THE PEEWIT, OR LAPWING. 215 



eggs they had at supper the other night. This 

 difficulty overcome, the next question is, " Which is 

 the Plover that lays these eggs ?" We have only 

 to point to the pretty graceful Peewit, to elicit a 

 chorus of praise in its favour. The long crest- 

 feathers, glossy green back, black breast, and white 

 underparts, relieved by the chestnut undertail- 

 coverts, combined with a certain pertness of ex- 

 pression, render it a very attractive bird. 



What pleasant associations are recalled as we 

 gaze at it ! The rough meadow where we first 

 found the eggs, as a boy, and watched with delight 

 the wonderful evolutions of the parent birds, as with 

 plaintive cry they wheeled and tumbled in the air 

 before us. The oozy mud-flats, with the intersecting 

 creeks, down which we urged our punt in May and 

 August after Curlew, Godwit, and Gray Plover the 

 mud there was sometimes black with Peewits ! The 

 brown and purple moor-side, where we found the 

 Peewit in the midst of Grouse, Curlew, Golden 

 Plover, and other north -country friends. The 

 quaking bog, where in winter we have shot now 

 a Peewit, now a Snipe, and the next minute missed 

 a Jack. The old pollard in the water meadow, 



