2 20 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



almost touching your head ; then swerve off again 

 in a graceful, lightning-like sort of sweep, rising 

 again as he does this till he attains the position he 

 wants for another dart and attack. 



I have on occasions, when staying at Maelog 

 Lake Hotel, Tycroes, Anglesey, tried flighting at 

 dusk of evening as the Lapwings flew over the 

 hedges or stone walls of the fields. If it was fairly 

 calm they were easy enough to shoot, but if they 

 were making headway against a gale of wind, 

 nothing more difficult ; for with their large rounded 

 wings they experienced considerable difficulty, and 

 consequently resorted to an up-and-down, tortuous 

 sort of movement, almost impossible for any gun to 

 follow. 



Their nests, generally made on marsh, waste, and 

 ploughed lands, are difficult to find, the parent 

 birds using every artifice to deceive and draw you 

 away from them. 



According to ornithological books, the male bird 

 even goes to the trouble of making false nests near 

 the true one, which is merely a depression in the 

 ground, with a little grass lining. The eggs — usually 

 four, are olive-colour, blotched and spotted with dark 

 brown and black. When the young are hatched the 

 Lapwing becomes extremely bold in their defence, 

 and will attack other birds three or four times his 

 own size — such a bird as the Great Black- Backed 

 Gull, for instance. 



I have often and often watched these Plovers 

 collect in small batches and drive off birds of every 



