Farmers' Friends 265 



of resorting thither, and which are always supposed to be 

 " after grubs and worms." I have taken a handful of 

 wheat from the stomach of one killed under such circum- 

 stances ; and again, in autumn, when the birds were 

 flighting to the seashore, after a day's foray inland, have 

 found, on opening those shot, that some of them had been 

 feeding upon barley. There was never very much of it in 

 any individual bird, but often quite enough from ten to 

 fifty pickles to show that it had not been picked up 

 accidentally with other food. Of course, any grain gathered 

 from the stubbles is, in any case, lost to the farmer before 

 it comes in the Curlew's way ; and it is not for a moment 

 suggested that, on such grounds, the birds ought to be 

 regarded as enemies of the agriculturist. All the Limicol<e, 

 so far as they come upon his land at all, must, on the 

 contrary, be included amongst his best feathered friends. 

 A large portion of their normal food, at all times, consists 

 of various kinds of worms, slugs, and caterpillars, very often 

 just those species which are most apt to do serious damage 

 to cultivated crops. 



Curlews hunt diligently for all sorts of molluscs. I have 

 taken more than twenty of the common Hedge Snail (Helix 

 nemoralis] from the crop of one shot upon the links by the 

 seaside. These snails are swallowed whole, and the shells 

 are comminuted, along with those of small Mussels, Peri- 

 winkles, and the like. The Garden Snail (H. aspersa') is 

 often too large to swallow whole, and is then sometimes 

 broken by repeated dashing upon the ground, or against 

 stones. The Curlew always seems to prefer to bolt its food 

 entire, however, and large specimens of H. aspersa are 

 frequently abandoned after one or two ineffectual attempts 

 to break the shell. The Curlew is one of the few birds 

 which really seriously tackle the common big Black Slug 

 (Arion ater). On the moors, where these are so abundant, 

 I suspect they frequently constitute no inconsiderable item 

 in the bird's daily bill of fare. The grass-feeding caterpillars 

 of several of the Noctuae, the Antler Moth (Char<eas 

 graminis) for example, are, also, often excessively abundant 

 in the Curlew's haunts, and it then does good service to the 



