Birds by Land and Sea 



the human bogey concerning whom so much is 

 written in the code of bird morality. 



The four eggs which the lapwing lays are highly 

 conical at one end, and it is a law of ploverdom that 

 the four points shall meet at the centre of the nest. 

 One might spend a whole day placing them out- 

 wards ; the bird would reverse them at each return. 



I have frequently seen lapwings attack gulls and 

 rooks on the wing ; for it will tolerate no bird near 

 its nesting quarters. But the lapwing's ire is espe- 

 cially aroused by the appearance of the kestrel. The 

 latter moves, circling and hovering by turns, above 

 the moor, until the lapwing, which has been watching 

 the marauder with gathering wrath, darts up in per- 

 pendicular flight at surprising speed, and, buffeting 

 the hawk in passing, rises above him, then swoops 

 at him again ; but the latter, laying his wings out 

 like a pickaxe, wheels broadly aside on the wind, and 

 leaves the lapwing to descend, content, no doubt, to 

 have cleared the field of the vagrant enemy. 



Another bird which the buoyant spirits of the 

 breeding season urge into unusual prominence is 

 the common snipe. About the pairing time, at the 

 beginning of April, he may for some weeks be 

 observed on the wing frequently throughout the 

 day. At such times he describes great circles in the 

 air at a considerable height, the rapidly beating 

 wings carrying him round at a high speed. At 

 regular intervals during this great circling flight, the 

 wings are laid out flat, the one inside the great circle 



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