These are allied in people's minds with the Gabriel Hounds, the Wish Hounds, and Others, but are not thought of as hounds with a spiritual huntsman but as seven spirits, death portents like the banshee. William Henderson in Folklore of the Northern Counties (p.131) quotes a Folkestone fisherman who well knew what caused the sound, but still thought it ominous.

'I heard 'em one dark night last winter,' said an old Folkestone fisherman. '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; it's them long-billed curlews, but I never likes to hear them.'

Wordsworth in one of his sonnets mentions the Seven Whistlers, and connects them with the Gabriel Hounds

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.

[Motif: E500]