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The Curlew.
(Numenius acuatus.)
The Curlew spends the nesting season on the moorlands and on marshy upland meadows, but during the rest of the year it lives on or near the sea-shore. Its slender sickle-like bill, which is over six inches in length, is used to pick up snails, slugs, grubs and even berries on the moors, and small shell-fish, crabs and shrimps on the sea-shore. The bill is admirably adapted for probing deeply in mud or sand for worms. It is thrust into the soft ground, and withdrawn with a large wriggling worm held tightly in its tip. The name is derived from the loud call of cur-lew or kerr-lei.