[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS a pretty large fowl, weighing about twenty-four or five ounces. He is found on the sea shores on all sides of England. The middle parts of the feathers of the head, neck, and back, are black, the borders or outsides ash coloured, with a mixture of red; the rump and belly are white. The beak has a regular curve down, and is soft at the point. This bird’s flesh may challenge for flavour and delicacy that of any other water fowl, and the people of Suffolk say proverbially:
“A Curlew, be she white or black,
She carries twelve pence on her back;”
but we must confess that the quality and goodness of their flesh depends on their manner of feeding and the season in which they are caught. When they dwell on the sea shores, they acquire a kind of rankness which is so strong that, unless they are basted on the spit with vinegar, they are not eatable.