58 BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



mere depression in the ground. They are large and pear- 

 shaped, and are protectively coloured — olive-green, Mith 

 browner blotches. The slight nature of the nest, and the 

 pyriform shape and protective coloration of the eggs, are 

 characteristics common to almost all Waders, The con- 

 stancy of the size of the clutch is also characteristic. 

 Four is the normal number of eggs for most Waders — 

 three for a few ; but, whichever it is, it is nearly always 

 attained and very rarely exceeded. 



Both parents take part in the duties of incubation, and 

 show great vigilance and wariness, seldom betraying the 

 position of their nest. At times, however, a Curlew will 

 sit remarkably close. We have known a photographer 

 approach openly to within a few feet of one, and take 

 several ' time exposures "■ ! As a rule, it demands all the 

 photographer's cunning in concealing his camera and arrang- 

 ing automatic electric contrivances to secure a portrait of 

 this shy sitter. In due course the young Curlews hatch 

 out and reveal themselves as typical Wader chicks, clad in 

 down of ' protective "■ hue — pale grayish buff with brown 

 mottlings above, white below — and active from the first, a 

 trait v/hich is indicated by the disproportionately large 

 and well -developed legs and feet. One point strikes us at 

 once — the bill is short and straight like a Plover's. This 

 we take as an indication that the plover-like bill was the 

 original type for this Order, from which the other more 

 specialised forms have been gradually evolved, and that the 

 stages of this evolution correspond in a general way to 

 the stages through which the bill grows in the first few 

 weeks of each individual Curlew's life. The bill gradually 

 lengthens, and also becomes more decurved, until its 

 bearer is a full-grown, ' long-nebbit ' Whaup of the moors. 



