1 20 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



feel disposed to class these individuals as indigenous 

 to our country, but rather as lost and wandering 

 birds from continental localities. Be all this as it 

 may, the Stone Curlew visits us in spring to breed, 

 arriving in April, and returns south in autumn, 

 leaving in October. Its large eyes (bright yellow 

 in colour) betoken it to be a nocturnal bird, and 

 during the night it obtains most of its food. It 

 then often wanders far from its dry parched native 

 heath, and visits more marshy spots, especially 

 arable lands and wet meadows; sometimes lingering, 

 both in going and returning, to fly about the air 

 uttering its loud and plaintive cry. The Stone 

 Curlew seems to be fully alive to the fact that the 

 safest hiding-place is often the most conspicuous 

 and open one. In this matter it resembles the 

 Missel-thrush, which often builds in safety its bulky 

 nest in such an exposed spot that we marvel after- 

 wards (when the young are fledged and gone) how 

 it could have escaped notice. Acting on this 

 principle the Stone Curlew, in May or June, lays 

 its two eggs side by side upon the barest of ground, 

 and where their tints and markings so closely re- 

 semble the yellow stones and pebbles scattered 

 around them that discovery is extremely difficult. 

 The sitting bird renders the deception more com- 

 plete by running from the eggs at the least alarm 

 and leaving them to that almost perfect safety that 



