CHAPTER LXXXV 



THE PEEWIT OR "PI WIPE" 



The mournful-voiced bird of the marshland is the crested 

 lapwing, with beautiful plumage, but without much attrac- 

 tion beyond — a bird giving one the impression of complete 

 selfishness and pride. Such is the piwipe, a bird dearer in 

 the observance than in the character, but most desirable upon 

 the soft-lighted dinner-table, provided he be not shot on the 

 beach, where grow the bitter grasses. But let us to the 

 marshland. 



It is a bright day in February, the landscape is brightened 

 by a glowing sun seen through a warm south-easterly wind 

 that blows the delicate waves of shimmering heat across the 

 newly-cropped marshes stretching away to the rustling 

 reed-beds and gleaming sand-hills, beyond which is heard 

 the hoarse roar of the sea. 



As you sink into the pale dead grasses upon the fringe 

 of the marshes, the azure air is suddenly dappled with vast 

 flocks of birds, that you recognise by their flight and voices 

 to be peewits and golden plover : starlings too are flying 

 through the liquid blue on their own account, and farther 

 on the right a flock of linnets scurry by chattering. 



The piwipes have not paired yet, for the season is dry, 

 and the peewit delayeth nest-making till the marshes are 

 soft. They like moisture and water near at hand. They 

 have no fixed day for pairing. You may see them in large 

 flocks describe many-shaped patterns on the blue one day, 

 and lo ! the next the flocks are scattered and the birds paired. 

 Courtship is a short, very short, period with them, which 



