10 Introduction 



the only wild bird whereof both the carcass and the eggs 

 are habitually offered for sale in this country. In 1893 

 the late Mr. Howard Sanders and myself were appointed 

 by the Government as British Delegates to the Inter- 

 national Congress assembled in Paris to consider and 

 devise means for the preservation throughout Europe of 

 birds useful to agriculture. I think every European State 

 except Turkey and some of the Balkan Provinces was 

 represented at the Congress, and our protocol contained 

 a unanimous recommendation that the killing of the 

 lapwing should be prohibited at all seasons. Unfortunately 

 that wise project has not been carried into international 

 effect, and although some County Councils in Great 

 Britain have enacted prohibition within their respective 

 districts, thousands of lapwings are annually offered for 

 sale in London and other towns. No doubt they are 

 frequently served up as golden plover at restaurants, the 

 feet having been previously cut off. But for this pre- 

 caution, the imposture might easily be exposed, forasmuch 

 as the lapwing has four toes on each foot and the golden 

 plover but three. 



A practice which prevailed until quite recently in the 

 Scottish Lowlands has now fallen into disuse, owing to 

 the ready market for plover's eggs. Hill shepherds used 

 to set a destroying foot upon every peewit's nest they 

 came across, a cruel observance derived from the 

 '* KilHng Time," when the Covenanters were hunted 

 down and driven to seek refuge on the moors. The 

 lapwings, wheehng and screaming over their hiding place, 

 betrayed the fugitives to the dragoons in search of them, 

 wherefore vengeance continued to be wreaked on these 

 innocent birds for two hundred years after the persecution 

 of Westland Whigs had ceased. 



Mr. Mortimer Batten remarks (p. 65) that " at one time 

 it was believed that the goat-sucker was guilty of the act 



