532 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



and some other closely allied Waders. I have described these Wader 

 song-flights as peculiar to the male, but it may prove that the female, 

 at least occasionally, also performs. The curlew, especially in the end 

 of April and beginning of May, and more commonly towards evening, 

 indulges very frequently in its spring flight. It rises from the ground, 

 and with rapid wing-beats ascends to a good height. Often when 

 near the summit of its flight it checks suddenly, almost throwing itself 

 over backwards. Recovering, it hangs poised kestrel-like in the air, 

 and while so hovering, and also during a short temporary drop on 

 motionless wings, it pours forth the trilling or jodelling song. It rises 

 again on quivering wings and again sinks as before. This may 

 continue for some time, or it may be varied by the bird circling round 

 on extended wings, when one is again reminded of the flight of 

 a hawk. More often than not the bird will stop before a circle is 

 completed, and hover again over a fresh spot. So it continues, 

 circling, rising and falling and pouring forth a joyful ripple of song. 

 If there are times when the curlew and its wild call-notes harmonise 

 with even add to the sense of desolation of the moorland scenery, 

 conjuring up visions of "witches and warlocks and a' lang-nebbed 

 things " to the superstitious Highlander, and when the light flashes of 

 its under wing feathers seem merely 



"Dreary gleams about the moorland," 



yet when the breeding song is in full force, it is so full of virile life, 

 that for the time it dominates the influence of its surroundings and 

 brings the full joyfulness of spring to the wild moorlands. 



The song consists of two or three rising notes, rapidly repeated, 

 high pitched, but liquid and flute-like. Although I may be needlessly 

 adding to an already long list of inadequate renderings inadequate, 

 that is, to convey an impression of the sound to those who have never 

 heard it I would express the curlew's song as " gur-lech gw-lech gur- 

 lech gur-leck" pronounced rather distinctly at first and not too quickly, 

 but quickening after the first two or three repetitions. Towards the 



