

THE CURLEW. 257 



when pairing, a softer note is frequently heard, which 

 sounds like " whee-ou, whee-ou." 



The food of the Curlew is very miscellaneous, 

 consisting of all sorts of marine mollusca and crus- 

 tacea, worms, small fish, and vegetable matter, inva- 

 riably accompanied with a quantity of sand or small 

 particles of grit. The bird is especially fond of 

 small shore crabs, and we have sometimes killed a 

 Curlew so gorged with crabs and shrimps as to be 

 offensive to the smell and quite unfit for food. On 

 sandy shores the Curlew lives principally on cockles, 

 which it swallows whole, and we have been astonished 

 sometimes at the size of the shells which we have 

 taken out of the stomach. It would scarcely be 

 supposed that a cockle-shell of the diameter of a 

 shilling could pass down the gullet of a Curlew, 

 yet we have found recently-swallowed shells of this 

 size still unbroken in the gizzard. 



Those who are familiar with the works of Pro- 

 fessor Wilson must remember his admirable descrip- 

 tion of the feelings which he experienced when stalk- 

 ing a Curlew. 1 " At first sight of his long bill aloft 

 above the rushes, we could hear our heart beating 



1 Recreations of Christopher North, vol. i. p. 36 (1864). 

 S 



