48 PEEWIT. 



answering to the geographical description of an island, 'entirely 

 surrounded by water,' on the marshy ground. To avoid, 

 however, the evils attendant on this contingency, a mole-hill 

 or other slight eminence is often chosen for a cradle. The 

 young are not capable of flying till nearly full-grown. 



The eggs, which are, like those of most if not of all small 

 birds, very delicate eating, and sold in immense numbers /or 

 the purpose, are four in number; and so disposed in their 

 narrow bed as to take up the smallest amount of room, the 

 narrow ends pointed inwards, like the radii of a circle, to 

 'one common centre.' They vary to an extraordinary degree, 

 though generally very much alike; some are blotted nearly 

 all over with deep shades of brown. A fine series will be 

 found described in my 'Natural History of the Nests and 

 Eggs of British Birds.' In general they are of a deep green 

 colour, blotted and irregularly marked with brownish black. 

 They are wide at one end and taper at the other, as is the 

 case with the birds of this class. They are hatched in fifteen 

 or sixteen days. 



Male; weight, between seven and eight ounces; length, a little* 

 over a foot; bill, black; from it and proceeding under the 

 eye is a streak of black, bent downwards; the region about 

 the eyes is white; iris, dark brown. Forehead, crown, and 

 back of the head, black glossed with green, ending in a 

 crest of six or seven narrow long black feathers, with a slight 

 upward curve, capable of being raised nearly straight up or 

 depressed at pleasure: they are as much as three inches long 

 or even more. Head on the sides, neck on the back and sides, 

 white, sometimes speckled with black and brown; nape, olive 

 brown; chin, throat, neck in front, and breast on its upper 

 part, black glossed with green, on its lower, white; the chin 

 and throat white in winter. Back above, olive green, glossed 

 with copper-colour and purple; in winter it has less of the 

 gloss and purple, and the feathers are margined with reddish 

 white; on its lower part it is ended by a narrow band of 

 chesnut. 



The wings, very much rounded, have the first feather shorter 

 than the fourth, but longer than the fifth, the second and 

 third equal in length, and the longest in the wing; greater 

 and lesser wing coverts, olive green, glossed with green, copper- 

 colour, and purple; primaries, black, but the first three or 

 four greyish white at the end; secondaries, black over the ends, 

 at the base white; tertiaries, green, glossed with green, copper- 



