Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/30

 great numbers, and, according to Jules Verreaux, is often to be found in the track of the hosts of these creatures that are met with in Southern Africa. The nest consists of a slight hollow in the ground, lined with fibres and blades of grass; the eggs, four in number, have a yellowish brown or greenish grey shell, spotted with grey, and variously marked with light brown and deep black. So great is the attachment of these Pratincoles for their mates and young that we are told, should one of a pair be shot, the other at once runs to its companion's side in utter disregard of its own safety. If the little family are intruded on, the parents frequently feign to be wounded, or by other devices entice the enemy from the nest. The helpless young, if alarmed, crouch to the ground, and are with difficulty detected, owing to the earthy colour of their downy feathers; they grow very rapidly, and soon attain the plumage of the adult birds.

The THICK-KNEES (Œdicnemi) constitute a sub-family whose members are at once recognisable by their comparatively large size, moderately long thin neck, thick head, large eyes, and a straight beak of about the same length as the head, with the culmen slightly depressed and swollen at the tip. The knees are very thick, the toes three in number, and the wings, in which the second quill is the longest, of moderate size; the secondary quills are of unusual length. The tail is wedge-shaped, and composed of from twelve to fourteen feathers. These birds are migratory, and are met with in all parts of the world, with the exception of North America; open moorlands are the localities they prefer, as affording them the largest supply of the small quadrupeds, reptiles, worms, and insects upon which they subsist, and which they seek during the evening or at night. In the day-time the Thick-knees remain closely squatted beneath a stone or any similar shelter, and if disturbed fly to a short distance, before running off rapidly to some place of concealment. The female deposits her two eggs on the bare ground; the young are able to follow their parents as soon as they quit the shell.

THE COMMON THICK-KNEE, OR STONE CURLEW.

The, or (Œdicnemus crepitans), is from sixteen to seventeen inches long and from twenty-nine to thirty broad; the wing measures eight inches and half, and the tail about five inches. The feathers upon the upper parts of the body are reddish grey, striped in the centre with blackish brown; the brow, a patch over the eyes and a line above and below the cere are white, the under side and a stripe on the upper wing are yellowish white, the quills black, and the tail-feathers bordered with black and white at their sides. The eye is golden yellow, the beak yellow with black tip, the foot straw-colour, and the eyelids yellow. The plumage of the young is principally of a rust-red. These birds are natives of the desert and barren districts of Northern Africa, Western Asia, and Southern Europe, being especially numerous in Syria, Persia, Arabia, and India. Such as occupy the most northern portions of their habitat go south late in the autumn and return to their former haunts early in spring, whilst such as dwell in the countries watered by the Mediterranean remain throughout the entire year in the same localities. In Egypt, notwithstanding their usual preference for barren tracts, the Stone Curlews not only venture into towns and perch upon houses, but occasionally make their nests on the roofs, always provided that the situation be such as to permit them to have a clear space about them, and an elevated perch from whence they can reconnoitre in order to elude the approach of danger. A nearly-allied species, residing in South Africa, frequents the outskirts of forests, selecting spots thickly covered with brushwood, in which it conceals itself if alarmed. The Common Thick-knee or Norfolk Plover, as it is called in England, is only a summer visitor to our country, appearing in April and departing in September or October. It is most numerous in the south and south-west parts of our island, and does not go north of Yorkshire. Ireland it rarely visits. According to Mr. Salmon, of Thetford, "it is numerously distributed all over