THE CURLEW. 195 



The cry of the curlew is by far the loudest uttered by any 

 of our grallatorial birds. It will perhaps be scarcely credited 

 that it can be heard at the distance of nearly three English miles ; 

 yet, under peculiar circumstances, such is the case. I have heard 

 it so on calm moonlight nights, when, at the extremity of the bay 

 at Holywood warren, awaiting the flight of these birds from Har- 

 rison's Bay and Conswater, whence the flowing tide would drive 

 them from particular banks respectively about two and three 

 miles distant from my station. The call from the first-named 

 locality sounded quite near, and from the latter distinct, though 

 much more faintly ; the state of the tide at the time evincing, 

 with certainty, that all the banks, except the two alluded to, were 

 covered too deeply with water for the birds to be on them. The 

 shore-shooters are well aware of this circumstance."* 



As remarked in St. John's ' Egypt:' — "The Arabs are an 

 inventive and poetical people. They know, after their fashion, 

 how to explain everything. Even the cry of the curlew, which 

 they call Karravjan, has, they say, a solemn meaning when trans- 

 lated into human language. Impressed with a due sense of the 

 power and majesty of the Creator, this bird, in its solitary flight 

 among the rocks, thus addresses the Deity : — LaJc, lak, lak, la 

 shariah Kalak, fi'l mulk ; that is, c To thee, to thee, to thee 

 belongs the sovereignty of the world, without partner or com- 

 panion V " (vol. i. p. 344.) 



* Respecting the distance from which we may hear birds, the Rev. L. Jenyns 

 remarks: — " I have at such times [the air still and frosty] distinctly heard two 

 cocks calling to one another from two different homesteads, situate a mile and a half 

 or more apart." (Observations in Nat. Hist., p. 170.) 



Mr. Blackwall, too, has observed that the hooting of the tawny owl may be heard 

 to the distance of a mile, or even two miles, under very favourable circumstances. 

 (Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. xv. p. 167.) 



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