no Craigmillar and its Environs. 



hills after having reared their young. This is one 

 of the most harmless of our British birds. It is 

 most interesting to watch them feeding, picking up 

 worms and slugs off the ground. The bird is very- 

 common in all parts of the country, and, except 

 for its eggs being gathered for the market, is rarely 

 molested. It was otherwise a century ago, when 

 country people expressed great dislike to it, and 

 destroyed it wherever and whenever they had an 

 opportunity. The reason alleged was that this bird, 

 being by instinct led to flit about and scream near 

 any one who obtruded on the solitude of its native 

 wilds, helped to guide the king's troops in their pur- 

 suit of the Covenanters holding conventicles, ^by its 

 being observed to hover over a particular spot. In 

 the revised edition of the Bible, at Leviticus xi. 19, 

 the " lapwing " has given place to the " hoopoe," the 

 latter being now generally considered to be the correct 

 rendering. It is somewhat gratifying to know that 

 the lapwing need no longer be characterised as 

 "unclean," though that stigma is now transferred to 

 "the bird of beauty." 



