{ 266 ) 



FIELD-NOTES ON A PAIR OF STONE-CURLEWS. 

 Have they an Appreciable Sense of Smell ? 



BY 



F. G. PENROSE, m.d., f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



[Plate 7.] 



Scattered over the soutliern Wiltshire Downs are several 

 pairs of Stone -Curlews {Burhinus cc. oedicnemus) during 

 the breeding-season. The following observations, Mhicli 

 were made from a photographic tent, refer to a pair 

 wliich haunted part of the open down about six miles 

 due south of Salisbury, close to the boundary between 

 Wiltshire and Hampshire. T have known of eggs or 

 young birds every spring in this locahty for the last five 

 years. The birds generally laid their eggs on a bare 

 patch of chalk on the open down, as is shown in the 

 accompanying reproduction (Plate 7) of a photograph 

 taken on a Lumiere Autochrome plate, but last season 

 (1912) the eggs were deposited on fallow ground. I am 

 venturing to transcribe some of the notes I jotted down 

 at the time, as they bear directly on the question as to 

 whether or not these birds have a sense of smell. 



March ^Oth. First day on which a pair were seen 

 on the down, 



April 29th. Birds suspected of having eggs. 

 Avrit ZOth. The eggs were found about forty yards 

 from the edge of a fallow field, which was sepai^ated from 

 the open down by a wire-netting rabbit-fence. The 

 tent Avas pitched about twenty-five yards south of the 

 eggs, and about fifteen yards from the fence. 



May 1st. I went into the tent about 4.30 p.m. and 

 stayed until about 6.30 p.m. Up to 6.15 p.m. nothing 

 happened, and then I gave the signal to my man to 

 come and release me from the tent. During the next 

 ten minutes one of the old birds had come up and set- 

 tled on the eggs without my having seen its approach. 

 Before leaving I moved the tent nearer to the eggs. 



