^°1'9<^^^] \NicviKB.sii\m, The Sickle-billed Curleiv. 355 



as ridiculous as they are just before the breeding season. The day- 

 comes when you stroll out to take notes on the birds that you 

 have seen by the hundreds the day before only to find that they 

 have disappeared; not a bird answers your call, no hoarse scream- 

 ing betokens your approach ; they have gone, gone far away in 

 long V-like squadrons and, unless you follow them to their winter 

 home in the south land, you will not see their familiar forms for 

 many months. 



After reaching its wdnter home, the Curlew undergoes little 

 change of habits except in his relation to other birds. For a few 

 days the big bunches stay together and then they begin to sepa- 

 rate into small bunches of from two to twenty birds. It is rarely 

 that a single one is seen entirely by himself but two or three 

 feeding together and then, perhaps a mile off, two or three more 

 and in this way scattered all over the pastures and prairies is the 

 way we find them in Texas. They are rarely found in the brush 

 or even in ponds or swales surrounded by the brush, but far out 

 on the open prairie or in little mud flats on the larger swales we 

 rarely miss them. Here they feed all day looking for almost any 

 form of insectivorous or crustacean life. Crawfish, small crabs, 

 snails, periwinkles, toads, worms, larvae, grasshoppers, crickets, 

 beetles, caterpillars when found on the ground, spiders, flies, 

 butterflies and berries, especially dewberries, all play minor or 

 major parts in their diet. The worms, larvs, etc., are pulled out of 

 the ground by the long bill, the end of which may act as a finger 

 having separate muscles to control it, and often it is sunk into the 

 ground as far as it will go to reach some unwilling victim. The 

 crustaceans are taken on the beach, or, discovered beneath the 

 surface by the probing bill, are pulled out and eaten. The berries 

 are neatly picked off the bushes, while butterflies and other insects 

 are taken on the wing. At night the birds collect and make for the 

 nearest large body of water where they spend the hours of dark- 

 ness ; but the return is made before light except on dark cloudy 

 mornings when they have to wait for dawn to show them the way. 

 On the wing they are easily distinguished by their snipe-like flight, 

 their long, curved bill and their peculiar motion of beating wings 

 which is so impossible to describe to those who have not seen it. 



Wherever the Curlew goes, its long, curious bill makes it so 



