CH. VI.] PEEWIT OR P^TFIT? 215 



and, getting into their pew, remain perdu there 

 until they came, when it was thought better to 

 allow him to remain quietly where he was, than 

 make a disturbance by turning him out. 



It was remarked to me by a farmer one day, 

 when, whilst out with the hounds, we came across 

 a flock of Peewits, "It's a bad sign to see they 

 birds" explaining his meaning to be that they 

 generally haunt only poor, bad land, in which he 

 was certainly correct. 



In the Isle of Wight (and indeed I believe 

 generally in the South of England) these birds are 

 invariably called by the lower orders not "Pee- 

 wits" but "Pewits," and I am inclined to think 

 that they are right; for, although the bird does 

 vary its note, and at times, particularly when pur- 

 suing a straight course in company with others, 

 occasionally gives utterance to a note resembling 

 "pee- wit/' yet I am mistaken, if, generally, when 

 circling round an intruder (at which times its cry is 

 louder and more marked than at others) the cry 

 does not more nearly approach to "pew-it," greater 

 stress being laid on the lower note in the early part 

 of the cry than on the higher one which concludes it. 



I was walking one day with a gentleman over 

 his home-farm, when we observed the grass on 



