624 A VES— LAPWING. 



rent color on the outward part. The feathers on the belly, thighs, and un- 

 der the wings, are most of them white as snow ; and the under part on the 

 outside of the wings white, but black lower. The back is of a dark green, 

 glossed with blue shades. The head and crest are black, and the latter, 

 which is composed of unwebbed feathers, is almost four inches in length. 

 It has a sjreat liver, divided into two parts, and, as some authors affirm, no 

 gall. 



Lapwings are found in most parts of Europe, as far northward as Iceland. 

 In the winter they are met with in Persia and Egypt. Their chief food is 

 worms; and sometimes they may be seen in flocks nearly covering the low 

 marshy grounds in search of these, which they draw with great dexterity 

 from their holes. When the bird meets with one of those little clusters of 

 pellets, or rolls of earth that are thrown out by the worm's perforations, it 

 first gently removes the mould from the mouth of the hole, then strikes the 

 ground at the side with its foot, and attentively waits the issue ; alarmed by 

 the shock, the reptile emerges from its retreat, and is instantly seized. In the 

 evening they adopt another mode. They then run along the grass, and feel with 

 their feet the worms which the dampness of the atmosphere has brought forth 



These birds make a great noise with their wings in flying, and are called 

 peewits, or tewits, in the north of England, from their particular cry. They 

 remain there the whole year. The female lays two eggs on the dry ground, 

 near some marsh, upon a little bed which she prepares of dry grass. These 

 are olive-colored, and spotted with black. She sits about three weeks ; and 

 *he young, who are covered with a thick down, are able to run within two 

 or three days after they are hatched. The parent displays the fondest 

 attachment to them, and employs innumerable interesting stratagems to 

 avert approaching danger from them. "She does not wait the arrival of 

 her enemies to the nest, but boldly pushes out to meet them. When she 

 has approached as near as she dare venture, she rises from the ground with 

 a loud screaming voice, as if just flushed from hatching, though probably she 

 is not at the time within a hundred yards of her nest. She now flies with 

 great clamor and apparent anxiety; winding and screaming round the inva- 

 ders, striking at them with her wings, and sometimes fluttering as if she 

 was wounded. To complete the deception, she becomes still more clamo- 



