TURNSTONE. 79 



168. GREY J?ItQVERr-(Sqvatarpla cinerea). 

 A bird which has never been ascertained to breed in England, 

 although specimens in the dark-breasted May plumage have been 

 seen in the London Markets, and observed by Mr. Selby in the 

 Fame Islands, in June. It is not nncommon as a winter visitor, 

 though even then nothing like so numerous as the Golden Plover 

 in its winter visits to districts in which it does not breed. The 

 eggs are said to be in colour " oil green, spotted with different 

 shades of umber brown ; the spots, crowded and confluent round 

 the obtuse end." 



169. LAPWING (Vanellus cristatus). 

 Pewit or Peewit, Te-wit ; Teu-iit, Green Plover, Bastard 

 i lover, Green Lapwing, Crested Lapwing. Another of those 

 birds which are familiar to almost everyone who is not a mere 

 casual visitor to the country, or quite deaf and blind to its 

 commonest sounds and sights. It is a very universally diffused 

 bird, even in those districts where it does not statedly breed. It 

 nests not only on commons and heaths and the wide moor, but in 

 the fields and inclosures; and round my present residence I have 

 many yearly evidences that there are half-a-dozen nests within 

 the limits of a short half-mile which intervenes between me and 

 the moors. The female constructs scarcely any nest, properly so 

 called, but makes or more likely avails herself of a ready-made 

 slight cavity on the surface of the ground, with a sufficiency of 

 some kind of herbage to serve as covert. The female's habits in 

 connection with the nest and eggs are different from the male's. 

 She slips off on the approach of a visitor, and runs very silently 

 and quietly away to some distance before taking wing ; he hastens 

 up on rapid, sounding, whirling wing, and cries and dashes and 

 wheels above and around the cause of alarm in a very remarkable 

 manner. The Peewit lays four eggs, of large size and acutely 

 pointed at the lesser end, and like so many others of the class, 

 often arranged so as to occupy the least possible space, by 

 having their points all turned inward. They are of a darkish 

 olive-aun ground, abundantly blotched and spotted with brown 

 and black. These eggs are much sought after as delicacies for 

 the table. They are boiled hard and served cold, and when the 

 shell is removed they have quite a jelly-like appearance. But 

 very few of the eggs, however, sold in the market as " Plovers 5 - 

 eggs," are sometimes recognised by the oologist as having been 

 laid by the Lapwing. Fiy. 5, plate VII. 



170. TURNSTONE (Strepsilas interpret). 

 Hebridal Sandpiper. Found on many parts of our coast either 



