curlew

• “The screaming of the curlew is faintly heard even at this distancehe continues to ascend, and the hawk persevere's in her spiral motion, until she has gain'd the upper flight, then hovering makes a pounce swift as lightening on the exhausted curlew, and closing her wings both fall together, until within thirty or forty yards of the ground, when opening them she is by the resisting air brought upper:”

  Sporting Sketches

• “Except these, the plover and the curlew are the only inhabitants until you come to the Chesterfield high road.”

  The Adventure of the Priory School

• “The curlew is the most conspicuous; indeed its loud, incessant clamor, its erect carriage, and the intense curiosity which possesses it, and which makes it come up to circle around any strange object, all combine to make it in springtime one of the most conspicuous features of plains life.”

  II. Waferfowl

• “We saw in the plains vast quantities of buffaloe, a number of small birds, and the large brown curlew, which is now sitting, and lays its eggs, which are of a pale blue with black-specks, on the ground without any nest.”

  History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6.

• “The curlew is a bird my father used to see a lot but these days not so much, we occasionally see small flocks near home now - they seem common here which makes me happy.”

  Earth, Wind & Water

• “Normally I would hop on a bus to get me back home, but this time I decide I'd walk, up the hills and down the valleys one day I'll get lucky (or buy the right equipment) The curlew is a bird that has captured my imagination since I was a child, we used to travel by bus each Thursday afternoon (along the road in the second picture) to school swimming lessons and from the bus I could see the curlews with their scythe like beaks striding through the rough pasture, they seemed very exotic to me.”

  Uphilldowndale

• “There are vast quantities of prickly pears, and myriads of grasshoppers, which afford food for a species of curlew which is in great numbers in the plain.”

  History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. To the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6.

• “The mangrove forest of the Rufiji Delta is any important site for migratory wetland birds, such as curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea), little stint (Calidris minuta), crab plover (Dromas ardeola), roseate tern (Sterna dougallii) and Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia).”

  East African mangroves

• “Such ancient grassland might have 30 species of plant in a single square metre and innumerable invertebrate animals which have supported such remarkable birds as the stone curlew and many skylarks.”

  The Guardian: Letters: Vanished landscape

• “Ewes which have been recently turned out of the sheds with their lambs, numbered in red and blue like their mothers, baa and bleat in well-drained pastures, while the call of curlew marks the riverside habitat.”

  The Guardian: Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

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