Curlews 263 



may occasionally do the same. I have seen both the Oyster- 

 catcher and the Ring Dotterel attempt to escape observa- 

 tion by remaining crouched upon their eggs, on a bare, 

 gravelly beach, and once stooped down and actually caught 

 that shiest of birds, a Redshank, upon her nest. The 

 Common Sandpiper generally flies, or runs, off before she is 

 too nearly approached, but will often sit quite close ; the 

 Snipe generally remains till she is flushed at one's foot, but 

 not always ; and the same applies to the Woodcock, which 

 sometimes attempts to steal away unobserved, as she can 

 generally do, easily enough, in the thick covert she usually 

 frequents. A Dunlin sometimes sits close, but as frequently 

 runs away ; a Greenshank often sits close, even on quite 

 bare ground. 



The Curlew is Y gylfinhir^ or Gylfinog^ here, sometimes 

 Glofeinin, i.e. gylfin-, gylf-, or Clyfin-hir = " long beak." 

 Passing the winter on the not far distant seashore, it is 

 liable to appear round Bala Lake at almost any time, but 

 comes back to the hills, in force, about the end of February, 

 or the beginning of March. Throughout the summer, and 

 autumn, little flocks may often be seen round the shores of 

 the lake. The eggs are seldom laid before the end of April. 

 On 7th May, one was picked up, on Bwlch-y-groes, without 

 a shell. Newly hatched young may be found at any time, 

 from the middle of May, till well on in July. The 

 accompanying illustration is from one of several seen on 

 2ist May. As the photograph illustrates, the bill is, at 

 first, quite short and plover-like ; when the bird is half 

 grown, it does not generally exceed an inch-and-a-half in 

 length, and for a week or two it shows little or no dis- 

 position to curve downwards. Why it should be curved 

 at all is a problem not easily solved. In feeding upon 

 soft ground, the bird will repeatedly bury its bill in the 

 mud, right up to the feathers, in order to reach its food ; 

 and that a straight bill is a much more effective instrument 

 for such dibbling work becomes painfully evident when 

 two such birds as a Curlew and an Oystercatcher are kept 

 together, tame, in a garden. When the ground is very soft, 

 after rain, the former is able, to some extent, to probe the 



