320 OBSERVATIONS ON BIEDS. 



there was no communication by water. How did it get so 

 far from the sea, its wings and legs being so ill adapted 

 either to flying or walking ? The lesser crested grebe was 

 also found in a fresh-water pond, which had no communica- 

 tion with other water, at some miles distance from the sea. 



MAEKWICK. 



STONE-CURLEW.* On the 27th of February ,1788, stone- 

 curlews were heard to pipe ; and on March 1st, after it was 

 dark, some were passing over the village, as might be per- 

 ceived by their quick short note, which they use in their 

 nocturnal excursions by way of watch- word, that they may 

 not stray and lose their companions. 



Thus we see that, retire whithersoever they may in the 

 winter, they return again early in the spring, and are, as it 

 now appears, the first summer birds that come back. Per- 

 haps the mildness of the season may have quickened the 

 emigration of the curlews this year. 



They spend the day in high elevated fields and sheep- 

 walks ; but seem to descend, in the night, to streams and 

 meadows, perhaps for water, which their upland haunts do 

 not afford them. WHITE. 



On the 31st of January, 1792, I received a bird of this 

 species, which had been recently killed by a neighbouring 

 farmer, who said that he had frequently seen it in his fields 

 during the former part of the winter : this perhaps was an 

 occasional straggler, which, by some accident, was prevented 

 from accompanying its companions in their migration. 



MAEKWIOK. 



THE SMALLEST FNCEESTED WILLOW- WEEN. The smallest 



* These birds breed on the fallows, and often startle the midnight traveller 

 by their shrill and ominous whistle. This is supposed to be the note so 

 beautifully alluded to by Sir Walter Scott in his poem of the Lady of the 

 Lake : 



" And in the plover's shrilly strain, 



The signal whistle 's heard again ;" 



for it certainly sounds more like a human note than that of a bird. 

 WILLIAMSON. 



The eye of the stone-curlew is singularly beautiful. ED. 



