STONE CUELEWS ABOUND THETFORD. 249 



for a few weeks after their arrival. During this period, too, they 

 seem to frequent the uplands by night in preference to the river- 

 side marshland, their querulous notes sounding from all quarters. 

 After this period, when the duties of nidification are in full swing, 

 these birds may be seen following their accustomed lines of flight 

 from the heaths to the river side, generally about two hours after 

 sunset. Stevenson was unable to determine what amount of truth 

 there was in this nocturnal " flighting" to the alluvium, but it is 

 an undoubted habit in this district. Although the Stone Curlew 

 is a bird of extreme wariness, it is possible on Thetford Warren 

 to get within ten yards of flocks numbering from twelve to twenty 

 in the months of May and June. In the * Fauna of Norfolk,' 

 Lubbock says that they were sometimes observed in flocks of 

 from eighty to a hundred prior to their autumnal migration, but 

 personally I have never seen a flock containing more than twenty- 

 five. This may possibly be accounted for by the fact that, whereas 

 in Lubbock's time the country was practically bare, and formed 

 one vast heath, now, by the extensive planting of quick-growing 

 trees, numerous plantations divide the heathland into sections, and 

 it may be that only the birds of these smaller sections at present 

 collect together, where of yore their area was much more extended. 

 These flocks may be seen and heard together in the daytime, but 

 after dark one never hears more than a pair calling together from 

 any one quarter. A commonly accepted idea is that the Stone 

 Curlew is disinclined to utter its note during the day, but is with 

 regard to whistling essentially a bird of the night. In this district 

 they always when disturbed,— whatever the hour of the day, — fly 

 off whistling. Another curious fact may be noticed during a shower 

 of rain in summer. A few minutes after the commencement of the 

 downfall the majority of the Curlews fly down from the upland 

 heaths to the nearest water, where I presume the rain has the 

 effect of driving their food out of its haunts, thus enabling them 

 to more easily capture it. From Knettishall and Stonehouse 

 Heaths, and Thetford Warren and Abbey Heath, these birds fly 

 down to the Little Ouse river, but on the heaths north of Thet* 

 ford — Roudham, Bridgham, Wretham and Croxton — the Curlews 

 invariably fly towards the meres, which are small sheets of water 

 situated in the wildest portion of the Norfolk heathland. This* 

 however, is more noticeable late in the season, in August and 

 September, when they may find greater difficulty in always 



