2po THE CURLEW 



that their food is just below them so they merely flap to 

 and fro and put up with the inconvenience of being 

 blown about. At any other time they would shoot clean 

 through in the teeth of the gale. Only those who have 

 seen a frightened Curlew go up or down a creek lined 

 with shore-shooters, shrieking as it flies, can form any 

 idea of the bird's swiftness. I have known a bird of 

 this kind "fly the gauntlet" for three miles, and there 

 has been bang ! bang ! bang ! from every shooter that it 

 passed, good shots too. It escaped the lot without being 

 touched. Swift flyers at all times, their ordinary speed 

 is as nothing compared with what it is when they are 

 frightened." 



The Curlew is 24 inches in length. It has a long 

 scythe-shaped bill, a long neck, and long, waders' 1'egs. 

 The plumage is marked with hemp-seed speckling, the 

 specks somewhat elongated, here and there arrow-shaped. 

 Tail white, slightly tinged with brown ; every feather has 

 brown bars. Eye brown. It does not usually nest with 

 us, but is more a spring and autumn visitor ; yet it 

 sometimes happens that a pair of these birds build and 

 rear their young. In its northern home it builds on 

 the ground, on the moorlands. It lays four pear-shaped 

 eggs, as large as those of the farmyard duck, of an olive 

 green colour, with dark speckling. 



