196 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
see into the boat.” Single-birds may be occasionally 
decoyed within shot of a bank or other ambush, by 
skillful whistling ;* but in companies, as Mr. Lubbock 
states, “they are deaf to the call.” 
Though always plentiful on the Breydon muds, this 
species is met with in still larger numbers at Blakeney, 
and thence, westward, along the flat shores of the 
Wash to Lynn may be termed their chief stronghold 
in Norfolk. In the spring of 1863, I found them very 
plentiful at Hunstanton, though almost unapproachable 
on those level sands, but their daily visits to the 
mussel-scalps, with that marvellous punctuality observ- 
able in such species as regularly frequent the sea coast, 
proved a constant source of amusement. Scarcely was 
the thin black line visible above the waves, which 
marked the outline of a large submerged mussel- 
bed, than curlews and sea-gulls appeared in the 
distance, the former in small detachments and in Indian 
file, slowly flapping over the waters to their expected 
feast, which their long legs and bills enabled them to 
commence at once, not waiting, like the hovering 
sea-gulls for a drier surface. First to arrive they 
were also the last of their kind to quit their feeding 
grounds, seeking the highest spots as the tide rose, 
and taking wing only when the “scalps” were barely 
* Mr. W. H. Power, in the “ Zoologist” for 1866 (p. 124), gives 
a singular account of the means by which the fishermen and “ mud- 
diggers,” at Rainham, in Kent, decoy curlew within shot. <A trained 
dog, as much like a fox as possible, is employed to attract the 
birds, whilst the man hides in a “dyke,” and when the birds 
attack and chase him, the dog gradually approaches his master’s 
hiding place, when sometimes two or three shots are obtained 
(provided the gunner keeps concealed), so engrossed are the 
curlews with the actions of the dog; but both this plan and the 
“ curlew whistle” fail to attract them in parties of more than four 
or five. 
