96 BRITISH BIRDS. 



long before it is observed, and it resembles so much the colour of its sur- 

 roundings that it is almost invisible until it takes wing. Its feeding- 

 grounds on the moors are in marshy spots, near the dark-brown peaty 

 pools, where rushes grow so thickly as to hide it from view, or by the side 

 of the little trout-streams that dance and dash along over the heath. Here 

 its actions and mode of progression are very similar to those on the shore : 

 it probes the marshy soil in search of food, and explores the surrounding 

 herbage for a similar purpose ; every now and then it raises its long neck 

 above the vegetation, looking warily around, as if scenting danger from 

 afar, ready at the least alarm to fly hastily away to safer quarters. The 

 distant alarm-note of another Curlew puts it on the alert ; and generally 

 it rises at once, with startling cries, warning in its turn all its kindred that 

 may happen to be within hearing of its call. In the course of feeding, 

 either on the upland marshes or on the shore, the bill is often thrust for a 

 considerable distance into the ground ; and this long bill, ill-adapted as it 

 may seem for the purpose, can readily secure a passing insect, or pick one 

 adroitly from the water or from a grass-stem. 



In summer the food of the Curlew is principally composed of worms, 

 insects, and their larvae ; and on the moors the birds vary their diet with 

 the fruit of the whortleberry and crowberry. In winter its food is more 

 varied, and consists of sand-worms, small crustaceans and shells, little 

 crabs, &c. In the stomachs of birds shot at their winter-quarters the 

 shoots of grasses and fragments of leaves have been found. At the nest 

 the Curlew has two perfectly distinct notes or whistles. The well-known 

 kerr-lee is the call-note, and the other, which may be expressed as 

 wiw-i-wiw-i-wiw, is as unquestionably the alarm-note. It is said that it 

 has a third note, resembling wha-up, whence its trivial name of " Whaap " ; 

 but this is a note with which I am entirely unacquainted. 



Naumann describes the Curlew as passing through North Germany on 

 migration in much greater numbers in autumn than in spring. They 

 migrate both in large and in small flocks, and both during the day and on 

 moonlight nights. The spring migration occurs during April and lasts 

 into May, a few barren birds being even occasionally seen in June. The 

 latter are seen returning as early as the middle of July ; birds of the year 

 pass through early in August ; whilst the adults are not seen until the latter 

 half of that month. In our islands the Curlews quit the coast at the end 

 of March or beginning of April : the flocks break up in pairs, retire to their 

 inland breeding-places, and scatter themselves over the moors. The eggs 

 are generally deposited in May, and fresh ones may be obtained during that 

 month. In early seasons they are sometimes laid during the last half of 

 April. The nest is usually made on some patch of dry ground, often on a 

 thick tuft of cotton-grass or under the shelter of a little bush or tuft of 

 heather : more rarely it is made on the rough fallow land, beside a large 



