306 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



using great caution, a good shot may sometimes be made. These 

 birds are among the very last of the water-fowl to leave the coast in 

 spring ; therefore the sport of curlew-shooting lasts longer than that 

 of any other fen-fowl. 



Curlews which feed chiefly on the oozes and marshes of salt-water 

 rivers are very good eating; but those which feed far inland in 

 ploughed fields and fresh-water meadows are not so palatable. 



The curlew was anciently esteemed by the gourmet as the finest- 

 flavoured water-fowl in the land ; and, as it was supposed to feed 

 after the manner of woodcocks, which were erroneously imagined to 

 obtain their subsistence entirely by suction, it was pronounced by 

 Piers as the cleanest flesh of birds. 



There are abundant records of the high estimation in which the 

 curlew was held during the fourteenth century, when the heron, 

 from its superior size, majestic proportions, and notoriety as the 

 falconer's most distinguished quarry, was first in order at all principal 

 feasts : still it would seem that the curlew was the greater luxury, as 

 the prices paid for it were equal to those of the heron,* and higher 

 than those of any other wild-fowl. 



In the account-book of Robert JBenett, Bursar of the Priory of 

 Durham, from Whitsuntide, 1530, to Whitsuntide, 1534,f are 

 entered (inter alia), as purchased : " 1 curlew, 3d. ;" " 3 curlews et 

 1 whympernel, 13d." The prices of other fowl were less j but a 

 Barnacle goose was 3d. 



A strange and erroneous notion once prevailed that the curlew fed 

 on poisonous seeds,! and that its flesh was, in consequence, not good 

 for food. But in opposition to the authority of Batman, the very 

 contrary appears from the extract already quoted from the Northum- 

 berland Household Book, which must have been compiled about the 

 same age as that in which Batman wrote. 



The whimbrel, or little curlew, is less difficult to shoot than the 

 other, because not so wary. 



The stone curlew, or great plover, is altogether an upland bird, 

 feeding in turnip and fallow fields, therefore not a subject for these 



* " Item : Kyrlewes to be hadde for my Lordes own mees at pryncipall feestes 

 and to be at xij a pece. Northumberland Household Book. Tenvp., Hen. VIII. 



t Printed for the Surtees Society, 1844. 



" Cotnrnix is thought to feede on venemous seedes, and therefore not to be 

 very wholesome." Batman vppon Bartholome. 



