LAPWING. 105 



something almost incredible, whilst from long habit 

 the men accustomed to seek for these nests could tell 

 in an instant by the actions of the birds not only the 

 males from the females, but whether the eggs, in any 

 nest, were fresh or sat upon, or the young hatched;* 

 and however astonishing it may seem to the novice, so 

 easily misled by the many allurements of the parents, 

 these noted eggers would walk direct to each nest, with 

 the greatest certainty, though some half-dozen pairs of 

 old birds might be on the wing at one time. 



In the " Broad" district, as stated by Mr. Lubbock, a 

 single egger, residing at Potter Heigham, took in 1821, 

 " a hundred and sixty dozenf in the adjacent marshes," 

 and the Messrs. Paget, writing in 1834 of the abund- 

 ance of this plover, in the marshes near Yarmouth, as at 

 Oby, Thurne, and Acle, state that Isaac Harvey, the 

 Yarmouth game-dealer, was then in the habit of sending 

 " between six hundred and seven hundred eggs to the 

 London and other markets every week during the 



* The late Mr. Selby, who had opportunities of observing this 

 species in Norfolk as well as in other counties, referring to the 

 expertness of those accustomed to search for their nests, says 

 that they generally judge of their situation " by the conduct of the 

 female birds, who invariably upon being disturbed, run from the 

 eggs, and then fly near to the ground for a short distance without 

 uttering any alarm cry. The males on the contrary are very 

 clamorous, and fly round the intruder, endeavouring by various 

 instinctive arts to divert his attention." The Eev. Gr. Low, in his 

 " Fauna Orcadensis," describing the nest of the lapwing as a mere 

 hollow scraped in the ground, and subsequently lined with bits of 

 straw and bents, remarks " that this is often observed as a token 

 whether the eggs are fresh or not, for when the nest is quite finished 

 the incubation is pretty well advanced." 



f Yarrell, on the authority of Mr. Plomley, records the fact 

 that, in the season of 1839, " two hundred dozens of plovers' eggs 

 were sent from Eomney marsh to Dover ;" dogs being trained for 

 the purpose of finding them. 

 P 



