214 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



will say, when you can get four times the number 

 of hens' eggs for the same money. True, but 

 Plovers do not lay in farmyards, nor in London 

 mews ; and if people will have such delicacies, they 

 must pay a price proportionate to the difficulty of 

 procuring them. After all, they do not always get 

 what they pay for, since, from not knowing a 

 Plover's egg when they see it, they frequently buy 

 eggs of the Redshank, Reeve, Black-tailed Godwit, 

 and even of the Black-headed Gull, instead of the 

 genuine article. But what matter ? They are all 

 equally good, and " where ignorance is bliss," we 

 have some authority for saying "'tis folly to be 

 otherwise!" It is the fashion to have Plovers' 

 eggs in the season, and when boiled hard with the 

 shells off, who is to say they are not Plovers' eggs ? 

 We have often been amused with the observa- 

 tions of our young lady friends who sometimes pay 

 a visit to our museum. On going to the egg 

 cabinet with a laudable desire to know something 

 of oology, one of the first remarks is, " Have you 

 got any Plovers' eggs ? " and on being shown a 

 drawer full of Golden Plover, Lapwing, Dotterel, 

 etc., they are fairly puzzled to say which are the 



