CURLEW AND WHIMBREL 539 



on the mussel-beds and mud-banks at the flow of the tide than almost 

 any of its congeners, and then, instead of retiring to rest on an 

 eminence near the shore, generally betakes itself inland to rest, and 

 to feed on the cultivated fields and marshes. Yet when the tide 

 turns, although the birds are out of sight and hearing of the sea, they 

 will rise calling noisily, and pour down upon the shore first among the 

 crowds of Waders to realise that feeding time is at hand. 



Sir Ralph Payne-Gall wey, in that excellent book The Fowler in 

 Ireland, says: "They will arrive just as the ooze is sufficiently uncovered 

 to enable them to get their food by wading. I have watched them 

 several miles from the tide cease feeding, call to one another, collect, 

 and then point for the sea ; and this, too, at the very moment I knew 

 the shallows must be nearly exposed. Spring tides they will hit off 

 exactly, never late, always on the spot just as the banks begin 

 to show." * 



They scatter in twos and threes when feeding, and at night 

 constantly call to each other. Professor Patten thinks they see but 

 feebly in the dusk and dark, as he has had many settle close around 

 him apparently unaware of his presence. 2 Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey 

 thought they relied largely on their sense of smell. He states that 

 when he was within thirty paces of them at night, behind a 

 hedge or bank, 'an experimental cough or whistle, not unreason- 

 ably loud, did not alarm them, and the crack of a match was also 

 disregarded, but the first whiff of tobacco and they were off in dire 

 confusion." 3 



Both curlew and whimbrel occasionally perch on trees and rails, 

 swim well when necessary, and are very fond of bathing. Stevenson 

 stated that, so far as he could ascertain, the curlew never strikes 

 lighthouses, 4 but Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey includes it in some lists 

 of species often killed against various lighthouses in Ireland, 5 and 

 Mr. Cordeaux stated that there is no shore bird which so frequently 



1 The Fowler in Ireland, p. 232. * Aquatic Birds, p. 361. 



3 The Fender in Ireland, p. 236. 4 Birds of Norfolk, ii. p. 195. 



6 The Foicler in Ireland, pp. 282-4. 



