Curlew. 413 



whom I derived much practical information on the Ornithology 

 of Wilts), told me that he could recollect the time when they 

 were frequently killed here : and others assure me they used to 

 breed regularly in certain districts on the downs. Possibly they 

 may still occasionally do so, as Mr. Im Thurn pointed out in 

 his ' Birds of Marlborough,' showing that they had been reported 

 to breed on the Aldbourne downs, and for which the Rev. A. P. 

 Morres gave corroborative evidence, saying that they had lately 

 nested on the downs within seven miles of Salisbury. Indeed, 

 though I have no positive proof to bring forward, I do not know 

 why this assertion should be questioned, seeing that the 

 habit of the bird is to retire in the breeding season from the 

 coast, and to resort to heathy and mountainous districts ; seeing, 

 too, that N. arquata is still occasionally seen on our downs ; 

 and that it did, though not so regularly as (Edicnemus crepitans, 

 breed in the more retired districts of our Wiltshire downs.* 

 Mr. Howard Saunders says : ' A few pairs in the breeding season 

 may be scattered through Wilts and Hants/ and he adds, ' It is 

 the most wary of all birds, with the keenest sense of smell and 

 sight, and its shrill scream soon spreads the alarm among other 

 fowl.'-f- The Marlborough College Natural History Reports 

 mention eggs taken on Aldbourne Down in 1876, and a 

 specimen taken from the grasp of a hawk, by a keeper, in West 

 Woods in the same year, and one killed on Monkton Down in 

 April, 1877. Major Heneage has a specimen which was killed 

 at Compton Bassett in 1881. Lord Nelson possesses one killed 

 at Trafalgar. Lord Heytesbury's keeper has seen it occasionally 

 on the downs in his district ; and Mr. Grant reports one from 

 Coate, near Devizes, in January, 1862 ; another in December 

 of the same year from Bulkington, and one from Upavon 

 in January, 1864. These are all the records I have now 

 before me of the occurrence of single birds in various parts 

 of the county; but they are only stragglers and by no 

 means regular visitors now. Everybody knows the wild, mourn- 



* Compare Zoologist for 1877, pp. 38 and 106. 



f Fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds,' vol. iii., pp. 501-504. 



