The Bird Book 



ter it dons a white plumage in order to harmonise 

 with the surrounding snow. 



Always associated with the moors in the breeding 

 season is the Curlew, a bird whose actions on the 

 ground are singularly difficult to study owing 

 to its extreme wariness. Immediately an intruder 

 approaches their nesting haunts, the birds rise 

 and circle high in the air overhead, uttering their 

 wild cries. Even at this distance their out- 

 stretched necks and long beaks make them easily 

 recognisable, while as they rise, you may catch 

 sight of the large white patch on the lower back 

 and rump. The plumage above is brown, be- 

 coming rather more ashy on the neck, with long 

 black centres to the feathers, which thus present 

 a striped appearance ; the under parts are white, 

 streaked with brown. The nest is a mere de- 

 pression in the ground lined with dead grass or 

 leaves, containing, generally, four eggs, which 

 vary from olive green to brownish buff in ground 

 colour, and are spotted with dark green and 

 blackish-brown. 



In the autumn, when their nesting duties are 

 over, large numbers fly off to the sea-shore, where 

 it is, indeed, possible to lie and watch them 

 through field-glasses, stalking solemnly about like 

 Herons, probing the soft sand and mud with their 

 long curved beaks in search of food. The majority 

 of the birds are immature, but in any case the 

 winter plumage of the adults is much paler and 



