SCOLOPACID.E. 371 



many as three are killed before they take themselves 

 off." I should think this method might be prose- 

 cuted with considerable success about Burnham, as 

 there are many facilities for hiding and a great many 

 Curlews, and with the help of a breech-loader more 

 than three might probably be bagged at a time. 

 Why the Curlews attack the fox-like dog so 

 vigorously is perhaps somewhat doubtful ; but Mr. 

 Power, the author of the paper in the 'Zoologist' 

 which I have quoted, says the fishermen account for 

 it by supposing that foxes are common in the places 

 where they breed, and that therefore they have good 

 cause for their apparent anger and aversion. 



The food of the Curlew consists of worms, slugs, 

 small Crustacea and most of the insects that occur 

 by the water-side and in the moist places which 

 these birds frequent. When they retire inland to 

 their breeding-stations they are said to feed upon 

 bilberries, whortleberries and the like, also upon 

 blades of grass and the slender tops of other 

 vegetables, besides lichens and twigs : small pebbles 

 are generally found in the stomach.* Montagu says 

 of one that he kept tame that it became almost 

 omnivorous, eating fish, water lizards, small frogs, 

 insects of every kind that were not too large to 

 swallow, and in default of other food it would eat 

 barley with the Ducks. 



* Meyer's ' British Birds,' vol. iv., p. 194. 



