File:British birds (1921) (14568704719).jpg

Identifier: britishbirds00huds (find matches)
Title: British birds
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922 Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers), 1858-1925
Subjects: Birds -- Great Britain
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) Longmans, Green, and co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ued by man,warning them of danger with piercing cries that none fail to under-stand. The redshank, greenshank, and many other species, in thisand other orders, are equally vociferous in the presence of danger,and their warnings are as promptly obeyed by aU wild creaturesthat live with or near them; but a curious feature about the curlewis that he appears to take an intelligent interest Ln the welfare ofbeings not of his own species, and that he is distressed if they fail toact on his signal. In YarreUs British Birds (4th edit. vol. iii.)Howard Saunders gives a striking instance of this characteristic.He describes seeing one of these birds, * after shrieking wildly overthe head of a sleeping seal, swoop down, and apparently flick withits wings the unsuspecting animal, upon which the stalker was justraising his rifle. This, to my mind, is a far more wonderfulinstance of the help-giving instinct in the lower animals than thatrelated by Edwards of Banff, in which a number of terns swooped
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COMMON CUBLEW 315 down upon one of their number which he had wounded and waspursuing, and, taking its wings in their beaks, raised it, and bore itaway out to sea beyond his reach. The case of the curlew remindsus rather of the action of the rhinoceros-bird in waking the rhinoceroson the appearance of an enemy; but between curlew and seal thereis no such thing as cormnensalism. and no tie, excepting the commonknowledge that they are living creatures, and must fly for life at theapproach of man, their deadliest enemy, on account of his superiorcunning and his power to slay them at long distances. During a greater part of the year the curlew is a shore-bird,seeking its food on the sand-flats which become covered at highwater. When the tide overflows the flats the birds go inland, oftento a distance of several miles from the sea, and wait there until thetide turns. They appear to know just when this occurs, howeverfar from the shore they may be, and, rising and calling to eachother, set o

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