70 



MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



succumbing. Gulls were close to my house almost daily, and our 

 Winter visitors, the Fieldfares and Redwings, died in large numbers 

 of starvation. Those birds that were able to brave the frost and 

 snow were never seen to such advantage, at least during my life- 

 time. An African Crowned Crane (Fig. 32) was shot by a 

 senseless idiot, who, in relating the incident to me, humorously 

 remarked that, hearing a peculiar noise, he shot at and hit it, 

 and a Mandarin Duck Drake likewise suffered the death penalty. 

 Both these handsome specimens were undoubtedly birds that 

 had escaped from some large sheet of water, driven from home, 

 perchance, because of the Arctic conditions which prevailed. 



A/// 



FIG. 33. YOUNG STONE CURLEW. 



I am fortunate enough to live in the vicinity of one of the few 

 English haunts of the Stone Curlew, our largest Summer visitor 

 from oversea. This species resorts to large open fields and 

 wastes, where herbage is scanty, and bird life far less conspicuous 

 than in the nearest country lane. It depends upon protection by 

 running, and then squatting with outstretched neck. Remaining 

 perfectly still, as rigid as the countless bleached flint stones so 

 characteristic of its habitat, the bird is only discerned after 

 careful stalking, so nearly does its mottled plumage harmonise 

 with its surroundings. This habit of crouching low and remain- 

 ing still, can be understood when one watches the alert parent, 

 but I have proved that the young Stone Curlew, when only a 



