BENEDICITE 165 



pheasants two cocks and two hens were widely 

 distributed over a large field. A pair of Lapwings, 

 probably with eggs or young in the field, resented 

 their intrusion. I have seen some strangely 

 matched combatants in my time, but I should 

 have found it difficult to forecast the tactics of 

 adversaries so dissimilar as the wild-winged Lapwing 

 and the ground-running Pheasant. The Lapwings 

 scoured the field with the wild, dashing flight they 

 use in the breeding season, towering suddenly as 

 they approached one of the Pheasants, then with a 

 steep dip swooping down as if to transfix it with the 

 bill ; but, just as the Lapwing appeared to be on the 

 point of striking the Pheasant and never sooner 

 the latter swept swiftly round and, with tail erect, 

 presented its bill to receive the charge. The Lapwing, 

 breaking its downward flight when within a few 

 inches of the rigidly set Pheasant, skimmed over it, 

 and dashed along the field to renew the onslaught 

 upon another of the birds. The excited journey ings 

 and animosity of the Lapwings were in strange 

 contrast to the indifference and self-possession of 

 the Pheasants. For the latter fed on stolidly except 

 when actually under attack ; and although, with their 

 labouring, dead-ahead flight, they would on the wing 

 have been the sport of the agile Lapwings ; set 

 firmly on the ground, and with beak elevated like 

 lance in rest, they offered, by their superior weight, 

 a formidable butt to the charge of their assailants. 



Tired of watching tactics so barren of result for 

 both the attacker and attacked, we retired by a 

 field-path leading through young wheat until it 

 dipped sharply into a wooded dingle. 



