56 PLUVIALIN.E. STREPSILAS. 



The Lapwing, generally dispersed, and familiarly known, 

 frequents in summer wet heaths, moors, and marshy pastures 

 or meadows. It nestles in April, depositing its four eggs in 

 a hollow, slightly strewn with some straws. They are pyri- 

 form, very large, yet much smaller than those of the Golden 

 Plover, an inch and ten-twelfths in length, an inch and two 

 or three twelfths in breadth, pale brownish-yellow, greenish- 

 grey, or olivaceous, blotched, spotted, and dotted with brown- 

 ish-black. Being considered delicate food, they are collected 

 in vast numbers, and exposed in the London markets. Dur- 

 ing the breeding season, the old birds shew great anxiety and 

 considerable boldness, flying up to meet an intruder, plunging 

 and wheeling around him, and uttering incessantly their 

 peevish wailing cry, which somewhat resembles the syllables 

 pee-wee, or pee-o-wee, whence the common name of Pewit, 

 and in Scotland Peese-weep. The young conceal themselves 

 by crouching until fledged. After the breeding season, they 

 leave the marshy grounds, and betake themselves to the fields 

 and pastures. They feed on insects and worms, run with 

 great speed, and have a quick flight, differing from that of 

 the Plovers in the flapping of the wings being slower and 

 heavier. Although they never, at any season, fairly take up 

 their residence on the coast, they often in winter frequent 

 the sands exposed by the ebb. During the breeding season, 

 even when not disturbed, they may be seen flying about, now 

 high, now low, hovering, gliding, and wheeling, with continu- 

 ous noise of their wings, or producing an undulated loud hum 

 by flapping them strongly, and at the same time emitting va- 

 rious modifications of their usual cry. Their flesh, although 

 good, is inferior to that of the Plovers. 



Pewit. Peese-weep. Teuchit. Green Plover. 



Tringa Vanellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 248. Tringa Vanellus, 

 Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 726. Vanellus cristatus, Temm. Man. 

 d'Ornith. ii. 550. Vanellus cristatus, Green Crested Lap- 

 wing, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iv. 



GENUS XCIL STREPSILAS. TURNSTONE. 



Only two species of this genus are known, one from the 

 western coast of North America, the other dispersed over 

 the shores of the greater part of the globe. They are small 

 birds, having the body ovate and rather full ; the neck rather 

 short ; the head oblong, and rounded in front. Bill a little 

 shorter than the head, slightly bent upwards beyond the 



