CURLEW. WHIMBREL. 145 



Towards the approach of spring the great flocks which we 

 had seen during winter, apparently thinned and diminished 

 in number, separate into detached bodies, and depart inland 

 to seek a suitable place for nidification. 



On some barren and desolate moor, tenanted by the grouse, 

 the moor harrier, and lizard, the curlew prepares an artless 

 nest on the ground, in a dry tuft of grass or rushes, lined with 

 withered herbage. Sometimes it is formed in a natural hol- 

 low or depression, smoothed by the bird and lined with leaves, 

 where the eggs are deposited, four in number, of a pale green, 

 blotched with brown. During the breeding season these so- 

 litary tracts frequented by the curlew appear replete with 

 animation. From early dawn to the last hour of twilight their 

 incessant screaming, and repeated motion, afford a relief to 

 the otherwise changeless and dull monotony of the scene ; on 

 the nest being approached, the male and female assail the 

 obnoxious intruder with noisy screams, beating at him with 

 quivering wings, and, that failing, run and skulk before, in 

 hopes of decoying and deluding him. 



The male curlew in spring has a habit analogous to the 

 bleating of the snipe, which is usually performed at early 

 dawn. Rising slowly in the air, and sailing in easy flight, 

 and at times rapidly descending, the amorous curlew utters 

 at intervals the loud, shrill, quivering whistle peculiar to the 

 breeding season ; and at daybreak the moving forms of 

 curlew, rendered large and indistinct by the fog, the oft- 

 repeated whistles of many birds on the wing at the same time, 

 the challenging of the mountain grouse, and the hoarse croak 

 of welcome from the raven sailing to its foray in the valley, 

 form one of those little episodes intrinsically so trifling in ap- 

 pearance, but yet replete with such interest, to greet the ob- 

 server of nature. 



Indigenous. 



SPECIES 135 THE WHIMBREL. 



Numenius pheopus. Linn. 

 Courlis corlieu. Temm. 



Maybird. Jack Curlew. Little Whaup. 



THE WHIMBREL, or, as it is more usually termed in Ireland, 

 the Maybird, from its appearing during that month in greater 

 abundance than at any other time, occurs in much smaller num- 

 bers than our common species, and is only to be found upon 



