104 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



good reason to believe that it does so on some of the 

 wastes of the north-western provinces of Spain, 

 although I have no positive proof of this. I have 

 met with our bird in winter and early spring through- 

 out the Mediterranean coasts ; and in the Ionian 

 Islands especially noticed a very remarkable difference 

 in the length of the bills of the few individuals that 

 passed through my hands. The principal food of 

 the Curlew consists of worms, slugs, snails, small 

 crabs, and insects of all kinds, but on the moors they 

 feast to some extent upon various berries. I have 

 kept many of this species in captivity, and although 

 the young birds taken before they can fly are some- 

 what difficult to rear, 1 never had any trouble with 

 adult birds in the aviaries at Lilford ; they are 

 virtually omnivorous, but in my experience large 

 earth-worms are the most irresistible delicacies to 

 them, they are also very fond of small fishes, either 

 whole or cut up into pieces. Without having 

 actually seen the performance repeatedly, I certainly 

 could not have believed that the Curlew is a most 

 adroit flycatcher ; but they do catch and devour 

 great numbers of house-flies, picking them off the 

 walls and the gravel of the aviaries with the unerring 

 accuracy of aim of the smaller Herons. The ordinary 

 call of the Curlew is fairly well represented by 

 its English name with the first syllable dwelt upon 

 and prolonged, but it has a variety of other notes of 

 considerable power, and the weird clamour of a large 

 flock of these birds when suddenly alarmed at night, 

 or in foggy weather, is one of the most startling 

 concerted pieces of bird-music to be heard in this 

 country. As I have already stated, four is the usual 

 complement of eggs for the Curlew, but a friend sent 



