454 



LAPWING. Class II. 



vers, lay four a-piece; the puffin genus only one; 

 and the duck ' tribe, in general, are numerous 

 layers, producing from eight to twenty. 



The young as foon as hatched, run like chickens : 

 the parents fhew remarkable folicitude for them, 

 flying with great anxiety and clamour near them, 

 ftriking at either men or dogs that approach, and 

 often flutter along the ground like a v/ounded bird, 

 to a confiderable diftance from their neft, to elude 

 their puriuers-, and to aid the deceit, become more 

 clamorous when moft remote from it : the eggs are 

 held in great efteem for their delicacy ; and are fold 

 by the London poulterers for three millings the 

 dozen. In winter, lapwings join in vail flocks^ 

 but at that feafon are very wild : their flefh is very 

 oood, their food being infects and worms. Du- 

 ring Oclober and November, they are taken in the 

 fens in nets, in the fame manner that Ruffs are, 

 but are not preferved for fattening, being killed 

 as foon as caught. 

 De3crip, Their weight is about eight ounces : the length 



thirteen inches and a half: the breadth two feet and 

 a half. The bill is black, and little more than an 

 inch long: the crown of the head of a mining black- 

 nefs: the creft of the fame color, confiding of 

 about twenty (lender unwebbed feathers of unequal 

 lengths, the longeft are four inches : the cheeks 

 and fides of the neck are white ^ but beneath each 

 eye is a black line : the throat and fore part of 

 the neck are black : the plumage on the hind part 



mixed 



