134 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



uplands in some great field, or on some large bare 

 piece of sheep feeding-ground ; but very rarely do 

 they get shot, for the curlew's tactics are very 

 puzzling to those who are only accustomed to shoot 

 pheasants and partridges. He is far more trouble- 

 some than profitable as quarry for the gun. Get 

 at a curlew on a bare ploughed field, or on a sheep- 

 walk, if you can. The stone-curlew, the Norfolk 

 plover, or thick-knee, stays on this hill for a time 

 when his season comes. He is as wary as his sickle- 

 billed namesake ; once in three or four years only, a 

 specimen gets shot. This certainly says much for the 

 bird's acuteness. When I first knew this place, years 

 ago, a bittern located in a swamp hollow at the foot 

 of the hill. The bird was not shot ; it was driven 

 out of its covert by the villagers at the foot of the 

 hill, for making the noise that it did at times. 



The whole of this line of country, even at the 

 time of writing this, is intersected by green roads, 

 some of them old highways, long since disused; 

 but the greater portion are green roads or tracks 

 that run over the hills and at the foot of the 

 hills, by the woods and through the woods, over 

 heaths and commons, but always in some dip or 



