280 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE, 
Order— LIMICOLvE. 
Fami LY — (Edicnemidce. 
Genu S — CEdicnemus. 
211. CEdicnemns scolopax, Stone-Gurlev. 
Thick-knee. Great Plover. Curlew. Norfolk 
Plover. 
" Till the great plover's human whistle amazed 
Her heart, and glancing round the waste she fear'd 
In every wavering brake an ambuscade." 
TninysotCs " Gerai?it trnd Enid^^ 
A summer visitor, usually arriving in April and departing 
in October, but occasionally remaining throughout the 
virinter in the Isle of Wight. 
On the bare downs and large fields of the Central Hill 
district this bird is, happily, still plentiful, and both old 
and young assemble in large flocks in early autumn before 
migration. 
In the Northern Woodland district, which is unsuited 
to its habits, it is naturally scarce. 
In the New Forest district and in the Isle of Wight 
it is seldom seen except on migration. 
Dwellers in the central portion of the county may still 
repeat the words written by White more than a hundred 
years ago ^ : — " I wonder that the stone-curlew should be 
mentioned by the writers as a rare bird ; it abounds in 
all the champaign parts of Hampshire (and Sussex), and 
breeds, I think, all the summer, having young ones, I 
know, very late in the autumn. Already they began 
Letter xv. to Pennant. Selborne. March 30th, 1768. 
