where the Thick-knee still breeds in tolerable abundance,
I have frequently seen considerable assemblages in early
autumn when the birds were evidently congregating for
departure. As a rule, I have found the Thick-knee very
wary, but it occasionally attempts to avoid observation
by squatting or standing motionless, trusting, no doubt,
to the similarity of its inconspicuous upper plumage to its
surroundings for concealment. From my own experience
I think that this habit is generally adopted on the approach
of a wheeled vehicle or of a person on horseback; and in
Spain, where the bird is very common, I should frequently
have passed solitary individuals if it had not been for
the glistening of their bright yellow irides in the sunlight.
Although these birds are specially addicted to
perfectly bare and open wastes, I have frequently seen
them flushed from plantations of young conifers on the
sands of Norfolk, and Professor A. Newton has recorded
a case in which a pair frequented a spot in a covert of
more than three hundred acres at Elveden, Suffolk, lone
after it had become the centre of a flourishing wood.
The principal food of this species consists of beetles,
snails, mice, slugs, and worms, frogs also are very
favourite morsels, and the birds “ flight ” regularly at
nightfall from their diurnal haunts to the nearest marshy
lands in search of these delicacies. The eggs, two in
number, are laid upon the bare ground, and in colour
so closely resemble their sandy or flinty surroundings
that they are often very difficult to find. A most
interesting account of close observation of a pair of this
species at their nesting-place is given by Mr. A. Trevor-
Battye in a very fascinating work entitled ‘ Pictures in
Prose, etc.’ (Longmans & Co., 1894). This bird feeds
principally at night, and in Spain, when riding by moonlight,
I have frequently been startled by a sudden clamour
of “ Alcaravanes ” passing overhead on their way to their
feeding-grounds. The cry is loud and clear, but to my
ears somewhat mournful and querulous, well in keeping
with the lonely and uninhabited localities so beloved of
our bird. In captivity the Thick-knee thrives well, and
from its semi-confident hesitating manners and extraordinary
speed on foot, with frequent relapses into
complete immobility, is a very attractive denizen of an
aviary. This species is to be met with in suitable localities
throughout Central and Southern Europe and North
Africa during the summer, and very frequently, if not
generally, passes the winter in the countries that border
the Mediterranean. The Thick-knee; though a very
powerful flyer, has but little chance of escape from a good
Falcon, and in my experience seems to be well aware of
this fact, as although it will turn down wind and fly close
to the ground at great speed, it shrieks pitifully, and will
plunge headlong into the first furze-bush, patch of
bracken, or rabbit-burrow that it can reach. I have
kept several of these birds captured in this way alive at
Lilford for considerable periods. In my opinion the
Thick-knee is altogether worthless for the table, but in
Spain there is a tradition (no doubt handed down from
the Moors) that the flesh of this bird if eaten warm
endows its consumer with strong sight and fleetness of
foot.