BIRDS WITH LONG, CURVED 

 BILLS. 



CURLEW.— Plate 86. 21-26 inches. Upper parts 

 variegated witli brown, black, and white ; lower back 

 white ; tail white, barred with brown ; under parts 

 white, with dark streaks ; bill, equal to about a 

 quarter o£ the length of the entire bird and curved 

 strongl}'' downwards, brown ; legs and feet bluish- 

 gray. Resident. 



Eggs. — 4, olive-green, blotched with brown and 

 dull green ; 2-75 >< 1-9 inches (plate 129). 



Nest. — A depression in the ground among long 

 grass or heather, with a few dead stalks and the like 

 for lining. 



Distribution.— General. 



The Curlew is resident with us, and is known as 

 a moorland breeding bird pretty generally throughout 

 the British Islands. It is a loquacious bird, especially 

 towards evening. The clear ' Cour-lip ! ' sounds far 

 across the still lands it haunts, and is bandied about 

 from bii"d to bird until it falls away like an echo in 

 the faint response from some more distant one. From 

 time to time a bird gets up from hill-slope or heathy 

 bottom — a brown bird, showing white as it turns — 

 its long neck and long, curved bill stretched out before, 

 its long legs thrown out straight behind, and its 

 wings, also long, and pointed, and sharpl}' bent at the 



