STONE -CURLEW. 
3 
Black Crows carried off the eggs. A short and condensed extraet from my notes, taken while eolleeting 
in Sussex in 1872, may possibly give an insight into the habits of this speeies and also draw attention 
to a peculiarity in the formation of the beak of the adult male that has previously escaped the notiee of 
all writers ; — 
“May 10. Drove from Brighton on to the Downs near Ealiner, following the hill-road to Plumpton 
Bostle to the spot where a shepherd had found the nest of a Stone-Curlew^ with tw^o eggs. On carefully 
approaching, the birds rose before w'e came in view' and did not return for some hours ; at dusk I 
was again on the spot, and the male and female a second time got on wdng before w^e w'ere Avithin a 
hundred yards.-- May 11. Again tried my luck at the same pair of birds ; soon after daybreak I crawled 
near the nest Avhile a man walked boldly from the opposite direction to the spot wdiere it wms situated. 
The birds, liow'e\mr, succeeded in getting aivay Avithout being obserAmd, as on handling the eggs they 
were found to be hot, and it Avas impossible they could have been left many minutes. Three hours 
later another attempt Avas made, and I now crept flat down in among the rough grass up to about 
forty yards from the nest, while the man came openly from the opposite direction" This time the male 
bird came running close up to me before detecting danger; so low did he crouch doAvn that he appeared 
no higher than a rabbit while gliding stealthily through the short heather and grass. After obtaining 
this specimen, we constructed a shelter of dead branches, furze, and heather, and I was then concealed 
and watched the place for the return of the female ; a couple of hours later she circled round once or 
twice, and then settled about two hundred yards lower down the hill, but on crawling silently to the 
mark I had taken when she alighted, no signs of her could be discovered. Shortly before dusk she 
again flew past, calling loudly, and after remaining in view for a few minutes took a course aAvay 
toAvards the east and was not seen again. As the darkness commenced, very heavy clouds gathered 
suddenly all round from the north and east and a terrible hailstorm broke over all the country within view. 
ter five minutes the whole expanse of the Downs was covered thick Avith immense drops of hail and 
ice, the lulls appearing as white as if a fall of snow had taken place. The following mornin^ no 
signs of the bird could be detected, and the eggs, having evidently been deserted, Avere taken. The^male 
ird I had procured had two small fleshy protuberances on the base of his beak, somewhat resemblino- 
those of a Pigeon, but rather larger; the female, I remarked, did not show any elevation of this description 
on her upper mandible. On the 13th I learned from the shepherds that three of the CiirlcAvs had been 
met to be 
Another nest or, rather, clutch of eggs, as there is only a scratch in the soil to do service for a 
srurn Tf^l T '' I ^trove over to 
in a fiehl f '''' ^ ^^ecimen. She had selected her quarters 
failureras she'll " -thin range were 
I M I T iT """ """ On the third occasion 
brow of the rfl ' f "SPt over the 
from the effect ’ f ""f 1 ’ ""'i ascertain, never returned to her eggs, having perished 
from th effects of the Avounds received from the charge. Only one bird Avas seen by the men employed 
ascertainer "T remainder of the season, and the eggs^ I 
ascertained on a subsequent visit, were sucked by the CroAvs. 
T'l; **■ ^ »f “ Norfolk 
furth . ^ frequenting some ground about a mile and a half 
further west than the last nest. While proceeding with two or three attendants along the hill-side to 
* llii.-i is the name the keepers gave them. 
