LAPWING. 59 



to their breeding-grounds. Great numbers of birds often breed in close 

 proximity, but never in what might be termed a colony. By the 

 beginning of April the birds search out a nesting-site, and eggs may be 

 obtained throughout that and the following month. The birds in some 

 districts are earlier than those in others. The site for the nest is often 

 under the shelter of a tuft of rushes or other herbage, often on the summit 

 of a mole-hill, and very frequently on the bare fallow or turf in any little 

 depression that may chance to be there. The footprint of a cow or a 

 horse is very frequently selected. Where no hole is to hand the birds 

 scratch a little hollow, which is scantily lined with a few bents, sprays 

 of withered heath, or bits of dead rush, moss, or dry grass, on which the 

 eggs are laid. 



The eggs are usually four in number, but the bird has been known to sit 

 on two or three, probably in cases where the first clutch have been destroyed; 

 and in very rare instances as many as five have been found. Mr. H. A. Mac- 

 pherson writes to inform me of a clutch of the latter number which came 

 under his observation. They are bufnsh brown, light buif, or olive, and in 

 rare instances pale green in ground-colour, heavily blotched and spotted with 

 blackish brown, and with underlying markings of inky grey. The eggs of 

 this bird are subject to much variation. On some the markings are small 

 and evenly distributed over the entire surface ; on others the blotches are 

 large and confluent, hiding most of the ground-colour. Some are very 

 sparingly marked; others have most of the spots or blotches in a broad 

 zone round the large end. They are very large for the size of the bird, 

 varying in length from 2'0 to T75 inch, and in breadth from 1'4 to 1'28 

 inch. The eggs of the Lapwing may be easily distinguished from those of 

 the Golden Plover by their much browner appearance and, on an average, 

 smaller size. They vary considerably in shape, some examples being very 

 elongated, whilst others are much rounder. If the first clutch be removed, 

 others will be laid; but otherwise the Lapwing probably only rears one 

 brood in the year. 



When the breeding-place of the Lapwing is intruded upon, the old 

 bird glides stealthily off the nest, runs a little distance, then rises in the 

 air to flutter restlessly above the intruder's head, uttering its harsh wailing 

 cries. So closely do the eggs resemble surrounding objects in colour that 

 it is no easy task to find them ; but the old birds very often betray their 

 whereabouts by hovering above them : at these times the birds are 

 easily approached, often coming within a few feet. When the young are 

 hatched they soon follow their parents in search of food. If menaced by 

 danger the old birds quit their offspring at once, fly into the air, or reel 

 and tumble along the ground as if wounded, while the little downy nest- 

 lings scurry off in different directions and hide themselves amongst the 

 herbage. So closely does the colour of their down harmonize with the 



