28 FRESH WOODS. 



with some such relationship ; opinions, how- 

 ever, are divided on this subject. But of 

 plovers' eggs, who does not remember the 

 delicious flavour? The young farmers are 

 just becoming alive to the fact that plovers' 

 eggs are worth threepence each or more in 

 the market. Knowing gamekeepers used to 

 monopolize them by scouring the furrows in 

 the early morning ; but now that the boys 

 have discovered that during the season they 

 can make ten or twelve shillings a week be- 

 fore breakfast by keeping an eye on the 

 plovers, the gamekeepers' game is up. 



Plovers, like wood-pigeons, are ignorant of 

 the art of nest-building : they deposit their 

 eggs on a few straws or dried grass in the fur- 

 rows of a ploughed field, and then trust to their 

 own ingenuity for their protection . They lay 

 four eggs of a dirty olive, spotted black. The 

 young run about swiftly so soon as they are 

 out of the shell. It is amusing to watch the 

 devices of the old birds to decoy you or your 

 dog away from their nests ; their pretence of 

 lameness or of a broken wing, rolling over 

 and over on the ground, always keeping just 

 out of reach of the exasperated dog, is quite 

 ludicrous anything to make you believe the 

 nest is somewhere else than just under your 

 feet. 



