aeonstimuli feeding-ground at daybreak, before the Gulls had arrived un the scene, that I was enabled
to obtain a shot. The proceeding* of several of I lie Larida* were decidedly eccentric; about half a dozen
Black-headed as well as two or three Common Gulls appeared to he fascinated in some strange manner by
the sight of the conspicuous visitor to their haunts. If utter sweeping arouud, screaming loudly, their
outcry failed to put the object of their solicitude on whig, they would pitch down on the mud a few
yards distant and remain for n time intently gazing, evidently either amazed or awe-struck by the large
while binl. A Book or two would occasionally join in the general commotion, though the Black-headed
(lulls were by fur the most vociferous among the disturbers of the peace. Spoonbills being at that date
frequently seen on Breydon niudllats, the behaviour of these noisy and meddlesome (.lulls was somewhat
unacciunliable. As they also " a e o b " ' the Ospreys which appear over the flats at the same time of
year, their conduct is, however, not so remarkable, any large and conspicuous stranger in all probability
attracting attention and raising their auger when intruding on their accustomed haunts.
The male Spoonbill figured on the Plate was shot on Breydon niudllats on the 11th of May, 1873;
and a few words taken from my notes with reference to this handsome stranger may not be out of
place. I was informed that the bird had first made bis appearance on the Hats near the main cbauuel
suon after midday on the 12th, and several gmiuers had immediately started after him, but without
success. I had left the harbour early in the afternoon in a steamboat, to make observations on
the llocks of Wilder* passing along the coast outside the sands, and we had failed to notice the signals
of one or two men with whom we were acquainted, who had attempted to draw our attention while
passing out to sea between the piers. On the 13th (wind north-east, cold and strong) we were up
the water by 3 A.M. ; the bird, which had already left the flats for the marshes, had bean seen by
one of my puntmeu, but there wns not sufficient light for him to discern where it had settled;
although we remained on the watch till dusk, no signs of our visitor could bo detected. Just before
daybreak on the 14th, the weather at the time being rough with frequent squalls of cold wind and rain
from the north-east, we arrived at " Bessies drain" just before daybreak, and as soon as the light was
sulhciently strong wo detected the Spoonbill flying over in a linn from the south marshes. He first
attempted to alight on the upper part of the tlats; but the Gulls gave him no peace, both large and
small combining to drive olT the stranger into the north marshes. After a short interval, however, he
returned and pitched with some Herons near the centre of the flats. He was now within fifty yards
of where 1 had shot a Spoonbill two years before, and there was every chance of making a successful
shot; hut before we were within range he was disturbed by a small Gull which kept swooping duwn
and hovering over with loud cries. He next pitched near the cent™ of the lower Hats; although well
mobbed by the GulLs, he utterly disregarded their noisy attacks, and we were enabliil to work up to
within about eighty yards before he rose and was knucked down as dead as a stone by a flying shot
from the punt-gun. This bird proved to ho a fine male, weighing 4 lbs. 1 oz., with a good crest, but
not quite so darkly marked with orange as some specimens I bare examined; the tuwny colour,
however, fades soon after dealb, and a stuffed bird gives but a faint idea of the richness of the tints exhibited
during life. The larger Gulls appeared to fly at this bird more from curiosity than auger, as after hovering
over him for a while they usually settled down and commenced feeding close at hand; the smaller Gulls,
Common and Black-headed, were by far the most active of his persecutors. We afterwards ascertained that
the bird bad first been seen on the 10th, when a puut-guuner, who kept the information to himself, had
attempted three linn's to approach within range; but the numbers of Gulls collected about the muds would
not allow the bird to rest sufficiently long, and at length drove him right off the flats.
C U R L E W.
NUMENIUS JRQUATA.
Tnr.iiE are few Waders or shore-birds so well known all round our coasts as the Curlew; from north to
south nad from east to west it is numerous—a resident during summer on many inland moors anil hill-sides,
and n visitor, cither constant or occasional, to almost every niudflat or harbour of any extent.
Though there are, as we learn from the pages of the various writers on British birds, several breedingstations
of Ibis species In both the southern, midland, and northern counties of England, it is only in the
Highlands that I have, up to the present, met with a chance of closely observing their habits during the
summer mouths. In almost every glen I have explored to the north of the Tay the Curlew may he found
nesting in larger or smaller numbers. In certain localities, such as the sloping bill-sides between the Tay
and Loch Bannocb, and again in the flat country to the north of Loch Shin in Sutherland, as well ns in other
districts loo numerous to mention, these birds frequent the open moorlands. They arc, however, but little
less plentiful in many parts of the valley of the Spey, where the ground is either well timbered or still littered
and strewn by the jagged and broken stems of the npidly di-caying pines uprooted by the terrible gales that
some years back swept over this part of the Highlands •. Many of the spots in Strath Spey, where there birds
resort during summer, arc simply clearings of a few acres in the forests ; and it is no uncommon nee una nee to
observe one or both of the pair w lieu startled from the vicinity of their nest, after Hying screaming round for
several minutes, settle nt last on the bare and weather-beaten limbs of some old and rotten stump, or even
at times on the waving boughs of a young and vigorous sapling.
When its quarters are seldom invaded and the flocks have beam for a lime allowed to rest in pi-ace, the
Curlew is by no means the wary and restless bird that so often, mi the mudflats uf the southern and eastern
coasts, gives warning of the npproacl.ing guilder to all the surrounding fowl. Some yean ago I mined a
punt to a muddy salt-water estuary iu the north where the shooting had been strictly preserved for years, I
had not the slightest wish Tor useless slaughter, and while sculling quietly among the unsuspecting Waders
and Wildfowl, was i cabled in three or lour days to gi:u .. gie.itci ins ..bt nto '.heir l.aluts and act.e'n than
could posiibly have been acquired liy any aaaoaat of indiscriminate shooting. The Curlews were perfectly
unsuspicious of danger, and but one or two would occasionally halt and quietly regard the pint fora few
moments as, dropping silently past on the tide or grounded on the flats, 1 closely scanned their ranks with
the glasses
These birds are apparently far less sociable than many of the Wader family. Though Buck. Wlgeoa, and
Gulls were not un frequently carried by the tide, or even occasionally settled down in close proximity to the
• Tlir miilii.n fury of ono of Iho hiirriranw. that brnughl about iliii delimit ion mnj b* juilrfil ft™ the accmiiit I rccebed from an nbl native