Mr. St. John’s remarks, Mr. Smither, o f Churt in Surrey, informs me that “ when the Peewit begins
to nest, the male scratches out ten or fifteen holes in different places ; the female selects one, in which,
after making some slight alteration, she lays her eggs. When first laid, they are carelessly placed ; but
when she begins to sit, she arranges them with the small ends to the centre ; you can therefore always tell
whether their incubation has commenced. As the sitting continues, one or both birds frequently bring pieces
of dead heather, decayed horse-grass, sedge, &c. to the nest ; and by the time the birds are hatched, these
materials have accumulated to a good handful ; whether this is done to impart warmth, or for any other
purpose, is unknown to me. The eggs realizing a good price, the birds are always much watched ; and
our good nesters will go to a hillock or rising ground, throw up their hat o r a handkerchief, and watch where
the birds rise from : so experienced are they, that they can tell to a certainty by their motions whether they
have nests, and, if so, whether the eggs have been sat upon o r not.”
The young are soon removed by their parents from the dry barren heath to the softer and oozy parts of
the country, where they may more readily obtain an abundant supply o f the insects and larvae upon which
they subsist.
Speaking of its peculiar flight, Mr. Selby remarks that its movements are attended by a loud hissing noise
of the wings, arising from their rapid motion, aided by their peculiar form, which offers a broken resistance
to the air. During these aerial exercises, which are supported for a long time without intermission, the
bird utters a variety oF notes, very different in tone and expression from the monotonous cry o f alarm that
has conferred on it the name o f Peewit. In autumn and winter great masses of these birds may be seen in
the air, passing from one p art of their feeding-ground to the other, when their broad wings render them so
conspicuously different from the Golden Plover and the other members o f its family that it can never be
mistaken for either o f them. Its flesh, continues this gentlemen, is juicy and sweet in winter, scarcely yielding
in this respect to that of the Golden Plover ; but it becomes in thè summer season dry and unpalatable.
However extraordinary are the actions of the bird in the air, the light and graceful manner in which it trips
over the ground is not less so. Its movements are, indeed, most remarkable ; and the suddenness with which
they are occasionally suspended can only be likened to the action o f a piece o f mechanism, which, having
run its course, abruptly stops without a shake or a quiver : the starts and apparent listenings which succeed
are highly curious, but these are more or less common to all the Plovers. The Peewit is said to give motion
to the ground by running round the casts o f the Earth-worm, which it seizes the moment it emerges. For
an opportunity o f observing all these and othér interesting actions, let my readers place some tame Peewits
in a walled garden, where they will not only render good service by destroying worms, slugs, insects, and
their larvae, but will solace their ears by occasionally uttering the plaintive cry which has procured them
their trivial name.
The sexés offer but little difference either in size o r colour ; but the male is the most highly coloured of
the two, and has the longest occipital plume. In summer the throat o f both is je t black, while a t the
opposite season it is white, bounded below by a dark crescentic pectoral band.
The fully fledged young birds are very beautiful; for, independently o f the iridescent hues of green and
purple, marks and crescentic edgings of yellowish brown occupy many parts o f the feathers.
I t will be seen, on reference to the accompanying Plate (which represents an old female and her four
young), that these white-collared nestlings have the same general character o f marking that is found in other
members of the family, particularly the Dotterels. The eggs, it is scarcely necessary to mention, are four
in number, rather pointed in form, o f an olive hue, blotched and marked all over with deep umber-brown ;
they are nearly two inches in.length by one inch and four lines in breadth.
I agree with Mr. Selby in thinking th at the birds mentioned by Leland, under the name o f “ Egrets,”
as having been served up at the famous feast o f Archbishop Nevill to the number o f a thousand, must have
been Lapwings, since the beautiful White Eg ret {Egretta garzetta) was probably never more than a transient
visitor to this island, and to have obtained a thousand for a breakfast in any country would have been
an impossibility.