LAPWING. 105 
something almost incredible, whilst from long habit 
the men accustomed to seek for these nests could tell 
in an instant by the actions of the birds not only the 
males from the females, but whether the eggs, in any 
nest, were fresh or sat upon, or the young hatched ;* 
and however astonishing it may seem to the novice, so 
easily misled by the many allurements of the parents, 
these noted eggers would walk direct to each nest, with 
the greatest certainty, though some half-dozen pairs of 
old birds might be on the wing at one time. 
In the “Broad” district, as stated by Mr. Lubbock, a 
single egger, residing at Potter Heigham, took in 1821, 
“a hundred and sixty dozent in the adjacent marshes,” 
and the Messrs. Paget, writing in 1834 of the abund- 
ance of this plover, in the marshes near Yarmouth, as at 
Oby, Thurne, and Acle, state that Isaac Harvey, the 
Yarmouth game-dealer, was then in the habit of sending 
““between six hundred and seven hundred eggs to the 
London and other markets every week during the 
* The late Mr. Selby, who had opportunities of observing this 
species in Norfolk as well as in other counties, referring to the 
expertness of those accustomed to search for their nests, says 
that they generally judge of their situation “by the conduct of the 
female birds, who invariably upon being disturbed, run from the 
egos, and then fly near to the ground for a short distance without 
uttering any alarm cry. The males on the contrary are very 
clamorous, and fly round the intruder, endeavouring by various 
instinctive arts to divert his attention.” The Rey. G. Low, in his 
“ Fauna Orcadensis,” describing the nest of the lapwing as a mere 
hollow scraped in the ground, and subsequently lined with bits of 
straw and bents, remarks “that this is often observed as a token 
whether the eggs are fresh or not, for when the nest is quite finished 
the incubation is pretty well advanced.” 
+ Yarrell, on the authority of Mr. Plomley, records the fact 
that, in the season of 1839, “two hundred dozens of plovers’ eggs 
were sent from Romney marsh to Dover;” dogs being trained for 
the purpose of finding them. 
P 
