170 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



stationed hlm^elF on the top of that mound of green moss, and a Ring Ouzel has just 

 sprung from the furze on the brae. See, what U that ? A Hare has sprung from 

 among our feet I ^'o, a Curlew, fluttering along the ground, wounded, unable to 

 escape. Run. She has been sitting; here is the nest in a hollow under shelter of two tufts 

 of heath and a stunted willow. It is composed of dry grass, apparently Eriophora, 

 Eleocharis palustris, Scirpus ccEspitosus, some twigs of heath, and, perhaps, portions 

 of other plants, not very neatly disposed. It is very shallow, and internally about a 

 foot in diameter. The eggs are four, pyriform, excessively large, three inches long, 

 an inch and ten-twelfths across, light oUve or dull yellowish-brown, or pale greenish- 

 grey, blotched and spotted with umber brown, the markings crowded on the larger 

 end. They vary considerably in size and form, some being only two inches and three- 

 quarters in length. Those in the nest before us are of the largest size, very darkly 

 coloured, and so little contrasting with the surrounding objects, that unless the bird 

 had sprung up among our feet, we should scarcely have observed them. 



Far up on the hill-side you hear the loud cry of the Curlew, which is presently re- 

 sponded to from the opposite slope ; in another place a bird commences a series of mo- 

 dulated cries, and, springing up, performs a curved flight, flapping its wings and 

 screaming as it proceeds. Presently the whole glen is vocal, but not with sweet 

 Bounds, like those of the Mavis and the Merle, But it is vain to pursue the birds, 

 for these are the males, and at this season you will find them fully as shy as they were 

 in winter on the sea-shore. Some weeks hence, when the young are abroad, the fe- 

 males, and even the males, will flutter around you, if you approach the spot where 

 tiieir unfledged brood lie concealed among the herbage, and will attempt, by feigning 

 distress) to lead you into a vain pursuit. 



Like all the other birds of this genus, the young are covered with long, stifBsh 

 down, and run about presently after exclusion from the egg, squatting to conceal 

 themselves from their enemies. Up to the age of three weeks they are still unfea- 

 thered ; their forehead, throat, and under surface, yellowish-grey, their upper parts 

 of the same colour, with patches of dark brown; the bill not longer than the head. 

 That organ gradually elongates, as the feathers sprout, and by the end of about seven 

 ■weeks they are able to fly. 



At this season, eld and young feed on insects, larvee, and worms. The latter are 

 very fat, but the former are not in good condition until the middle of autumn, about 

 vrhich period the Curlews unite into small flocks, gradually disperse, and betake them- 

 selves to the shores. Their flesh is delicate and well flavoured, and they are not un- 

 frequently to be seen in our markets. 1 am not aware of any difference produced in 

 the quality of their flesh as an article of food by their change of residence. 



Montagu has given, in the Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, a very in- 

 teresting account of a tame bird of this species. " One which was shot in the wing, 

 ■was turned amongst aquatic birds, and was at first so extremely shy, that he was obliged 

 to be crammed with meat for a day or two, when he began to eat worms ; but as this 

 was precarious food, he was tempted to eat bread and milk like Ruffs. To induce 

 this substitution, worms were put into a mess of bread mixed with milk, and it was 

 curious to observe how cautiously he avoided the mixture, by carrying every worm 

 to the pond, and well washing it previous to swallowing. In the course of a few days 

 this new diet did not appear unpalatable to him, and in a little more than a week he 

 became partial to it, and, from being exceedingly poor and emaciated, got plump and 

 in high health. In the course of a month or six weeks, this bird became excessively 

 tame, and would follow a person across the menagerie for a bit of bread, or a small 

 fish, of which he was remarkably fond. But he became almost omnivorous ; fish, 

 water-lizards, small frogs, insects of every kind that were not too large to swallow, 

 and (in defect of other food) barley with the Ducks was not rejected. This very 

 great favourite was at last killed by a Rat (as it was suspected), after a short life of 

 two years in confinement ; but he had in that time fully satisfied our inquiries into 

 his natural habits. 



An adult male Curlew measures 25 inches in length, 42 from the tip of one wino- 

 to that of the other. The body is ovate and rather full, the legs long and slender, 

 the neck also long, the head rather small, the bill extremely long, measuring six inches ; 

 the tibia bare at its lower end, the tarsus reticulated, the toes rather short, slender, 

 three before, one behind. The throat is very narrow ; the oesophagus very loner and 

 rather slender ; the proventriculus oblong ; the stomach a large and powerful gizzard ; 

 the intestine long, of moderate width ; the coeca rather slender, cylindrical, 4^ inches 

 long. The plumage is moderately full, soft, and blended ; the wings very long, nar- 

 row, pointed, the first primary longest ; the tail rather short and rounded. 



The bill is black, the base of the lower mandible and the basal margins of the upper 

 flesh-coloured. The general colour of the upper parts and neck is light greyish-yellow 

 tinged with red, each feather with a central blackish-brown streak ; the scapulars with 

 serriform yellowish-red spots on the edges; the primaries deep brown, the first five 

 quills unspotted on the outer web, the rest with serriform white spots on the outer, 

 and all with similar large spots on the inner web ; the back white, with narrow longi- 

 tudinal black marks ; the upper tail-coverts barred with black ; the tail white, with 

 twelve brownish-black bands ; the breast, sides, and abdomen, white ; the first with 

 lanceolate spots, the second with spots and bars ; the last tail-coverts with narrow 

 lanceolate spots. 



DIGESTIVE ORGANS OF THE SNAKE-BIRD, 

 In the recently published volume of Mr Audubon's Ornithological Biography, in which 

 are contained numerous descriptions of the digestive and respiratory organs of birds, 

 is the following account of those of the Anhinga or Snake-bird, one of the most in- 

 teresting inhabitants of the lakes and marshes of the Southern States of North Ame- 

 rica. In external appearance and habits, the Snake-bird is very nearly aUied to the 

 Cormorants. The structure of the feet is essentially the same in both genera, as is 

 tiiat of the wings and tail, the latter, however, being more elongated in the Anhinga, 

 in correspondence with the neck. If one might suppose a small Cormorant i-longated 

 and attenuated, with the feet rather enlarged but shurtened, the head diminished in 

 size, and the bill formed on the model of that of a Heron, being destitute of the dis- 



tinct ridge and curved unguis, he would form a pretty correct notion of this bird. 

 Not only is the bill like that of a Heron, but the vertebrae of the neck are very simi- 

 lar to those of that family, and form the same abrupt curvatures betwei^n the seventh 

 and eighth vertebras. But all the other bones are those of the Cormorants and Pe- 

 licans. The sternum in particular is almost precisely similar to that of the Crested 

 Cormorant, so that, without entering very minutely into its description, no diflrerences 

 could be pointed out. 



The lower mandible has a distinct obUque joint at about a third of its length, en- 

 abling it to be expanded to the extent of an inch and a half. The pouch, which is 

 small, is constructed in the same manner as that of the Pelicans and Cormorants; its 

 muscular fibres running from the lower edge of the mandible downwards and back- 

 wards, and a slender muscle passing from the anterior part of the hynid bones to the- 

 junction of the crura of the mandible. The tongue is reduced to a mere oblong knob, 

 one and a half twelfth of an inch in length, and a half twelfth in height. 



The oesophagus, o, 5, is seventeen inches long, exceedingly delicate and dilatable, 

 with external longitudinal fibres, the transverse fibres becoming stronger toward the 

 lower part. Its diameter, when moderately dilated, is one and three-fourths inch at 

 the top, one inch farther down, at its entrance into the thorax nine-twelfths, and 

 finally one and a half inch ; but it may be dilated to a much grea'er extent. The 

 proventricular glands, instead of forming a belt at the lower part of the os'iophagus, 

 are placed on the right side in the formof a globular sac, c, about an inch in diameter, 

 communicating with the cesophagus, 6, and stomach, d. For two inches of the lower 

 part of the oesophagus, a, 6, or at that p irt usually occupied by the proventriculus, the 

 transverse muscular fibres are enlarged, and form an abrupt margin beneath ; on the inner 

 surface there are four irregular series of large apertures of gastric glandules or crypts. 

 The proventriculus itself, c, is composed of large crypts of irregular form, with very 

 wide apertures, and covered externally with mu5cular fibres. The stomach, d, rf, is 

 roundish, about an inch and three-quarters in diameter, with two roundish tendinous 

 spaces, e, and fasciculi of muscular fibres ; its inner coat thin, soft, and smooth. It 

 opens by an aperture a quarter of an inch in diameter into a small sac, y. precise^y 

 similar to that of the Pelican, which has a muscular coat, with a soft, -even, in- 

 ternal membrane, like that of the stomach. The pylorus has a diami^ter of two- 

 twelfths, is closed by a semilunar valve or flap, and is surrounded by a disk of radiat- 

 ing rugae three-fourths of an inch in diameter. The intestine is three feet f jur inches 

 long, its average diameter two and a quarter twelfths, but only one-twelfth at its 

 junction with the rectum, which is three and a half inches long, three-twelfths in 

 diameter. There are no cceca properly so called, but a small rounded termination of 

 the rectum, two-twelfths in length, as in the Herons. 



Many other very curious modifications of the digestive organs of birds are con- 

 tained in this volume, which thus affords subjects for rumination to the system-makers. 

 It is the only example, excepting the first volume of the History of British Birds, and 

 the Description of the Rapacious Birds of Great Britain, of an ornithological work 

 in the English language, containing an account of these organs in the species described. 

 Hitherto the characters of birds have been derived from the colours of the plumage ; 

 but an era has commenced in which systematic ornithology is likely to he improved 

 in a degree of which we can at present form no adequate conception. Since the pub- 

 lication of the works mentioned above, several individuals have adopted the ideas ex- 

 pressed in them, but, as in other instances of a like nature, carefully abstain from 

 making any allusion to the source of their ideas. 



Attractive Qualities of the Starling. — The Starling becomes wonderfully 

 familiar in the house. As docile and cunning as a Dog, he is always gay, wakeful, 

 soon knows all the inhabitants of the house, remarks their motions and a:r, and adapts 



