88 
THE STONE CUKLEW. 
tliroTigliout the English counties, in some of the most 
southei'lyand sheltered of ^vhich it may occasionally be found 
throughout the year. The plumage of this species is on 
tlie upper parts light yellowish red, tinged with grey, and 
streaked with blackish bro^vn ; the under parts ai'e light 
yellowish red and Avhite, with dusky streaks. The length 
of the body, with the tail, is about seventeen and a-half 
inches ; it frequents waste lands, conunons, and large cul- 
tivated fields, and lays its two or three yellowish grey, or 
brown spotted eggs, in a slight hollow in the bare ground, 
or turf, or amid gravel or pebbles, wdth the colour of which 
the eggs closely assimilate. Having been found most plen- 
tifully in that county, this bird is sometimes called the 
Norfolk Plover; it is remarkable for its prominent eye, 
which is encircled wdth a bright yellow^ ring. White, in his 
' Natural History of Selborne ' thus records : — ^ On the 27th 
of February, 1788, Stone Curlews w^ere heard to pipe ; and 
on March 1st, after it was dark, some were passing over the 
village, as might be perceived by their quick short note, 
which they use in their nocturnal excursions by w^ay of 
watclnvord, that they may not stray and lose their com- 
panions. Thus we see that, retire whithersoever they may 
in the winter, they return again in the spring, and are, as 
it now appears, the first summer birds which come back. 
Perhaps the mildness of the season may have quickened 
the immigration of the Curlews this year.' These birds are 
seldom seen after the beginning of October. Early in the 
year we have not unfrequently heard the cry above alluded 
to from our home near the river Mcdway, in Kent, but it 
was not a quick short note, but a long-draw^n plaintive 
one, soimding inexpressibly sad and mournful amid the 
gloom and silence of evening ; it seemed to come fi-om 
many quarters at once, like the wailing of lost spirits, and 
was probably uttered by the birds while resting in the 
marshes. 
The foUow^ing account of the habits of this bird, as ob- 
served in France, is furnished by Valmont Bomare : — 
The Great Plover, commonly called the Land Curlew, is the bird 
that is heard in the country in the evening in summer and the be- 
ginning of autumn, and which seems incessantly to repeat the word 
