260 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
still or walking slowly is very upright in attitude, 
but when it runs swiftly it has the neck and head 
much thrust out in front. It will also squat close 
to the ground, with the neck in the same attitude 
and pressed to the soil. At close quarters the 
plumage is seen to be medium mottled brown on 
the back, and buff streaked with brown on the 
breast and head. The head is large and the eye 
very large and yellow ; the name of "Thick-knee" 
refers to a characteristic enlargement of the knee- 
joints, which is not always, however, very con- 
spicuous in old birds. The Stone Curlew may 
often be seen in flocks and parties, especially near 
migration time in April and September ; the eggs 
are sometimes laid by the middle of April, but 
usually about the beginning of May. The nest is 
never more than a slight hollow pressed in the dry 
soil, and often the eggs are simply laid among the 
flints which thickly cover the arable fields on the 
downs. When laid on the open turfy expanses 
they are generally in one of the small broken 
patches of earth and stones. They are brownish- 
buff in ground colour, spotted and streaked with 
medium brov/n, and sometimes with ash-grey ; two 
is the usual number, but there are occasionally 
three, as in the nest depicted in the frontispiece, 
which was found on the South Downs. The colour 
of the eggs, as well as of the old and nestling 
