io6 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



so closely do they assimilate to its colours that it is almost 

 impossible for the sharpest eye to discover them. 



Nothing is more beautiful than the flight of the Lapwing. Its 

 broad wings are flapped in a regular manner, hence one of its 

 names ; and it flies round and round, changing its course and 

 tumbling through the air, uttering the notes from which it derives 

 its other name. 



The food of the Lapwing is almost exclusively of an animal 

 nature, insects and their grubs, worms and snails forming the 

 chief part of its dietary. As a singular example of the variation 

 of local habits in the way of taste, it may be stated that in Ireland, 

 where the Lapwing is exceedingly common, its eggs are not 

 appreciated as they are in Great Britain. They are not even 

 collected for sale, although the bird itself is netted for the table 

 in the autumn in enormous numbers. Than the Lapwing no bird 

 can be more interesting to the most casual observer. As it rises 

 from its nest, its peculiar simulation of having been wounded, and 

 its fluttering before the very nose of a dog to draw him away from 

 its nest or young ones, is a never-ceasing source of interest. 

 Even old and experienced dogs who might be supposed to know 

 better, pursue the bird which is fluttering with an apparently 

 broken wing on the ground until at last, when some distance from 

 the nest and young, the bird rises into the air, and with a broad 

 flapping of its graceful wings, wheels and curls round and round 

 as if in -enjoyment of having secured the safety of its brood. 

 This sight is to be seen in very many parts of the country, but it 

 is only in more favoured districts that the autumn flights of the 

 old birds are to be noticed. 



The Woodcock is a migratory bird, which comes to us in great 



