CHAPTER XXXIII 



Curlews These and other birds sometimes remaining on their nests Curved 

 versus straight bills Survivals of ancient type Food of Curlew 

 Farmers' friends Eating eggs Whimbrel Dunlins Variations in 

 form and plumage Garden pets. 



THE Curlew is one of the characteristic birds of most moor- 

 land districts, and breeds, in some numbers, all over the 

 mountains of Merionethshire. Its eggs very often fall a 

 prey to the Crow ; and though, in the first instance, four 

 is the almost unvarying number of a clutch, subsequent 

 nests frequently contain one or two fewer. It thus becomes 

 not uncommon to find a Curlew sitting upon three, or even 

 two eggs, and more than once I have found one incubating 

 only one. In very wet places, the nest is often made upon 

 a raised tuft of coarse grass, or rushes ; in other cases, the 

 eggs are laid in a shallow depression, or scrape, on the bare 

 peat from which the heather has been burnt. In most 

 instances, some sort of attempt is made at a rude lining 

 of grass, but frequently this is entirely neglected. As a 

 rule, the wary nature of the bird prompts it to leave the 

 nest on the first appearance of danger, and this it usually 

 effects by running, with lowered head, taking advantage 

 of every inequality of the ground to keep out of sight. 

 At other times, however, it flies directly from the nest, 

 rendering the finding of it then a comparatively easy matter. 

 Much more rarely it remains upon the eggs, and with head 

 laid flat, and feathers closely compressed, will permit of a 

 very near approach, in the hope that the intruder will pass it 

 by undiscovered. I have, two or three times, stood within a 

 few paces of such a squatting bird, long enough to enable me to 

 take a snapshot of her, and to change the plates in the camera. 

 Golden Plovers will sometimes pursue precisely similar 

 tactics, and very likely most of the members of the family 



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