44 OUR RESIDENT BIRDS 



with black. Tail-coverts chestnut. Bill black. Legs 

 and feet reddish. Length I2| in. Female : smaller 

 crest, and duller ; in winter both sexes have white 

 throat. Young : no black on throat, and white areas 

 of head buffish. Nestling : covered with down, mottled 

 with buff and black, white below, with dark band on 

 breast. As with other Plovers, the young are soon able 

 to run after emerging from the egg. 



Language. The familiar " Pee-wit," often heard by 

 night as well as by day. 



Habits. More sociable in winter than in summer. It 

 runs nimbly. When disturbed from the nest, the female 

 slips off her eggs, and runs some distance before taking 

 wing. The male becomes most excited, and dashes about 

 in the air like a mad thing. The parents may feign death 

 or injury if the eggs or young are in danger. Flight 

 peculiar, being jerky, and the blunt, recurvate wings 

 produce a noise much like a winnowing machine. When 

 showing off to the female, the cock-bird makes a series 

 of false nests by turning himself round on the ground 

 as though on a pivot. 



Food. Insects, worms, slugs, &c. 



Nest. April. One brood. 



Site. On the bare ground, usually unsheltered, some- 

 times on grass, sometimes on ploughed land. 



Materials. A few grasses, bents, and roots. 



Eggs. Four. Olive-green, stone-colour, or buffish 

 brown, well spotted and blotched with brownish black. 

 Pyriform shape. These are the delicacies known as 

 Plovers' eggs. 



