CURLEW. 
323 
appeared to us to be quite a new and unnoticed habit 
amongst the Grallatores or wading birds. One day, ea- 
gerly pursuing a bird of this family, and having searched 
in vain a marsh towards which it had flown, we were 
about to relinquish the pursuit, when, much to our amaze¬ 
ment, we discovered it above our heads, perched upon the 
top of a high tree. So contrary was this to any of the 
habits of this class of birds with which we were then 
acquainted, that we concluded that it must be a species 
unknown to us; we afterwards found it, however, to be 
a practice by no means uncommon with the redshank 
and the greenshank to settle upon trees : and, what sur¬ 
prised us more than all was, to see the long-legged Cur¬ 
lew alight, as it frequently did, on the top of the highest 
trees of the pine forest, and to hear it, as it passed from 
tree to tree, utter its loud, clear whistle. The Curlew 
breeds in April and May, and lays a surprisingly large 
egg, as the present figure, which is rather larger than 
common, will fully demonstrate. 
