mentions their partiality for new plantations made in the
open country, on the improved plan of double-trenching the
soil. The loosened ground affords better means of obtaining
worms and beetles, and the birds appear particularly to
delight in the partial concealment which the young trees
afford in the first year or two. When the trees attain any
size the attraction 'generally ceases, but Professor Newton
states that a pair of birds resorted to a spot in the warren-
ooyert at Elveden, which extends over; more than three
hundred acres, long after it had become the centre of a
flourishing Wood.* The eggs,’generally two in number, are
deposited on the bare grbund; they are pale clayrbrown,
blotched, spotted, and streaked with ash-blue and dark
brown; measuring about 2*1 by 1’5 in. ’ So closely do these
eggs, and also the chicks in their downy covering, assimilate
in colour with the soil and the stones around them, -that
they are both very difficult to find. Eggs have been observed
as late as September.
The large and prominent eye in this ^species indicates1 a
bird that moves and feeds by twilight or later.. Their food
is worms, slugs, and -insects .; they also devour small
mammals, and especially field-mice and;:reptiles.r The* late
Mr. Newcome told Mr, Stevenson that fthe- warreners. found
frogs which had been disgorged by-the Etone-OurlewSfwhen
caught in trap®. Mr,.Selby and- the Rev. L. Jenyns found
the remains of1 large coleopterous; insect®, of thef genus
Garabus., „in the stomach of this, species ; and these beetles,
it will be recollected, do not begin- to- move, aboi^/jfcill the
close of day. Its cry is loud and clear, and on moonlight
nights especially it is frequent, ,
• Denmark, to’which it is,;a rare straggler, appears to-be
the northern’ hmihof the Stone-(Curlew, bnhithroughout
the greater part of the European Continent .if is generally
distributed where the conditions of existence are favourable,
and in”the south.it is to a great extents a resident, throughout
the year, on both sides, and in many of the islands of
tho Mediterranean. In the Canaries alsouit lias been found
*-Stevenson, ‘Birds of Norf&lk^'ip p. 55,
STONE-CURLEW. 229-
breeding, and it visits Madeira. Passing eastward, it is
found plentifully in Egypt, where Mr. J. H. Gurney, Junr.,
observed it perching on the roof of an old building at
Damietta; and Yon Heuglin states that -it is resident as far
south as Assouan, and the coasts of the Red Sea. In the
Somali country our Stone-Curlew is represented by CE. affims,
Riipp., a form which is very closely related to a widely distributed
South African species, (E.-capensis. The range of
the Pabearctic species may be traced through Asia Minor,
Turkestan, Persia, and Sind, in all of which it breeds, down
to Ceylon, where it is found in,.sandy districts throughout
the year, and so far deviates from its northern habits as to
be found in the cinnamon gardens, as mentioned by Mr.
Holdsworth. As a rule eggs laid in these southern counties,
on arid soils, are characterized-by their pale sandy
colour, and in a series they are smaller than^ northern
examples, f Burmah appears, to •-be its limit in-'Southeastern
Asia. " ‘
Only the present species of- Stone-Curlew is known m
the Palsearctic region, but there are .faun other-species or
representative forms in Africa. ,Jn.America ggk bistnatus
ranges from Southern, Mexico to Guiana : a distinct ; form,
,g0ii^erciliaris, occurring in the Peruvian Andes ; and m
Australia the genus is represented by (E% grdllaHm.^ ,^
In the adult bird, the beak4rffiack at ^int,„th^. base
greenish-yellow; the irides golden-yellow; theJjg^of the
head and back of the heck-pale wood-brown,'each fe'ather
with a streak of black if the centre-; from the base of the
upper mandible a - light-coloure# streak passes backward
under the eye to the ear-coverts ; from the base e f^ b | lower
mandible a brown.®treak passes below the light-coloured, one
to the ends>pf the ear-coWerts; the-feathers ,,of the back,
wing-cohorts,' terjaals,- and upper tail-eov,ert§, paie brown,
each feather with a dark brownish-black longitudinal streak
in*.the line of the shaft; wing-primaries almost black, the
first and second with a white patch towards the end; the
tail-feathers with .the basal halves mottled with t^ s h a d e s
. of brown, the third portion white, the ends black; the out