peculiar shape, the long beak appears to be used 

 in probing the mud for food. A mere hollow in the ground, lined 

 with a few leaves or bents, or occasionally a tussock of grass, serves 

 the curlew for nest, and the relatively large eggs, which frequently 

 depart from the pegtop-shape so characteristic of the plover-tribe in 

 general, range in ground-colour from olive, stone-grey, or light olive- 



