According to the folklore of the northern counties of England, Seven Whistlers are spirits, whistling signs of trouble and death.

Seven Whistlers associated with Gabriel hounds, but they are not Hellhounds, they are fore-bringers of death like a banshee. The fishermen listen to the sound with awe, yet considered it good omen. But they deprecate the cry of the Seven Whistlers, and consider it a death-warning. One old Folkestone fisherman said:

I heard 'em one dark night last winter. They come over our heads all of a sudden, singing "ewe, ewe", and the men in the boat wanted to go back. It came on to rain and blow soon afterwards, and was an awful night, Sir; and sure enough before morning a boat was upset, and seven poor fellows drowned. I know what makes the noise, Sir; its them long-billed curlews, but I never likes to hear them.

W.Henderson "Folklore of the Northern Counties" (578: p.100)

Name "Seven Whistlers" quoted from William Wordsworth's sonnet (578: p.100):

He the seven birds hath seen that never part,

Seen the seven whistlers on their nightly rounds,

And counted them! And oftentimes will start,

For overhead are sweeping Gabriel's hounds,

Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart

To chase for ever on aërial grounds (1290: p.359-360).