SCOLOPACIDE. O71 
many as three are killed before they take themselves 
off.” I should think this method might be prose- 
cuted with considerable success about Burnham, as 
there are many facilities for hiding and a great many 
Curlews, and with the help of a breech-loader more 
than three might probably be bagged at a time. 
Why the Curlews attack the fox-like dog so 
vigorously is perhaps somewhat doubtful; but Mr. 
Power, the author of the paper in the ‘ Zoologist’ 
which I have quoted, says the fishermen account for 
it by supposing that foxes are common in the places 
where they breed, and that therefore they have good 
cause for their apparent anger and aversion. 
The food of the Curlew consists of worms, slugs, 
small Crustacea and most of the insects that occur 
by the water-side and in the moist places which 
these birds frequent. When they retire inland to 
their breeding-stations they are said to feed upon 
bilberries, whortleberries and the like, also upon 
blades of grass and the slender tops of other 
vegetables, besides lichens and twigs: small pebbles 
are generally found in the stomach.* Montagu says 
of one that he kept tame that it became almost 
omnivorous, eating fish, water lizards, small frogs, 
insects of every kind that were not too large to 
swallow, and in default of other food it would eat 
barley with the Ducks. 
* Meyer's ‘ British Birds,’ vol. iv., p, 194. 
