THE CURLEWS. 331 



quarters. The distant alarm-note of another Curlew puts it on 

 the alert, and generally it rises at once, with startling cries, 

 warning in its turn all its kindred that may happen to be in 

 hearing of its call. In the course of feeding, either on the up- 

 land marshes or on the shore, the bill is often thrust for a con- 

 siderable d'stance into the ground ; and this long bill, ill-adapted 

 as it may seem for the purpose, can readily secure a passing 

 insect, or pick one adroitly from thj water or from a grass- 

 stem. 



" In summer the food of the Curlew is principally composed 

 of worms, insects and their larvae ; and on the moors the birds 

 vary their diet with the fruit of the whortle-berry and crow-berry. 

 In winter its food is more varied, and consists of sand-worms, 

 small crustaceans and shells, little crabs, &c. In the stomachs 

 of birds shot at their winter quarters the shoots of grasses and 

 fragments of leaves have been found. At the nest the Curlew 

 has two perfectly distinct notes or whistles. The well-known 

 kerr-lee is the call-note ; and the other, which may be expressed 

 as 2viw-i-wiw-i-7viiv^ is as unquestionably the alarm-note. It is 

 said that it has a third note, resembling zf^/zcz-///, whence its trivial 

 name of ' Whaup ' ; but that is a note with which I am entirely 

 unacquainted." 



Nest. — A slight depression in the ground or in a tuft of grass, 

 lined with a few dead leaves or dead grass. Mr. Robert Read 

 writes to me : — " The Curlew usually nests in wild open moor- 

 lands, but I have also found its eggs in a grass meadow. It 

 is also fond of nesting on tree-less islands covered with grass 

 and heather." 



Eggs. — Four in number, somewhat large for the size of the 

 bird. Mr. Read says : — " The eggs are usually of the well- 

 known pyriform shape common to the Limicolic, but some- 

 times one gets them quite round, and at others very much 

 elongated, like those of the Colyjnbidce. The colour varies from 

 an olive stone-grey to a light olive-brown, or even greenish- 

 olive. The markings are brown, nearly always prominent, 

 sometimes distributed over the entire egg, and mixed with 

 light grey underlying markings, while at other times the mark- 

 ings become confluent and form blotches, continuous round 

 the larger end of the egg. More rarely the markings con- 



II 



