THE CURLEW 303 



no bird more difficult to stalk than the curlew ; 

 the most carefully-laid plans so frequently end 

 in failure, unless there happens to be a strong 

 wind blowing from the birds, and suitable covert 

 to enable one to approach within reasonable gun- 

 shot distance ; and these are precisely the condi- 

 tions which the curlew takes special care to avoid 

 affording, generally selecting the most exposed 

 portion of some large field in which to feed, and 

 ever ready and watchful to take alarm. The 

 plumage is a very pale brown streaked and 

 blotched with dark brown. The bill is very long, 

 and curved downwards. The name of the bird 

 is derived from its cry, ' Curlee, curlee.' The 

 country people generally pronounce it as spelt, 

 1 C'loo.' It may frequently be found nesting in 

 company with the peewit and stone curlew or 

 thick-knee plover, on the ploughed fields of the 

 cultivated downlands, and, like the plover, its 

 eggs are never more than four in number, of an 

 olive-green blotched with brown. 



Although I have included the little stint in 

 the list of those members of the Scolopacidae 

 which are less rare than others, it is, never- 

 theless, by no means common throughout the 

 country, being most frequently to be found in 

 that home of wild-fowl, Norfolk, and the adjoin- 

 ing counties. In plumage it is very similar to 

 the dunlin, but it measures only some six inches 

 in length. Its visits are confined to the periods 

 during which it is on migration, viz., the 



