CURLEW, the name given to several birds allied to the snipes, sandpipers and plovers.
The common curlew (Numenius arquata) of the snipe family, Charadriidae, is about 2 ft. long, drab coloured above, mottled with dark brown, and white beneath. The bill is 5 to 7 ins. long and is curved; the legs are long and the build of the bird slender and graceful. It inhabits most of Europe, breeding on heaths and moors and haunting the mud flats of the sea-shore and estuaries in winter. In Scotland it is called the "whaup." The eggs are laid in a rough nest on the ground ; they are usually four in number and brownish-green with cinnamon markings. The food consists of worms, crustaceans, small molluscs, insects and also berries.
The lesser curlew or whimbrel (N. phaeopus) resembles the last in habits and appearance, but is smaller. Three American species, N. longirostris, N. hudsonicus and N. borealis (the last now extinct) are extremely similar but distinguished by the rufous colouring of the axillary feathers—a feature also characterizing the American godwits (Limosa). The genus Numenius is almost cosmopolitan.
The stone curlew, Norfolk plover or thick-knee (Oedicnemus crepitans) has a sweeter voice. It is a summer visitor to Eng land, where it occurs mainly in the "Breck" country of Norfolk and Suffolk. On the mainland it extends across Europe to N. Africa and India, keeping mainly to the open chalk-country. It is the largest of the plovers and lays its two stone-coloured eggs on the ground. The bill is short, the legs long and thickened on the upper part of the tarsus. The eye is very large. The hind toe is absent, the plumage drab, rendering the bird invisible at a short distance. It feeds on snails, insects, worms, frogs and other small animals. Like its namesake, it is exceedingly wary. Other species are found in Africa, Australia and America. It has a peculiar form of courtship, and strange social dances in autumn. See COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS.