52 



cassell's book of birds. 



is dark brown ; the beak black, with a yellowish grey base to the lower mandible ; and the foot lead- 

 grey. The young have in proportion to their size a shorter beak than the adult birds, thicker feet, and 

 paler markings on the under side 



The Curlews inhabit both hemispheres, and breed principally in the northern portions of the 

 globe, appearing regularly in Central Africa and India during the course of their migrations. According 

 to Von der Muhle, they are occasionally seen in Greece and Spain throughout the year, but these are 



'4 ' ' iV f }\ ,"■-- 



the scooping avocet {Rcatrvirostra avocella). 



probably young stragglers that have not commenced breeding. In Great Britain these birds frequent all 

 parts of the coast, feeding at low water, on worms, insects, and small crustaceans, left by the retiring 

 tide, and visiting the adjacent fields when those feeding-places are covered. At the end of March or 

 beginning of April they leave the shore and seek the higher moorlands to pair and rear their young. 

 The Common Curlew, according to Jardine, "is entirely an inhabitant ot upland moors and pastures 

 during the breeding season, and in the soft and dewy mornings of May and June forms an object 

 in their early solitude which adds to their wildness. At first dawn, when nothing can be seen but 

 rounded hills of rich and green pasture rising one beyond another, with perhaps an extensive meadow 

 looking almost boundless through the shadows and mists of morn, or a long string of sheep marching 



