THE CURLEW. 187 



cedure at high water. This was on a calm day, when a flock 

 of about forty curlews and a few herons closely associated on a 

 floating mass of Zostera marina — an oasis in the desert of waters 

 to them ; — the curlews remained there until the tide had ebbed, 

 continuing all the while to utter their hoarse guttural note. 



A few individuals, chiefly young birds, which did not at- 

 tend the summons of their elders or wiser brethren, and take 

 the flights described, remained behind about the grassy margin 

 of the bay. Being a regular shore-shooter in my juvenile days, I 

 managed, when the tide was full at a particular hour, so as to 

 drive such birds within reach of the fences behind which I was 

 concealed, to make them my victims. "With perhaps a savage 

 pleasure I delighted in such spoils above all others, not only 

 because the curlew is the largest of our edible "waders," but 

 from a feeling of satisfaction that the fallen should never again, 

 by their alarm-note, fright the smaller species from permitting 

 my approach near enough to slay them. In this respect the 

 curlew is the Marplot of the sportsman.* Professor Wilson 

 has inimitably described the boyish feeling when in pursuit 

 of the curlew : — " At first sight of his long bill aloft above 

 the rushes, we could hear our heart beating quick time in the 

 desert ; at the turning of his neck, the body being yet still, our 

 heart ceased to beat altogether — and we grew sick with hope 

 when near enough to see the vvild beauty of his eye."\ The words 

 marked in italics show the acuteness of observation in the author, 

 as admirably as the language does his power " to wreak his 

 thoughts upon expression." The ease with winch the neck is 

 turned whilst the body remains motionless is very interesting 

 to witness. In the expression or " wild beauty of his eye," not 

 one of our birds can for a moment bear comparison with the 

 curlew. 



* The greatest numbers of curlews that I have heard of being obtained on the 

 coast at one shot from a shoulder-gun were twenty and twenty-three : the former 

 killed in Cork harbour; the latter (by night) at the block-house, Carlingford Lough. 

 On the 27th Nov. 1845, eleven curlews, one oyster-catcher, six knots, twelve red- 

 shanks, and about thirtv dunlins were procured by one discharge of a swivel-gun in 

 Belfast Bay. 



t ' Recreations of Christopher North,' vol. i. p. 52, and vol. ii. p. 242. 



