62 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



The Stone Plover or Land Curlew (Burhinus grallarius Latham). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 210, No. 496 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 51, No. 109. 



This shy, retiring bird is much better known to most people by reason of its 

 weird melancholy cry or long drawn out, whistle-like note, rather than by 

 personal observation of the bird itself. The calling of a pair of curlews in 

 the long winter evening round an isolated homestead or a lonely camp fire 

 is mournful enough to give the newcomer from the city a fit of the blues ; 

 but to the true imaginative bushman it is one of the " voices of the night " 

 that rather appeals to his sense of fitness with the surroundings " often 

 striking a chill into the heart of the benighted traveller, for the imitation 

 of the call of this bird is often a signal whistle from the bushranger to his 

 mates at night." says the author of " Bush Wanderings." 



The birds frequent open box forests and lightly timbered flats, seldom 

 coming out on the open plains ; and they may often be quite numerous with- 

 out being seen by the traveller. At the least alarm they stand perfectly 

 still with the head and neck pointing out, and their grey and brown plumage 

 blends so closely, with the country they frequent that is usually an acci- 

 dent if one is seen unless it moves. They are, however, always alert, with 

 their large bright yellow eyes watching the intruder, and are ready to run or 

 ily as soon as they think they are noticed ; otherwise, they will allow a 

 person to come quite close, and pass them on the track without moving. 



No regular nest is made, but, like the true Plover, the female lays her two 

 blotched, brown eggs in a slight depression on the ground, where their 

 ground-tint matches the soil, and does not display them to their enemies. 



The curlews are usually found in pairs, except after the nesting season, 

 when they are found in small family parties ; and in the days when hawks 

 were plentiful they suffered much from their attacks. Poisoning has killed 

 out the hawks ; but it has also, when used for rabbits, caused the death of 

 many curlews who picked the pollard baits when feeding over the ground 

 at night. Now, with the introduction of the fox, the enemy of all ground- 

 nesting birds, there is another change in the balance of nature. 



With reasonable protection curlews will hold their own in all open forest 

 country where settlement is not too dense, and, feeding chiefly at night, 

 they capture and destroy many insects that are not out in the daytime. 

 On account of their nocturnal habits they have been introduced into subur- 

 ban gardens to keep down the slugs and snails, and in this capacity they are 

 one of the best friends of the gardener. 



Our curlew has many popular names, such as the Land Curlew, Stone 

 Plover, and Norfolk Plover ; but it will always be known to the bushman as 

 the curlew. It must not, however, be confounded with the Curlew or 

 Whimbrel of Europe, which, though having a somewhat similar call-note, 

 is classed in an allied group, and is quite a different looking bird. It is 

 much larger, more mottled, and furnished with a long slender bill adapted 

 for picking up water-insects and small crustaceans along the marshy sea 

 coast. 



