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. They appear to know just when this occurs, however far from the shore they may be, and, rising and calling to each other, set out on their return, to arrive at the exact time when feeding may begin. It is during these journeys to and fro between the sea and the moors that the curlew looks at his best when, seen at a moderate distance, he passes in small flocks, disposed in the form of a wedge, or letter V, his sharp-pointed wings and long, ibis-like beak clearly outlined against the blue sky. To most lovers of nature and wild bird life the voice of the curlew is his principal attraction. He is very loquacious, and his ordinary cry of two notes, from which he takes his name, is singularly clear, far-reaching, and wild in character. His night cries have given rise to some curious and gloomy superstitions in Scotland, where the curlew is called ‘whaup.’ According to Yarrell, the bird is a ‘long-nebbit thing,’ from which the Highlander prays to be delivered, classing it with ‘witches and warlocks.’ In the same work we read: ‘Saxby says that the Shetlanders regard with horror the very idea of using so uncanny a bird as food; in fact, a visitor who did so was afterwards alluded to, almost in a whisper, as “the man that ate the whaup.”’ Long may the ‘long-nebbit things’ continue to exist, to delight and invigorate us with their wild voices! In spring--early in April as a rule--the curlews begin to forsake their feeding-grounds on the sandbanks and go inland to breed; but some unpaired or non-breeding birds remain through the summer by the sea. Wild extensive moors are its favourite summer haunts. ‘Its breeding-range,’ Seebohm says, ‘is similar to that of the red grouse and ring-ouzel.’ Its nesting-place, as a rule, is on the flat and boggy parts of the moor, and the nest is not unfrequently placed among reeds or rushes. The three or four eggs are olive-green, blotched and spotted with dark brown and dusky green. The young birds when hatched have short, straight, plover-like bills. * * * * *