. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. EGGS OF THE STONE-CURLE unawares. Their eggs are the "plovers' eggs" of poulterers' shops, and are familiar to all; but few seeing them as they are displayed for sale, often in hundreds, would realise how difficult they are to discover in their natural situations. In a locality so congenial to their watchful habits as the Breck, the presence of these birds in considerable numbers is a foregone conclusion. But of all the birds which inhabit the Breck none are so characteristic, so interesting and fascinating to the
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. EGGS OF THE STONE-CURLE unawares. Their eggs are the "plovers' eggs" of poulterers' shops, and are familiar to all; but few seeing them as they are displayed for sale, often in hundreds, would realise how difficult they are to discover in their natural situations. In a locality so congenial to their watchful habits as the Breck, the presence of these birds in considerable numbers is a foregone conclusion. But of all the birds which inhabit the Breck none are so characteristic, so interesting and fascinating to the naturalist, and none fit in so well with the nature of the country, as the Thicknee or Stone-Curlew. It is the largest of all the plover family in Britain, and is often called the Great Plover and Norfolk- Plover, the latter name originating in the district of which we are writing. Of the other two names mentioned above, " Thicknee " is derived from the thickening of the leg in immature birds, a peculiarity which, although unusually pronounced in this species, is common not only to all the plovers but the whole group of birds known as " waders," from the herons down to the smallest sandpipers. As regards fitness, there is but little to choose between the several trivial names of this bird; even advanced ornithologists hardly show a prefer- ence for any particular one. Although in the writer's opinion "Stone-Curlew" is not the most appropriate, yet as it is the name generally used in Norfolk and Suffolk, it will be adopted in this article when the bird is subsequently alluded to. The use of the name is, however, apt to be productive of some confusion unless the explanation is made that no near relationship exists between this bird and the real curlew ; some approximation there is in build and general colouring of the two birds, but contrasted with the short plover-like bill of the stone-curlew, the characteristic long curved one of the curlew is so
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