124 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



times — but evidently nervous, and making a half 

 retreat, each time — upon a stone-curlew, who, in its 

 turn, is half frightened and half surprised. Another 

 one comes up, as though to support his friend, so 

 that the last dash of the mistle-thrush is at the two, 

 after which he retreats with much honour. As he 

 does so, both the stone-curlews posturise, drawing 

 themselves up, gauntly, to their full height — an 

 attitude of haughty reserve — then curving their 

 necks downwards, to a certain point, at which they 

 stand still and slowly relax. There is no proper 

 sequence or proportion in all this. A stone-curlew 

 chases a mistle-thrush, a mistle-thrush a peewit, 

 and then the stone-curlew himself is half intimidated 

 by the mistle-thrush that he chased. Yet, just 

 before, he routed a pheasant, whilst the other day he 

 ran away from a partridge. " Will you ha' the truth 

 on't ? " It depends on which is most the angry bird, 

 has most some right infringed, some wrong done, 

 or imagined done to him. He, for that moment, 

 is the prevailing party, and the others give him way. 

 The stone-curlew is an especial feature of the 

 country hereabout — indeed its most distinctive 

 one, ornithologically speaking. It begins to arrive 

 in April and stays till October, by the end of which 

 month it has, usually, left us, all but a few stragglers 

 which I have, sometimes, seen flying high in February 

 — how sadly their cry has fallen, then, and yet how 

 welcome it was ! I am always glad when the voice 

 of these birds begins to be heard, again, over the 

 warrens. One can never tire of it — at least, I never 

 can. With Jacques I say, always, "More, more, I 

 prythee, more," and I can suck its melancholy — for 



