4 SCOLOPACID^. 



loug heather, there is no premeditated attempt at concealment. The old Curlew 

 relies on her watchful nature and keen eye for safety, and rarely sits close when 

 danger threatens, however distant ; though, from her size and light colour, it is 

 not difficult to find the nests, when one knows how to look for them. The four 

 eggs are laid in the final days of April, one or two being often unfertile. The 

 young Curlews do not leave the nest immediately on being hatched, as the young 

 of most of this class of birds do ; for, though they may never be found actually 

 in the nest, yet they will be Ijing hidden in the heather close by, having just 

 slipped out on the approach of danger. This, of course, only applies to the 

 early days of their lives." 



Mrs. J. E. Panton has published the following interesting account of the 

 discovery of a nest of the Curlew in Dorsetshii-e * : — " For four years running 

 a pair of Curlews had built in the bog between the hills or mounds in the heath, 

 but this year they had deserted the old spot, and no one had been able to discover 

 the nest. Long had we lain watching the ways of the birds : we had noted how 

 the male bird had stood motionless on the highest of the mounds, and how the 

 moment we came in sight he signalled to the female bird, who seemed to rise 

 from her nest at the sound and at once fly away ; we had made for the spot 

 at once from whence we had seen her fly, but all our efforts up to the present had 

 been in vain, principally because we had invariably searched the bog itself, and 

 had not thought of the hills. 



" The female Curlew never rises straight from the spot where she is sitting, 

 but scuttles along the ground until she is quite flfty yards from her nest, when 

 she at once flies away as fast as she can go. This naturally makes it a most 

 difficult task to find the nest ; and, indeed, until about four years ago, it was 

 supposed never to build in the south of England. We were most anxious 

 to find the nest, and as we stalked the bird, creeping almost level with the heath, 

 we took care to be on the windward of the male, who was keeping his usual 

 look-out. Presently he uttered his signal, and to our intense joy the female 

 rose almost between our feet, and then we saw that w^e were close upon the nest 

 itself, as, coming up as we had done, she had not had time to keep along the 

 ground, and so had flown up direct from her nest. 



" No better spot for observation could possibly have been selected. The 

 hiUs sloped in a semicircle behind, and in front the view extended over the sea 

 itself: the landing-place, and away to the shores beyond, where the Herons stood 

 like sentinels watching for the fish ; so every boat that passed, every man who 



* ' Country Sketches in Black and White' (London : David Bogue, 1882), pp. 63, 64. 



