THE LAPwING. 187 
in which the bird lays its pyriform eggs. These are usually four 
in number, although I have heard of an instance where five has 
been found. This seems to be a very rare occurrence though, as 
I have noted from various works on ornithology. If the first 
clutch be taken the bird often lays no more than three next time, 
and it will not forsake the nest if one egg be left, which it will sit 
on and hatch. In going over the breeding haunts a great many 
empty nests may often be come across, seemingly just scraped in 
the soil. These are “false ’’ nests which the male makes when 
showing off to its mate. The eggs vary a great deal in marking, 
being dark olive green in ground colour, spotted and blotched 
with shades of black and blackish brown. The nest is often 
found in some depression of the ground, like the- footprints made 
by horses or cattle. The lapwing is a very close sitter, and soon 
after the last egg of the clutch is laid is very attentive over its 
brooding duties, when it places the eggs points inwards. Before 
that, however, when incubation has hardly commenced, they are 
often found sideways in the nest, and that is thought to be a sign 
that all are fresh. How zealously it guards the eggs, which are 
often very difficult to find owing to their being so like the ground 
around them! Should an intruder be seen at some distance off, 
if he be a close observer, he will notice the lapwing stealing away 
from its eggs in several short runs, and after going a certain 
length, it will rise straight up into the air, but should he be in 
hiding behind a bank or hedge and then suddenly spring up into 
full view of the breeding ground, all he has to do is to watch for 
the lapwing, which rises into the air, and then make for the 
spot from where the bird has flown, when he will likely 
be rewarded by a find, which otherwise he might have taken 
hours to accomplish. At times the bird adopts a great many 
tactics to entice its enemy from its breeding ground, such as 
wheeling around him with angry cries, even occasionally coming 
Within reach of his head, often trailing itself on the ground in 
front of him pretending it has got a broken wing. ‘The latter 
device is usually resorted to after the young are hatched, about 
which the parent birds show the greatest anxiety and concern. 
How closely do these harmonise with the vegetation around them 
too, where they will remain squatted until all danger is past, but 
when once “ spotted ’’ and made to run they will do so with the 
utmost rapidity, swimming across any shallow which may come 
