THE FAMILY OF WADERS. 253 



the nets. So close to them have I been that my 

 glass has not been needed. This was in past years, 

 when that part of the swale was seldom visited ; for 

 the grass grew rank in the main streets of our old 

 fishing borough, that lay as though sleeping, wrapped 

 in a shimmering haze of the autumn. 



The whimbrel, half curlew, or, as he is more fre- 

 quently called, jack-curlew, is very like his larger 

 relative in his habits and food, and quite as wary I 

 have found him to be. There is about the same 

 difference in size between them as there is between 

 the full snipe and the jack-snipe, hence the name of 

 jack-curlew. 



Curlews allow themselves to be blown or drifted 

 only when waiting over some favourite feeding- 

 ground, before the tide has left sufficiently for them 

 to feed. I have watched mobs of them, repeatedly, 

 waiting for the tide, when a heavy gale has been 

 blowing. The birds know that their food is just 

 below them, so they merely flap to and fro, and put 

 up with the inconvenience of being blown about. At 

 any other time they would shoot clean through, in 

 the teeth of the gale. Only those who have seen a 

 frightened curlew go up or down a creek lined with 



