THE STONE-CURLEW 117 



the belief that their flesh would be the reverse 

 of palatable. Their food consists principally of 

 the worms, snails and beetles which they find 

 under the stones, hence, perhaps, the name of 

 stone- curlew, and their preference for those 

 localities where stones are plentiful, and of a size 

 which they can turn over, such as may be found 

 in the cultivated portions of our chalky downlands. 

 The stone-curlew will, at times, also kill frogs, 

 lizards, and field-mice. A bird whose dietary 

 consists of these creatures can hardly be expected 

 to be suitable for food. The ordinary plover lays 

 four eggs, the stone-curlew r two only, of a dirty- 

 white ground colour, spotted and streaked with 

 gray and brown shades. These markings vary 

 considerably, some of the eggs being entirely 

 without blotches, and covered with streaks only. 

 They are far more difficult to find than the eggs 

 of the peewit, as their colour partakes very much 

 of that of their surroundings. This bird is some- 

 times called the bustard plover, and, indeed, it is 

 by no means unlike a bustard in some respects, 

 not only in its habits and appearance, but in the 

 fact of its laying but two eggs, whereas all the 

 plover tribe lay four. It is also essentially a 

 land-bird. 



Once upon a time the great bustard was no 

 rarity on our Southern downs. Some few years 

 ago, when fishing in a stream at the foot of the 

 Wiltshire downs, in a part of the country to 

 which I was a stranger, I heard a bird calling 



