218 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



The food of the Peewit is, to a great extent, 

 insectivorous. The stomachs of a great many of 

 these birds which we have shot and examined on 

 grass-land upon a clay soil, were filled with different 

 species of small Coleoptera, and minute particles of 

 grit ; while others, which we procured on down-land 

 upon a chalk soil, contained fragments of two 

 Mollusca which are extremely comm'on in such 

 situations, Helix virgata and Helix caper ata. It 

 is the Helix caperata, by the way, which, being 

 taken up with grass by sheep, is said to impart 

 the excellent flavour to the South -down mutton. 

 Judging by the condition of the Peewits which had 

 fed upon this mollusc, we should say that its pro- 

 perties are very fattening. 



When the birds get down to the shore, they lose 

 their flavour, and are then not nearly so good for 

 the table. We have noticed this in the case of the 

 Curlew, Golden Plover, Gray Plover, Redshank, 

 and many others besides the Lapwing. The reason 

 of this, no doubt, is the change in their diet. On 

 the shore they get sand-hoppers, shrimps, and other 

 small Criistacea, which impart more or less a marine 

 and disagreeable flavour. 



