HABITS OF THE CURLEW. 235 



feed happily with such noisy, restless neighbours ; 

 they would be continally alarmed by their cries and 

 uneasy movements, and trust rather to their own 

 watchfulness, which is good enough to puzzle most 

 of us. I never saw Ducks pitch near, or with 

 Curlews, but I have seen the latter alight amongst 

 the former. Being seen together may account for 

 the popular notion just referred to. 



Should Curlews alight near fowl the latter cease 

 to feed contentedly, and will stretch their necks and 

 appear unsettled. When the former discover that 

 you are too near to be pleasant, up they get (out of 

 shot, you may be sure) with loud screams, and, of 

 course, take with them all other birds in the vicinity. 

 It is for this reason these wary birds are supposed 

 to be chosen by others as sentinels. 



Many Curlews, not breeding I presume, remain on 

 the coast during the summer, and do not migrate or 

 fly inland to nest when their companions leave the 

 tide for that purpose. Some may visit the shore 

 at leisure, but the majority of those seen about the 

 flats in summer only leave the ooze to wait on con- 

 venient rocks and points during high tide. No 

 birds sit prettier for a heavy gun, when driven from 

 or awaiting the exposure of their food. They stand 

 so thick and still, and carry their heads so high and 

 prominent for a charge of shot from a big gun, that 

 they are apt to tempt the fowler from worthier 

 game. Captain K. Dover told me he once got 

 forty-seven at a shot in the estuary of the Moy. 



The note of the Curlew is the most ear-piercing 

 of all cries familiar to a fowler. The sound is 

 deafening when the bird rushes suddenly past within 



