186 A HISTORY OF 



mosity, though in a less degree, prompts all this tribe ; but when they 

 have paired, and begun to lay, their contentions are then over. 



The place these birds chiefly choose to breed in, is in some island 

 surrounded with sedgy moors, where men seldom resort ; and in such 

 situations I have often seen the ground so strewed with eggs an^ 

 nests, that one could scarce take a step, without treading upon some 

 of them. As soon as a stranger intrudes upon these retreats, the 

 whole colony is up, and a hundred different screams are heard from 

 every quarter. The arts of the lapwing, to allure men or dogs from 

 her nest, are perfectly amusing. When she perceives the enemy ap- 

 proaching, she never waits till they arrive at her nest, but boldly runs 

 to meet them. When she has come as near them as she dares to 

 venture, she then rises with a loud screaming before them, seeming as 

 if she was just flushed from hatching; while she is then probably a 

 hundred yards from the nest. Thus she flies, with great clamour and 

 anxiety, whining and screaming round the invaders, striking at them 

 with her wings, and fluttering as if she were wounded. To add to 

 the deceit, she appears still more clamorous, as more remote from the 

 nest. If she sees them very near, she then seems to be quite uncon- 

 cerned, and her cries cease, while her terrors are really augmented. 

 If there be dogs, she flies heavily at a little distance before them, as 

 if maimed ; still vociferous and still bold, but never offering to move 

 towards the quarter where her treasure is deposited. The dog pur- 

 sues, in hopes every moment of seizing the parent, and by this means 

 actually loses the young; for the cunning bird, when she has thus 

 drawn him off to a proper distance, then puts forth her powers, and 

 leaves her astonished pursuer to gaze at the rapidity of her flight 

 The eggs of all these birds are highly valued by the luxurious; they 

 are boiled hard, and thus served up without any further preparation. 



As the young of this class are soon hatched, so, when excluded, 

 they quickly arrive at maturity. They run about after the mother as 

 soon as they leave the egg ; and being covered with a thick down, 

 want very little of that clutching which all birds of the poultry kind, 

 that follow the mother, indispensably require. They come to theii 

 adult state long before winter ; and then flock together till the breed 

 ing season returns, which for a while dissolves their society. 



As the flesh of almost all these birds is in high estimation, so man 

 methods have be m contrived for taking them. That used in taking 

 the ruff, seems to be most advantageous ; and it may not be amiss to 

 describe it. The Ruff, which is the name of the male, the Reeve 

 that of the female, is taken in nets about forty yards long, and seven 

 or eight feet high. These birds are chiefly found in Lincolnshire and 

 the Isle of Ely, where they come about the latter end of April, and 

 disappear about Michaelmas. The male of this bird, which is known 

 from all others of the kind by the great length of the feathers round 

 his neck, is yet so various in his plumage, that it is said, no two ruffs 

 were ever seen totally of the same colour. The nets in which these 

 are taken, are supported by sticks, at an angle of near forty-five de- 

 grees, and placed either on dry ground, or in very shallow water, not 

 remote from reeds ; among these the fowler conceals himself, till the 

 birds, enticed by a stale or stuffed bird, come under the nets ; he then, 

 by pulling a string, lets them fall, and they are taken ; is are godwits. 



