254 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



" drains." It is always a piece of luck, if birds feed 

 towards you after you have got as near to them as 

 you can without alarming them. And this was the 

 case in the present instance. The Curlews waded 

 up the side of the drain, which was much shallower 

 than the one we were lying in, and in about ten 

 minutes one of them stepped out upon the flat 

 within twenty yards of the punt, and for a moment 

 seemed perfectly scared. We at once cocked the 

 gun and sat up ; with a weird scream the bird took 

 wing, and in another second fell dead upon the mud. 

 His companion rising out of the drain some yards 

 further off, was only winged, and led us a rare chase 

 over the ooze before he was secured. This incident 

 shows that the Curlew depends for safety upon his 

 keen sight, and not upon his power of scent, other- 

 wise the bird in question would never have walked 

 within a few yards of the punt, which he could not 

 see until he had stepped upon the bank. 



In the Zoologist for 1856, Mr. W. H. Power has 

 given an account of the way in which the fishermen 

 at Rainham, in Kent, decoy Curlews within shot. 

 They train a red-coloured dog (as much like a fox 

 as possible) to prowl about and attract the attention 



