314 BRITISH BIEDS 



grass is lined with dead steins and leaves, and four eggs are laid, in 

 colour like those of the curlew, but differing in size. During the 

 breeding season the whimbrels are extremely pugnacious, and 

 attack the skuas, lesser black-backed gulls, and other egg-stealing 

 species, and chase them from their nesting-ground with shrill, 

 angry cries. 



Common Curlew. 



Numenius arquata. 



General plumage reddish ash mottled with dusky spots ; belly 

 nearly white, with dusky streaks ; rump and tail-coverts white ; 

 tail-feathers barred with dark brown. Length of the female, which 

 is the larger, twenty-one to twenty-six inches. 



The curlew is the largest of its order in the British Islands ; even 

 the large woodcock looks small besides him, and among diminutive 

 stints and sandpipers he is a veritable giant. An imperfect ibis in 

 figure, in a pale sandy brown dress with dusky mottlings, he is, 

 perhaps, the least handsome of the Limicolte ; in character he is one 

 of the most interesting. What marvellously keen senses, what un- 

 failing wariness and alertness must this large, inland-breeding species 

 possess to keep its hold on existence in so many localities in this 

 populous country in spite of incessant persecution ! Most vigilant 

 of birds, he is not vigilant on his own account only. He is the un- 

 sleeping sentinel of all the wild creatures that are pursued by m.-m, 

 warning them of danger with piercing cries that none fail to under- 

 stand. The redshank, greenshank, and many other species, in this 

 and other orders, are equally vociferous in the presence of danger, 

 and their warnings are as promptly obeyed by all wild creatures 

 that live with or near them ; but a curious feature about the curlew 

 is that he appears to take an intelligent interest in the welfare of 

 beings not of his own species, and that he is distressed if they fail to 

 act on his signal. In Yarrell's ' British Birds ' (4th edit. vol. iii.) 

 Howard Saunders gives a striking instance of this characteristic. 

 He describes seeing one of these birds, ' after shrieking wildly over 

 the head of a sleeping seal, swoop down, and apparently flick with 

 its wings the unsuspecting animal, upon which the stalker was just 

 raising his rifle.' This, to my mind, is a far more wonderful 

 instance of the help-giving instinct in the lower animals than that 

 related by Edwards of Banff, in which a number of terns swooped 



