THE CUHLEW. 
187 
cedure at high water. This was on a calm day, when a flock ~ 
of about forty curlews and a few herons closely associated on a 
floating mass of Zostera marina — an oasis in the desert of waters 
to them the curlews remained there until the tide had ebbed, 
continuing all the while to utter their hoarse guttural note. 
A few individuals, chiefly young birds^ which did not at- 
tend the summons of their elders or wiser brethren, and take 
the flights described, remained behind about the grassy margin 
of the bay. Being a regular shore-shooter in my juvenile days, I 
managed, when the tide was full at a particular hour, so as to 
drive such birds within reach of the fences beliind which I was 
concealed, to make them my victims. With perhaps a savage 
pleasure I delighted in such spoils above all others, not only 
because the curlew is the largest of our edible ^^waders,^^ but 
from a feeling, of satisfaction that the fallen should never again, 
by their alarm-note, fright the smaller species from permitting 
my approach near enough to slay them. In this respect the 
curlew is the Marplot of the sportsman."^ Professor Wilson 
has inimitably described the boyish feeling when in pursuit 
of the curlew : — At first sight of his long bill aloft above 
the rushes, we could hear our heart beating quick time in the 
desert ; at the turniag of his neck, the body being yet still, oui- 
heart ceased to beat altogether — and we grew sick with hope 
when near enough to see the wild beauty of his eye!’^ The words 
marked in italics show the acuteness of observation in the author, 
as admirably as the language does his power to wreak his 
thoughts upon expression."’^ The ease with which the neck is 
turned whilst the body remains motionless is very interesting 
to witness. In the expression or wild beauty of his eye,^^ not 
one of our birds can for a moment bear comparison with the 
curlew. 
* The greatest numbers of curlews that I have heard of being obtained on the 
coast at one shot from a shoulder-gun were twenty and twenty -three : the former 
killed in Cork harbour ; the latter (by night) at the block-house, Carlingford Lough. 
On the 27th Nov. 1845, eleven curlews, one oyster-catcher, six knots, twelve red- 
shanks, and about thirty dunlins were procured by one discharge of a swivel-gun in 
Belfast Bay. 
t ‘ Recreations of Christopher North,’ vol. i. p. 52, and vol. ii. p. 242. 
