HABITS OF THE CURLEW. 237 



freaks of colour may be seen in birds from time to 

 time, it is seldom the unusual shade is a uniform one. 



As already remarked, Curlews are not good eating 

 on the coast, and will often be found covered with 

 parasites. Like Plovers, they abhor a fox, and 

 during the nesting season will, partly from hatred 

 and a little from curiosity, flap over and follow any 

 animal or dog that bears a resemblance to their 

 natural enemy. A red setter is sometimes trained, 

 by circling gradually round, to lead these birds 

 within range of the fowler's gun. Duck, as already 

 remarked in the chapter on Decoys, will in the 

 same way follow a fox, or rather what they suppose 

 to be one. 



I have many times seen Curlews so favourably 

 placed on small level islands in the estuaries of 

 Ireland, that had it been possible to get near 

 enough to put a charge into them, a hundred, at least, 

 would have been killed ; but whether these birds 

 are worth pursuit is, after all, a matter of opinion. 



THE WHIMBREL (Numenius ph&opus) is common 

 to every part of the Irish shores in spring and 

 autumn, and especially so to the westward. During 

 the month of May, when it appears most numer- 

 ously, from which circumstance the bird derives its 

 name of " Maybird," I have seen a score together. 

 I have shot them also in autumn not rarely, but 

 never, to my recollection, near or after Christmas, 

 save, perhaps, a very occasional bird. I have been 

 unable to obtain any evidence of the Whimbrel 

 breeding in Ireland, though I have been always on 

 the look-out for such an occurrence. 



THE GLOSSY IBIS (Ibis falcinellus) is an acci- 



