536 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



allowed herself to be touched before she left, and when visited on 

 several subsequent occasions always behaved in the same way. There 

 have been many similar cases recorded ; some birds have remained 

 long enough to enable photographs to be taken, and one was even 

 caught on the nest. 1 Mr. F. Fenwick, in a communication to the 

 Field, stated that a curlew nested on a piece of moss-land, near his 

 house, several years in succession. The bird was easily recognised, as 

 she had a permanent gap in one wing, for which reason she was 

 known to the family as "clip-wing." She was so tame that she 

 allowed Mr. Fenwick's sons to smooth her and lift her from the nest. 

 That the male assisted in incubation was made plain by the observa- 

 tion that " sometimes clip- wing was seen flying about while her mate 

 was sitting." 2 



Dr. Heatherley tells me (in litt.) that whilst photographing curlews 

 he has found the male bolder than the female ; while the latter picks 

 her way cautiously to the nest, the male comes on with a rush. He 

 adds that the boldness of the male is shown also by his trusting to 

 escape observation on the nest rather than take flight. Dr. Heatherley 

 succeeded in photographing one before it left, and he says the only 

 photographs of curlews he has seen obtained in this way i.e. by 

 openly stalking a tight-sitting bird have been of males. Evidence, 

 however, shows that the habit is by no means restricted to the male, 

 and I doubt whether it is possible to tell with certainty the sex of 

 a curlew in a photograph. 



Both before and after the eggs are laid the birds may be seen 

 walking about sedately near their nesting-site, and generally some 

 distance apart. They frequently call to each other, the note being 

 loud, and a modification of that part of the spring song that I have 

 rendered "gur-lech" Full clutches of eggs may be found in most 

 localities in the middle of May, laying beginning, as a rule, in the end 

 of April, sometimes as early as the 20th. The eggs are not laid on 



1 Birds by Loch and Mountain, p. 81; Field, 1904, vol. ciii. pp. 952, 1000; Ibid., 1897, vol. 

 Ixxxix. p. 721. 



s Field, 1900, vol. xcv. p. 734. 



