the hills and moors. Nest-building commences about the end of April, and 

 eggs are laid during the first half of May ; sometimes as early as the last 

 week of April, but this is unusual. The nest is usually placed on a small patch 

 of dryish ground, sometimes in the middle of a tuft of grass, sometimes in a 

 hollow beside a bush of heather, or among the stems of the bog-myrtle. I 

 have found it in a patch of small birch-trees against the trunk of a tree 

 some four inches in diameter; but it is usually in the open, so that the 

 bird has a wide outlook, and can leave the nest when an intruder is still far 

 off. As a rule the Curlews will all rise as soon as an intruder sets foot 

 upon the moor, and fly round and round in circles at some height, uttering 

 their mournful cry, ' ker-wi, iviw-i, wiw-i, wiw.' When the young are hatched 

 their anxiety is most painful, and they will fly close over the ground round 

 the intruder with outstretched wings, or run along the ground. At the nest 

 the male usually rises first, while the female runs swiftly to some distance 

 from her treasure, ere she takes wing. 



The nest is rather slight and very shallow, being a mere depression 

 in the ground lined with a little dead grass, a few sprays of heather, and a 

 dead leaf or two. The eggs laid are four in number, enormously large in 

 proportion to the size of the bird. The ground-colour varies from various 

 shades of olive-green to brownish buff, blotched and spotted with olive-brown, 

 and a very dark brown, and a few underlying markings of grey. I have 

 twice seen eggs of a pale pea-green ground-colour, very faintly spotted with 

 brown and large purple grey undermarkings. The markings are usually fairly 

 equally distributed over the entire surface of the shell, but on some 

 specimens they are chiefly confined to the large end of the egg, and are 

 confluent, forming irregular blotches of colour. On some specimens the 

 markings are large and few in number, and there are occasional markings of 

 a yellowish brown. They vary considerably in shape, a much shorter and 

 rounder egg being often found in a clutch. They are usually pyriform, and 

 vary in length from 2-85 to 2-30 inches, and in breadth from 1-95 to r68 inch. 



Both birds share in the duties of incubation, and only one brood is reared 

 in the year, as far as is known. Young in down are pale yellowish grey, 

 mottled and streaked with dark brown on the upper parts, the bill brown, 

 shading to greyish brown at the base of the lower mandible, the legs and 

 feet slate grey. 



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