THE STONE CURLEW OR THICK-KNEE 13 



about a sitting Stone Curlew and never a feather be 

 touched. A sheep could nibble close to a bird, so 

 close that the bird would give it a gentle peck or a 

 flirt with its wing as a warning to walk round it ; but 

 a shepherd's dog would not get near the nest, for 

 the birds know the difference. 



In favourable situations, with a glass, you may- 

 get a good view of them for a short time, but not 

 for long : the bird stands high on its legs, and it 

 holds its head up at times in spite of its skulking 

 habits ; those bright eyes do not miss much. Even 

 as you look something causes the bird to spring up 

 and flight it. Important facts have been discovered 

 by accident, and similarly some of my own most 

 valued insight into bird-life has been gained in that 

 way. After weary walks and the most patient 

 watching, one almost stumbles over the creature 

 when one is not looking for it or even thinking 

 about it ; and in the most unexpected places too, 

 where you would never have dreamed of looking 

 for it. 



Here is a bare place, where turf has been 

 pared some time or other, long enough ago for 

 tuffets to besprinkle and for a few flints to crop 

 up ; for directly the turf is off flints begin to 

 "grow," as the rustics term it; that is, they show 

 above the soil. If the almost imperceptible move- 

 ment of what looks like a flint had not caught our 

 eye, we should have missed seeing a couple of 

 young Thick-knees. Our footsteps over the elastic 

 turf had not been heard by them, and when we 



