LAPWING. 109 
as a good omen for sport, “no wypes* no fowl” being 
with them a common expression. 
However monotonous, the wail of the peewit in its wild 
haunts has a charm for the ear of the lover of nature, 
and the sterile heath or wide level range of marshy 
ground is enlivened by its actions, whether watchfully 
listening with erected crest, or hovering and tumbling 
with its humming wings and strangely varied flight. 
It is curious to find so accurate an observer as 
the late Mr. St. John} describing the lapwing as 
“altogether a nocturnal bird as to feeding,” since with 
us, at least, the contrary may be observed at all seasons, 
both inland and on the coast. At West Harling, some 
two or three years ago, in the early spring, I observed 
ten or twelve pairs in the middle of the day, all 
busily feeding on some recently ploughed land, and 
about the same time of year I once shot four out of 
a. small flock on the cliffs, near Cromer, which, in 
like manner, were so deeply engaged that I crept 
up within range before they saw me. On moonlight 
nights, like the stone-curlew, they are on the wing, 
uttering their cries for hours, and I have also heard 
them in spring, with the “drumming” snipe, as 
late as ten or eleven o’clock, when too dark to dis- 
tinguish anything. As pets for the aviary and garden, 
lapwings are both useful and ornamental, destroying 
large numbers of worms, grubs, and insects, and from 
their handsome plumage and pretty attitudes are very 
attractive. They are also particularly sociable birds, 
one captive not unfrequently attracting others of its 
* As will be seen by the extracts from the Northumberland 
and other “ Household Books,” this is an old English term for the 
lapwing or peewit, and “wipa,” is still its Swedish name at the 
preserit day. 
+ “Wild Sports of the Highlands,” p. 135. 
