The only British example of the genus is the Great Howe It has all the upper parts of a reddish ashy-brown, with a longitudinal dash on the middle of each feather ; space between the eye and the bill, throat, belly, and thighs, pure white ; neck and breast slightly Mr. Keith Abbott ; and the localities attributed to it by M r. Gould are Europe and Africa, but not India. (' Zool. Proc.,' 183 4.) Col. Sykes however had previously recorded it among the birds of the Deccan : at least he says "there is no visible difference between the Dukhun and British species." (' Zool. Proc.,' 1832.) If it be the Charadrius Kerrari of Hasselquist, which Linnaeus and most authors suppose it to be, that traveller describes it as inhabiting Lower Egypt, near the sepulchres, and in the deserts. In Britain it arrives early in the spring. The following is the earliest period recorded by White:— "On the 27th of February, 178S, Stone Curlews were heard to pipe ; and on March 1st, after it was dark, some were passing over the village, as might be perceived by their quick short note, which they use in their nocturnal excursions by way of watch-word, that they may not stray and lose their companions. Thus we see that retire whithersoever they may in the winter, they return again early in the spring, and are, as it now appears, the first summer birds that come back. Perhaps the mildness of the season may have quickened the emigration of the curlews this year." They are seldom seen after the beginning of October; but Markwick states that ho received on the 31st January, 1792, a bird of this species which had been recently killed by a neighbouring farmer, who said that he had frequently seen it in his fields (Sussex) during the former part of the winter. This, perhaps, adds Markwick, was an occasional straggler, which, by some accident, was prevented from accompanying its companions in their migration. As the autumn advances, these birds collect into flocks, soon after which they leave this country. Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, and Hampshire seem to be the favourite counties of the Stone Curlew ; but it occurs, though rarely, in the Yorkshire Welds, higher than which it does not seem to go in these islands. Mr. Selby says that he never met with it or heard of it in the more northern English counties, nor in Scotland. It does not occur in Mr. Thompson's Irish list in the ZoolOgical Proceedings.' The Great Plover is a delicate bird for the table.
In the Portraits d'Oyseaux,' the following quatrain well describes the bird and the reason for the name given to it by Belon " L'on pent nommer cestuy.ey Ostardcan, l'arecqu'll eat approehant do l'Ostarde. Qui sous lc ply des genoux l'os regarde, Le trouve gros plus qu' a nul mitre oyscau." Curaorius. Bill as long as head ; mandibles arched, and compressed towards their extremities; base depressed ; tip sharp and entire ; nostrils basal, oval, with an oblong lateral opening. First quill longest. Legs long ; three front toes separated throughout; middle toe much the longest, with a serrated claw.
C. Temminckii, Black-Bellied Courier, Swainson. The following is Mr. Swainson's specific character and description :—"Cream-eoloured brown ; top of the bead and breast ferruginous, nuchal collar double; the lower, with the quills and middle of the body, black ; the upper and the sides of the body white. Total length from the bill to the tail•eight inches; bill one inch frOm the gape, and half from the end coloured with reddish and speckled with longitudinal brown streaks; a longitudinal white band on the wing ; towards the middle of the first quill a great white dash, and a very small one on the interior barb of the second; lower tail-coverts ruddy ; except ' those of the middle, terminated with black • base of the bill yellowish, the rest black ; naked akin round the eyes, iris, and feet, pure yellow. Length from the bill to the feet 16 inches 2 lines.
Male and Female.
Such is Tcmminck's description of the adult bird ; but the plumage varies in some individuals. For instance, in the specimen figured and described by Gould, in his 'Birds of Europe,' there is an obscure bar of white above and below the eye, and the ground-colour of the flanks and under surface is stated to be yellowish-white; whilst the yellow toes and feet are noticed as having a tinge of green.
The young birds have the colours less distinct, and are detected at the first glance by the highly dilated form of the upper part of the tarsus and by the size of the knee-joint. Tomminek, who gives this description, adds that this form of the tarsus exists in the young of the year of all species of birds with long slender legs, but is particularly remarkable in the young 0Alimenzi.
Rapid on foot, powerful in flight, which it executes in wide circles, and haunting downs and open places, this species is in general approached with difficulty by the sportsman, though it will often squat in places favourable to its colour, till it is almost trod on. Their shrill evening cry pierces the ear, and may be heard nearly a mile in a still night. Slugs, worms, reptiles, and, some say, mice are eaten by them ; but the two former seem to be their favourite food. White, in a letter to Pennant, dated 30th March, 1768, says, "I wonder that the Stone Curlew (Cliaradrius (Edicnernus) should be mentioned by writers as a rare kind : it abounds in all the campaign parte of Hampshire and Sussex, and breeds, I think, all the summer, having young ones, I know, very late in the autumn. Already they begin clamouring in the evening. They cannot, I think, with any propridty be called, as they are by Mr. Ray, 'circa aquas versantes ;' for with us, by day at least, they haunt only the most dry, open, upland fields, and sheep-walks, far removed from water : what they may do in the night I cannot say. Worms are their usual food, but they also eat toads and frogs." No neat receives the eggs, which are two or three in number, of a light brown or dirty white, with dusky blood-coloured blotches and streaks. " It lays," says the author of the History of Selbonre,' " its eggs, usually two, never more than three, on the bare ground, without any nest, in the field ; so that the countryman, in stirring his fellows, often destroys them. The young run immediately from the egg, like partridges, &e., and are with drawn to some flinty field by. the dam, where they sculk among the stones, which are their best security; for their feathers are so exactly of the colour of our gray-spotted flints, that the most exact observer, unless he catches the eye of the young bird, may be eluded. . . . °Alimentos is a most apt and expressive name for them, since their legs seem swollen like those of a gouty man. After harvest I have shot them before the pointers in turnip-fields." In his Manuscript the same author remarks that they seem to descend in the night to streams and meadows, perhaps for water, which their upland haunts do not afford them.