4 BIRD WATCHING 



Also, if I sometimes here record what has long been 

 known and noted as though I were making a dis- 

 covery, I trust that this, too, will be forgiven me, for, 

 in fact, whenever I have watched a bird and seen it 

 do anything at all — anything, that is, at all salient — 

 that is just how I have felt. Perhaps, indeed, the 

 best way to make discoveries of this sort is to have 

 the idea that one is doing so. One looks with the 

 soul in the eyes then, and so may sometimes pick 

 up some trifle or other that has not been noted 

 before. 



However this may be, one of the most delightful 

 birds (for one must begin somewhere) to find, or to 

 think one is finding things out about, is the great or 

 Norfolk plover, or, as it is locally and more rightly 

 called — for it is a curlew and not a plover* — the 

 stone-curlew. These birds haunt open, sandy wastes 

 to which but the scantiest of vegetation clings, and 

 here, during the day, they assemble in some chosen 

 spot, often in considerable numbers — fifty or more I 

 have sometimes seen together. If it is early in the 

 day, and especially if the weather be warm and sunny, 

 most of them will be sitting, either crouched down 

 on their long yellow shanks, or more upright with 

 these extended in front of them, looking in this 

 latter attitude as if they were standing on their 

 stumps, their legs having been "smitten off" and 

 lying before them on the ground. Towards evening, 

 however — which is the best time to watch these birds 

 — they stand attending to their plumage, or walk with 

 picked steps in a leisurely fashion, which, with their 

 lean gaunt figure, sad and rusty coloured, and a 

 * I understand Professor Newton to say this. 



