THE LAPWING, OR PEEWIT. 395 



stalks and placing them in a shallow depression in the 

 ground. The number of eggs is always four, and they 

 are placed in the order so common among the Waders, 

 crossAvise. Lapwings are to a certain extent social even 

 in the breeding season, in so far that a considerable num- 

 ber usually frequent the same marsh or common. It is at 

 this season that they utter most frequently their charac- 

 teristic cry, a note which is never musical, and heard by 

 the lonely traveller, (as has happened to myself more than 

 once by night,) is particularly wild, harsh, and dispiriting. 

 JSTow, too, one may approach near enough to them to notice 

 the winnowing movement of their wings, which has given 

 them the name of Lapwing in England and Vanneau in 

 France (from van, a fan). The young are able to run as 

 soon as they have burst the shell, and follow their parents 

 to damp ground, where worms, slugs, and insects, are most 

 abundant. When the young have acquired the use of 

 their wings, the families of a district unite into flocks. 

 They are then very wary, and can rarely be approached 

 without difficulty ; but as they are considered good eating, 

 many of them fall before the fowler. 



THE TUENSTONE. 



STRl^PSILAS INTERPRES. 



Crown reddish white, with longitudinal black streaks : upper part of the back, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts, rusty brown, spotted Avith black ; rest of the 

 plumage variegated with black and white ; bill and irides black ; feet orange- 

 yellow. Length nine inches. Eggs reddish white, blotched and spotted with 

 chestnut-brown. 



The Turnstone is a reoular annual visitor to the shores of 



o 



Great Britain, and indeed of almost every other country, 

 having been observed as far north as Greenland, and as 

 far south as the Straits of Magellan ; but it is never seen 

 inland. It arrives on our coasts about the beginning of 

 August, not in large flocks like the Plovers, but in small 

 parties, each of which, it is conjectured, constitutes a family. 



