Curlew

“ The Curlew, when surprised, utters a cry with which most of us, I suppose, are familiar; but when with lowered head it drives away another individual from the feeding ground, it gives expression to its feelings by a low, raucous sound, which again is different from its cry when a Common Gull steals the arenicola that has been drawn out of the mud with such labour. ”

“ Every place was searched, but there was nowhere visible old Stephen Curlew. Days passed on, and strange stories filled the ears of men. One neighbour vowed that he had had a dream or a vision, he knew not which, wherein he saw the goldsmith whirled down the Strand in a chariot drawn by a lion and a tiger, and driven by a half-naked young man, wearing a panther skin, and on his head vine-leaves and ivy. ”

“ It looked like some saline excrescence which had slowly exuded from the brine-soaked rock. On the bar hundreds of white gulls rose and settled as the tide encroached; curlew were running along the foam-splashed shore under the eastern cliffs across the river. ”

“ Geoffrey Bingham, barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, M.A., was engaged with a very serious occupation. He was trying to shoot curlew as they passed over his hiding-place on their way to the mud banks where they feed further along the coast.
Now if there is a thing in the world which calls for the exercise of man’s every faculty it is curlew shooting in a mist. Perhaps he may wait for an hour or even two hours and see nothing, not even an oyster-catcher. Then at last from miles away comes the faint wild call of curlew on the wing. ”

“ I am assured now that it is the stone curlew (charadrius oedicnemus) . Some of them pass over or near my house almost every evening after it is dark, from the uplands of the hill and North field, away down towards Dorton; where, among the streams and meadows, they find a greater plenty of food. Birds that fly by night are obliged to be noisy; their notes often repeated become signals or watchwords to keep them together, that they may not stray or lose each the other in the dark.
The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are curious and amusing in the autumn. ”

“ As we proceed, a splash comes from the river, and some large-winged fly has been sucked under. The night food comes on, and the reach boils. Water-rats, voles, and shrews are busy among the stones searching for insect larvæ, or gnawing the stalks of water-plants. The wafting of wings overhead betokens a curlew flying through the darkness to its feeding ground. The peculiarly lonely wail of the summer-snipe comes down stream, and a teal stretches her neck low over the sand. ”

“ The last deer were browsing along their extreme pastures, some five hundred to eight hundred feet below the precipitous bastions of Maoldhu. Higher than they I saw a circling hawk and three ravens flying slowly against the wind. Then came the unpeopled wilderness, or so it seemed till I heard the wail of a solitary curlew (that spirit of the waste, for whom no boggy moors lie too low and desolate, for whom no mountain-ranges are too high and wild and solitary) , and once, twice, and again in harsh response but faint against the wind, the barking of a hill-fox and its mate. ”

“ During the breeding season, in particular, its harsh cries of alarm resound when the safety of its nest or young is threatened.”
The Long-billed Curlew spends but little time in home building. Its nest consists of a layer of grass placed in any suitable saucer shaped hollow on the ground.
The downy young resemble the adult bird but little. In color they are a pale brownish yellow modified by a trace of sulphur yellow, the under parts being somewhat darker. ”

“ In its habits it is very like the Curlew, picking up its food on the muds and marshes, walking deliberately to and fro, wading through the shallows, and sometimes standing in the water 100 breast-high to sleep. ”

“ The Long-billed Curlew spends the day in the sea-marshes, from which it returns at the approach of night, to the sandy beaches of the sea-shores, where it rests until dawn. As the sun sinks beneath the horizon, the Curlews rise from their feeding-grounds in small parties, seldom exceeding fifteen or twenty, and more usually composed of only five or six individuals. The flocks enlarge, however, as they proceed, and in the course of an hour or so the number of birds that collect in the place selected for their nightly retreat, sometimes amounts to several thousands. ”

“ Common Curlew (Numenius arquata) .—There were flocks of Curlews on the coast of Walney Island and at Ravenglass.
Boot. There were here several pairs of breeding birds about the hills. One pair which I watched for some time had young which could fly quite well. The old birds flew round at a safe distance, very often settling on opposite side of me, keeping just out of sight over the rise of the hill, calling to each other with a soft musical whistle all the time. At another spot a pair were particularly noisy and bold, coming quite close to me, and whistling loudly. ”

“ During a greater part of the year the curlew is a shore-bird, seeking its food on the sand-flats which become covered at high water. When the tide overflows the flats the birds go inland, often to a distance of several miles from the sea, and wait there until the tide turns. ”

“ So soon as the young are able to shift for themselves, both they and their parents resort to the sea-shore or mouths of rivers, from the muddy flats of which they at low tide obtain their living, and, though almost beyond any other birds wary of approach, form an object of pursuit to numerous gunners. While leading this littoral life the food of the curlew seems to consist of almost anything edible that presents itself. ”

“ They fly as steady as a woodcock, answer to a whistle that resembles their note; lay long on their wings, and are a {425} most excellent shot, and at times are delicious eating. The other species of Curlew are in colour and shape exactly like the former, though inferior in size, and differ in their manner of life, as they never frequent the water's-edge, but always keep among the rocks and dry ridges, and feed on berries and small insects. The flesh of this bird is generally more esteemed than that of the former, but they are by no means so numerous. ”

“ The Curlew begins to leave the coast for more or less inland haunts in March, scattering over most of our swampy moorlands and rough higher grounds to breed. The eggs are laid during April and May. The nest is invariably made upon the ground, and consists merely of a shallow cavity, lined with a few bits of withered herbage or dead leaves. Numbers of pairs often nest within a comparatively small area of suitable ground, and should one pair be disturbed, the entire community is soon thrown into a state of alarm. ”

“ When the Curlew flies to that part of the mud-flat which is first exposed by the receding tide, and there associates with others, it does not then do so because it has any interest in its fellows, nor because they serve as an attraction, but because it is constrained by hunger—in other words, the association is determined by accident. ”

“ The curlew is met with by travellers in most parts of Europe, from Iceland to the Mediterranean islands. In Britain their summer residence is upon the large heathy, boggy moors, where they breed. Their food consists of worms, flies, and insects, which they pick out of the soft mossy ground by the marshy pools, which are common in such places. ”

“ The Pratincole, or Swallow-Plover, is a representative of an Old-World family. Its long wings and long legs denote a rapid runner and a rapid flyer, so that it has little trouble in catching its insect food, either in the air or on the ground.
Our inland Stone-Curlew has a call very similar to that of the sea (true) Curlew, but it has a short, straight bill, instead of a long, arched bill. The proper name of the land Curlew is the Southern Stone-Curlew or Stone-Plover. It is the only Australian bird that seems to have the power of varying the color of its eggs. ”

“ One bird only seemed to refuse to alight, remaining up there in the sky, and uttering continually that trilling cry which makes it perhaps the most spiritual of all birds that can be eaten—I mean, of course, the curlew. ”

“ I jumped up, shot the bird as it ran away, and soon had the pleasure of looking at the first authentic eggs of the curlew sandpiper. The bird, which proved to be the female, remained silent throughout; at one time I thought I heard it make a sound like a dunlin, but, as I afterwards saw dunlins close by, I was probably mistaken.
The next news comes from the Russian explorers who wintered on the coast of the Taimyr Peninsula in 1900-1901. In Doctor Walter's posthumous notes he writes that the curlew sandpiper nested in numbers near his winter quarters. ”

“ I cannot from my observation agree with this supposition of the Curlew breeding in the Islands; nor can I agree with the statement made by a writer in 'Cassel's Magazine' for June or July, 1878, that he found a young Curlew in the down on one of the Islands near Jethou, probably from the description 'La Fauconnière.' The writer of this paper in 'Cassel's Magazine' was evidently no ornithologist, and must, I think, have mistaken a young Oystercatcher, of which several pairs were breeding there at the time, for a young Curlew ”

“ My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone curlew, oedicnemus, sends me the following account: 'In looking over my Naturalist's Journal for the month of April, I find the stone curlews are first mentioned on the seventeenth and eighteenth, which date seems to me rather late. They live with us all the spring and summer and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave by getting together in flocks. ”

“ In winter they depart to the sea-side, where they are seen in great numbers, and then live upon the worms, marine insects, and other fishy substances which they pick up on the beach and among the loose rocks and pools left by the retiring tide. The flesh of the curlew has been characterised by some as very good, and of a fine flavour—by others as directly the reverse; the truth is, that, while they are in health and season, and live on the moors, scarcely any bird can excel them in goodness; but when they have lived some time on the sea shore, they acquire a rank and fishy taste.—Bewick. ”

“ As I have nothing of any importance to add, I shall present you with a few extracts, from Wilson and Nuttall, both of whom have had opportunities of observing this species.
“The Short-billed Curlew,” says the former, “arrives in large flocks on the sea-coast of New Jersey early in May, from the south, frequents the salt-marshes, muddy shores, and inlets, feeding on small worms and minute shell-fish. They are most commonly seen on mud-flats at low water, in company with various other waders; and at high water roam 284 along the marshes. They fly high, and with great rapidity. ”

“ For the curlew, for instance, though he knew the common Scots name, Whaup, he had the good name An t-Eun Chaismeachd, ‘the bird of alarm’—how good a name (though perhaps equally applicable to the grey plover, the green whistler, or the lapwing) must be obvious to all who have walked the moorland or travelled the hillside. ”

“ All through the autumn and winter the Curlew continues gregarious. It migrates in vast flocks, and frequently associates with other wild fowl, although it may be that these other and smaller species seek its company to profit by its extraordinary vigilance. Sand-worms, crustaceans, and molluscs form its principal food whilst living on the coast, but in summer, at its breeding-grounds, worms, grubs, insects, ground fruits, and berries are eaten. ”

“ On this coast, as far as I know, the adults of the Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis) arrive first. I merely mention it, as this bird is very closely allied to the Whimbrel (Numenius phœopus) (see Gätke, page 460) . This is also the case with the Hudsonian Curlew.
Judging from the twenty-five years' shooting experience of one of my friends at one of the larger fresh water ponds in Massachusetts, where the shooting of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) has been made a specialty, it appears that they migrate in broods. ”

“ The jack-curlew is a still more wary bird, and although he comes to the stools, rarely pauses over them, and never returns after being once fired at. He is seldom seen in large flocks, and flies rapidly and steadily. His cry is longer than that of the sickle-bill, and, like it, easy to imitate. From his wariness and rarity he is regarded as the greatest prize of the sportsman, although his flesh is little better than that of the sickle-bill. ”

“ On the morrow we kill a dozen birds over the{187} stools, before breakfast, among which are two specimens of the beautiful Esquimaux Curlew or Fute, as he is commonly called, and which seems to be on terms of the closest intimacy with our Golden friend. We find him to be a heavier bird, equally inclined to obesity, and, as future experiments satisfy us, nearly as perfect in delicate richness of flavor. ”

“ The curlew again, a bird of the coast and the northern uplands, is familiar only to those who live near marsh and moor, though its weird, wild clamour, as it passes overhead in the night, is the source of a superstition, which, as “Gabriel’s hounds,” “The Seven Whistlers,” “The Wild Huntsman,” is common to all Northern Europe, and is probably the origin of that fearful wild-fowl that was the “trump of doleful drere,” “the whistler shrill that whoso hears doth die,” to which Wordsworth alludes ”

“ In company with the long-billed curlew and some species of sandpipers it builds its nest on the grassy banks of rivers and ponds, usually in some natural depression. Occasionally, however, the nests are found on moist prairies some distance from a stream. In these grass-lined nests are laid the three or four bright olivaceous, drab or creamy buff eggs that are variously spotted or blotched with varying shades of brown. They are domestic and seemingly devoted to their fellows. ”