836 



THE LAPWING. 



tunities of witnessing these manoeuvres by the Sandpipers, 

 have probably often watched the similar proceedings of our 

 common Lapwing or Pewit, which decoys a dog or a 

 stranger away, either by screaming close to his ear, as 

 she flits by in a sort of tumbling flight, or by scrambling 

 along the ground as. if wounded, when the young brood are in 



danger. Indeed, these 

 latter birds, above any 

 others, have need of all 

 the art and cunning 

 they can muster to save 

 their eggs, which are 

 eagerly sought after in 

 the places where they 

 are known to breed, 

 for the purpose of sell- 

 ing them at a high 



price, as a luxurious 

 The Lapwing. . . , n , 



article of food. 



In the Orkney Islands, to the north of Scotland, they were, 

 and possibly still are, allowed to breed unmolested ; and their 

 increase is consequently very great. Probably they were once 

 equally unmolested in every other part of North Britain, 

 which may account for a curious Act of Parliament, said to 

 have been passed many years ago in Scotland, for encourage- 

 ment to destroy them as " ungrateful" birds ; " for that they 

 come to Scotland to breed, and then returned to England 

 with their young to feed the enemy."* Their food consists 

 chiefly of grubs and insects, easily procured in the low mossy 

 grounds, which they prefer. Earth-worms, too, form a large 

 portion of their diet ; but, as their bills are neither so long 

 nor so strong as to pierce deep enough into the soil to get at 

 them, they adopt the following clever mode of inducing them 

 to show themselves above ground, when they are instantly 

 seized by the watchful Lapwing. A friend of ours, one day 

 finding a young Plover, carried it home, and kept it in a 



Letters from the North of Scotland, vol. i. 



