Along Shining Shores 73 



droop with ecstasy, and the whole flock break 

 their long silence with such a shout as the 

 Greeks of old raised when, homeward bound, 

 they first beheld the sea. 



Gracefully they circle downward, chat- 

 tering, calling, screaming their delight. 

 They stop and spend six weeks. They know 

 a good thing when they see it, and they see 

 the world from pole to pole. 



The curlew is to the shore what the ruffed 

 grouse is to the woods, has about the same 

 weight of body, and carries the same dark 

 brown-and-black-spotted plumage, until sun- 

 burnt on his return in August. His bill is 

 about four inches long, unless he is a sickle- 

 bill, when it measures from five to nine 

 inches. The jack-curlew is now the only 

 variety seen in Virginia, though an occa- 

 sional marlin or sickle-bill make the excep- 

 tion to the rule. 



The jack-curlew is the wildest, shrewdest 

 and most tantalizing bird with a snipe's bill 



