COMMON CUELEW. 5 



landed, must all be seen by the sitting bird ; while the back of the hills was 

 watched by the male bird, who from his elevated station could see everything 

 that came on either side. The nest itself was simply formed by the bird 

 scratching a round hole, the front being level with the ground, and the back 

 raised a little, doubtless by the action of sitting, while the eggs were almost the 

 colour of the heath, being dark green spotted with brown, and laid point to point 

 in the small hollow that was sparsely lined with dead fern and morsels of stick. 

 No two eggs were alike, and they were not very warm, but we took out four, and 

 felt as pleased as if we had come into a fortune." * 



Messrs. Macpherson and Duckworth give the following information 

 respecting the breeding of this species in Cumberland f: — "The Curlew is 

 an abundant resident, nesting plentifully on our fells and inland mosses, and 

 in lesser numbers in fields and mosses near the coast. A pair generally nestle 

 in a rough strip of waste land within three miles of Carlisle. The nest of the 

 Curlew is a slight depression with a scanty lining, and four eggs constitute a 

 clutch. On the lower grounds, the eggs are generally laid during the latter half 

 of April; but during the present spring (1885), we examined fresh eggs on 

 Glasson moss in the first half of May, and on the eastern fells we once found 

 a clutch of fresh Cxirlew eggs at the beginning of June. The nests are more 

 frequently situated on the edge of a moss, or in some rough meadow adjoining, 

 than in the centre of the waste. The young run at the end of May and the 

 beginning of June. From their acuteness in hiding, they are more difficult to 

 find than the nests, but neither can be found, except accidentally, unless the 

 movements of the old Curlews be carefully studied." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser states J that a considerable series of eggs of this species 

 in his collection, from Finland, Scandinavia and Scotland, vary in colour " from 

 light greenish spotted with small dark umber-brown sruface-blotches and purplish- 

 brown underlying shell-markings to dark olive-brown, almost covered with dark 

 umber-brown blotches, which are especially numerous at the larger end." He 

 further states that the measurements of these eggs vary from 2-77 by 1-9 inch 

 to 2-62 by 1-8 inch ; also that 25 eggs measured by Dr. E. Eey averaged 2-64 by 

 1-86 inch, the largest measuring 2-97 by 1-87 inch, and the smallest 2-36 by 

 1-79 inch. 



* In ' The Keld ' of September 9th, 1882, Mrs. Panton affirms the truth of this narrative. 

 In the same periodical, under date August 19th, 1882, Prof. Newton confirms, from his own 

 observation, the statement that the Curlew has been known to breed in Dorsetshire. — F. P. 



t ' Birds of Cumberland,' pp. 162, 163. 



f ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. viii. p. 252. 



