540 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



strikes against lighthouses and lightships as the curlew. 1 Mr. Harting 

 gives an instance of one that dashed through one of the tower lights 

 at the Turnberry Lighthouse on the Ayrshire coast, smashing plate- 

 glass a quarter of an inch thick, during a storm in 1893. 2 



It only remains to refer briefly to the superstitious dread in 

 which the curlew is held in the remote Highlands of Scotland. This 

 may have arisen partly from the eerie effect of its wild night cries, 

 but certainly coupled with the goblin-like aspect of its long bill. The 

 familiar name whaap or whaup, by which the curlew is known in the 

 Highlands, is the name applied to a long-beaked goblin who is 

 supposed to lurk beneath the eaves of houses after dark. With this 

 and other long-nosed creatures of fancy the curlew is included in the 

 Highlander's prayer to be saved "from witches, warlocks, and a' 

 lang-nebbed things." Saxby tells us that the Shetlanders regard with 

 horror the idea of eating so uncanny a bird, and relates that a visitor 

 who was known to have eaten a curlew was frequently referred to in 

 awesome whispers as " the man that ate the whaup." 



1 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 501. * Handbook of British Birds, p. 205. 



