vicinity of trees, preferring wide and open places. Even when roosting
in the middle of the day, some sentinels arc on the look out to give
timely notice to the flock of any approaching danger.
' T h e Lapwing,' says Mr. Conway, 'will fly round and round, tumbling
and tossing in the air, ami at the same lime making the country
resound with the echoes of its endless 'pee-wit!' and thus lead the
intruder farther and farther from its nest.' Its gyrations on these
occasions are such as must strike the most inattentive passer-hv, and
the thoughtful mind will watch them with pleasing admiration. It is
the male bird that is most clamorous: the female on being disturbed
runs first from the eggs or young, and then flies a little way, near
the ground and in silence.
The flight of the Lapwing is indicated by this, one of its vernacular
names derived from it, a rather slow flapping of the wings. It seems
at one and the .same time both laboured and light, and is Been to
advantage when the bird is chasing some prowling crow who has
come too near. In dashing and whirling about in the air, when you
b\ chance approach the spot where us young or egg are located, it
frequently makes a rushing sound with its wings, which really at
times bears a striking resemblance to the puffing of the engine of a
railway-train, heard at some distance, or against the wind. Before
taking wing it stretches the head out, and previous to alighting skims
along the ground. In the early spring when first engaged with their
nest, they will sometimes let you approach pretty close, and you may
observe then) running on a little way with a nodding of the head
and of the fore part of the body.
I n Scotland it is said to be considered as an unlucky bird, owing
to its having formerly been the means, by hovering about the fleeing
Covenanters who chanced to disturb it, of guiding their pursuers to
them. On the other hand, it is related that the founder of the family
of Tyrwhitt of Lincolnshire, was saved by his followers being thus
directed to him where he lay wounded after a skirmish. * I t runs
swiftly, in a horizontal position, with the head downwards, during
which it has a singular habit of stopping suddenly at intervals, and
putting its bill to the ground, but without picking up anything, apparently
to bring its body, as it were, to a proper equilibrium.' On
first alighting, the wings are stretched up on each side before being
settled in their attitude of rest. !t is a line sight to see a large
flock of these birds wheeling about, and, as they turn their dark or
their light sides towards you, now gleaming and glancing in the setting
sun, and now shadowing into the blackness of the dense moving
mass. In the spring season ' their flight, particularly that of the
male birds, is very peculiar, being subject to a variety of evolutions,
in the course of which they frequently dart perpendicularly upwards
to a considerable height, then throwing a summerset, as it would
seem, in the air, suddenly descend almost to the ground, along which
they course with many turnings and great velocity, till the saine
manoeuvre is repeated.' I have been looking at them the day of
writing this, and though I had so often watched thcin before, did
so again, with increased curiosity and interest.
They feed on worms, slugs, caterpillars, and insects, and this chiefly
during twilight or clear nights. Bishop Stanley says that one which
a friend of his had, used to stand on one leg and beat the ground
regularly with the other, in order to frighten the worms out of their
holes. I should have thought that it would have had a contrary
effect, but his Lordship gives the following as the theory on the
subject:—'Their great enemy being the mole, no sooner do they perceive
a vibration or shaking motion in the earth, than they make the
best of their way to the surface, and thus fall into a greater aud
more certain peril.' Dr. Latham says the same.
The well-known note of the Peewit, from whence it derives its
name, composed namely of these two syllables, the latter uttered * crescendo,'
*pe-wir, pewit, pe-wit,' (pees-wit, pees-wit,' or 'pees-weep,
pces-wecp,' is one that cannot fail to attract the ear, whether heard
for the first or the thousandth time. The French, in like manner,
call the bird Dixhuit. It has also a note of alarm or ' q u a s i ' alarm,
which after listening to to-day, I can best describe as a sort of whining
sound.
The young are often hatched so soon as April, and begin to run about
almost immediately after being hatched. Mr. D. M. Falconer relates,
in ' T h e Naturalist,' vol. ii., p. p. 33-34, a curious instance of the
parent bird when disturbed from the nest, running off with an egg
under her wing, a distance of two hundred yards.
The nest is that which 'Mother E a r t h ' supplies by a small and slight
depression in the soil, with the addition sometimes of a few bits of
grass, heath, or rushes, and this, perhaps, answering to the geographical
description of an island, ' entirely surrounded by water,' on the marshyground.
To avoid, however, the evils attendant on this contingency,
a mole-hill or other slight eminence is often chosen for a cradle. The
young are not capable of flying till nearly full-grown.
The eggs, which are, like those of most if not of all small birds,
very delicate eating, and sold in immense numbers for the purpose, are
four in number, and so disposed in their narrow bed as to take up the
smallest amount of room, the narrow ends pointed inwards, like the
voi*. i v . o