128 
COMMON CURLEW. 
become very familiar in a few days. Montagu gives the 
following account of one that was shot in the wing, 
and became very docile : *' It was," he says, " turned 
amongst aquatic birds, and was at first so extremely 
shy, that he was obliged to be crammed with meat 
for a day or two, when he began to eat worms ; but 
as this was precarious food, he was tempted to eat 
bread and milk like Ruffis. To induce this substitu- 
tion, v/orms were put into a mess of bread mixed with 
milk ; and it was curious to observe how cautiously 
he avoided the mixture, by carrying every worm to 
the pond, and well washing it previously to swallow- 
ing. In the course of a few days this new diet did 
not appear unpalatable to him, and in little more 
than a week he became partial to it, and from being 
exceedingly poor and emaciated, got plump and in 
hiffh health. In the course of a month or six weeks 
this bird became excessively tame, and would follow 
a person across the menagerie for a bit of bread, or a 
small fish, of which he was remarkably fond. But 
he became almost omnivorous ; fish, water-lizards, 
small frogs, insects of every kind that were not too 
large to swallow, and (in defect of other food) barley 
was not rejected. This bird was at last killed by 
accident, after a confinement of two years," 
