THE CURLEWS. 
321 
quarters. The distant alarm-note of another Curlew puts it on 
the alert, and generally it rises at once, with startling cries, 
warning in its turn all its kindred that may happen to be in 
hearing of its call. In the course of feeding, either on the up- 
land marshes or on the shore, the bill is often thrust for a con- 
siderable distance into the ground ; and this long bill, ill-adapted 
as it may seem for the purpose, can readily secure a passing 
insect, or pick one adroitly from the water or from a grass- 
stem. 
“ In summer the food of the Curlew is principally composed 
of worms, insects and their larvae ; and on the moors the birds 
vary their diet with the fruit of the whortlc-bcrry and crow-berry. 
In winter its food is more varied, and consists of sand-worms, 
small crustaceans and shells, litt'e crabs, &c. In the stoma'chs 
of birds shot at their winter quarters the shoots of grasses and 
fragments of leaves have been found. At the nest the Curlew 
has two perfectly distinct notes or whistles. The well-known 
kerr-Ice is the call-note ; and the other, which may be expressed 
as it'hv i-wiw-i-wiw, is as uncjuestionably the alarm-note. It is 
said that it has a third note, resembling whence its trivial 
name of ‘ Whaup ’ ; but that is a note with which I am entirely 
unacquainted.” 
Nest.— A slight depression in the ground or in a tuft of grass, 
lined with a few deail leaves or dead grass. Mr. Robert Read 
writes to me : — “ The Curlew usually nests in wild open moor- 
lands, but I have also found its eggs in a grass meadow. It 
is also fond of nesting on tree-less islands covered with grass 
and heather.” 
Eggs. — Four in number, somewhat large for the size of the 
bird. Mr. Read says : — ■“ The eggs are usually of the well- 
known pyriform shape common to the Limicohe., but some- 
times one gets them quite round, and at others very much 
elongated, like those of the ColymbidiT.. The colour varies from 
an olive stone-grey to a light olive-brown, or even greenish- 
olive. The markings are brown, nearly always prominent, 
sometimes distributed over the entire egg, and mixed with 
light grey underlying markings, while at other times the mark- 
ings become confluent and form blotches, continuous round 
the larger end of the egg. More rarely the markings con- 
