116 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIK EGGS AND NESTS. 
bird, even in those districts where it does not statedly breed. It 
nests not only on commons and heaths aud the wide moor, but in 
the fields and inclosures; and round my present residence I have 
many yearly evidences that there are half-a-dozen nests within 
the limits of a short half-mile which intervenes between me and 
the moors. The female constructs scarcely :any nest, properly so 
called, but makes or more likely avails herself of a ready-made 
slight cavity on the surface of the ground, with a sufficiency of 
some kind of herbage to serve as covert. ‘The female’s habits in 
connection with the nest and eggs are different from the male’s. 
She slips off on the approach of a visitor, and runs very silently 
and quietly away to some distance before taking wing ; 4e hastens 
up on rapid, sounding, whirling wing, and cries and dashes and 
_ wheels above and around the cause of alarm in a very remarkable 
manner. The Peewit lays four eggs, of large size and acutely 
pointed at the lesser end, and like so many others of the class, 
often arranged-so as to occupy the least possible space, by 
having their points all turned inward. They are of a darkish 
olive-dun ground, abundantly blotched and spotted with brown 
and black. These eggs are much sought after as delicacies for 
the table. They are boiled hard and served cold, and when the 
shell is removed they have quite a jelly-like appearance. But 
very few of the eggs, however, sold in the market as “ Plovers’- 
eggs,” are sometimes recognised by the oologist as having been 
laid by the Lapwing.—f%g. 5, plate VII. 
170. TURNSTONE—(Strepsilas tnterpres). 
Hebridal Sandpiper.—Found on many parts of our coast either 
in small parties, or one or two together, from September all 
through the winter. In the spring it leaves us to go to the 
north for breeding objects, but has never been recognised as 
