LIMICOL&. ( 258 ) SCOLOPACID^. 



THE COMMON CURLEW. 



WHAUP, WHAAP, STOCK WHAAP, WHITTERICK. 



Numenius arquata. 



Wild as the scream of the Curlew, 

 From crag to crag the signal flew. 



SCOTT, Lady of the Lake. 



Ye Curlews calling thro' a clud. 



BURNS, Elegy on Captain Matthew Henderson. 



THE Curlew is usually associated in our minds with the 

 heaths and mosses of the Lammermuirs, 1 where from spring 

 to autumn it may be seen flying in wide circles round the 

 moors uttering its well-known call. Although the peculiar 

 cry from which the bird derives its English name has an 

 eerie and melancholy sound to some ears, yet to others it 

 is very pleasing. 2 The late Mr. Hewitson says : " I have 

 never traversed the lone wild heath, deserted, except by the 

 feathered race, and at a moment in which I have felt the 



1 It is plentiful on Coldingham Moor. J. Bowhill, 1st April 1886. It abounds 

 on the moors and mosses aroimd Spottiswoode and in the Earlston district. It also 

 frequents the east end of the moss at Legerwood Loch, and Corsbie Bog, near the 

 Tower. W. Lockie, 28th July 1886. 



2 The Rev. John Sheppard, minister of the Parish of Muirkirk, in Ayrshire, 

 relates that: " A country gentleman from the West of Scotland, who lived in a 

 parish very similar to Muirkirk, both in soil and climate, being occasionally in 

 England for a few weeks, was one delightful summer evening asked out to hear 

 the Nightingale, his friend informing him at the same time that this bird was a 

 native of England, and never to be heard in his own country. After lie had 

 listened with attention for some time, upon being asked if he was not much 

 delighted with the Nightingale, ' It's a' very gude,' he replied in the dialect of his 

 own country, ' but I wadna' gie the wheeple of a Whaup for a' the Nightingales 

 that ever sang.' " Old Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 601. 



