curlew

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


common English bird-name.The Australian species is Numenius cyanopus, Vieill.The name, however, is more generally applied to AEdicnemusgrallarius, Lath.

1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 43:

«They rend the air like cries of despair,

The screams of the wild curlew.»

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 18:

«Truly the most depressing cry I ever heard is that of thecurlew, which you take no notice of in course of time; butwhich to us, wet, weary, hungry, and strange, sounded mosteerie.»

1890. `Victorian Statutes, Game Act, Third Schedule':

«Southern Stone Plover or Curlew.»

1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. 11, col. 4:

«The calling of the stone plover. It might as well be a curlewat once, for it will always be a curlew to country people. Itsfirst call, with the pause between, sounds like `Curlew' – – thatis, if you really want it to sound so, though the blacks getmuch nearer the real note with `Koo-loo,' the first syllablesharp, the second long drawn out.»

1896. Dr. Holden, of Hobart, `Private letter,' Jan.:

«There is a curlew in Australia, closely resembling the Englishbird, and it calls as that did over the Locksley Hallsand-dunes; but Australians are given to calling AEdicnemusgrallarius Latham (our Stone Plover), the `curlew,' whichis a misnomer. This also drearily wails, and after dark.»

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