PEEWIT. 165 



PEEWIT. 



PE-WIT. TE-WIT. LAPWING. COMMON LAPWING. 



CRESTED LAPWING. GREEN LAPWING. 

 GREEN PLOVER. LAPWING SANDPIPER. FRENCH PIGEON. 



PLATE CLV. FIGURE II. 



Vanellm cristatus, FLEMING. SELBY. 



Tringa vanellus, PENNANT. MONTAGU 



THE nest is that which 'Mother Earth' supplies by 

 a small and slight depression in the soil, with the 

 addition sometimes of a few bits of grass, heath, or 

 rushes, and this perhaps answering to the geographical 

 description of an island, 'entirely surrounded by water,' 

 on the marshy ground. To avoid, however, the evils 

 attendant on this contingency, a mole-hill or other 

 slight eminence is often chosen for a cradle. The 

 young are not capable of flying till nearly full-grown. 

 The eggs, which are, like those of most if not of 

 all small birds, very delicate eating, and sold in im- 

 mense numbers for the purpose, are four in number; 

 and so disposed in their narrow bed, as to take up 

 the least amount of room, the pointed ends laid in- 

 wards, like the radii of a circle, to 'one common centre.' 

 They vary to an extraordinary degree, though generally 

 very much alike: some are blotted nearly all over with 



