THE LAPWING. 311 



observed at its first approach in the former season ; 

 for it marched boldly into the kitchen at once and joined 

 the cat and dog, and took more liberties than it had 

 done the preceding year. Lapwings are particularly 

 cleanly in their habits, and wash themselves very often 

 in water ; but though there was a bowl in the kitchen, 

 out of which the dog drank, the lapwing did not, 

 during the first winter of their acquaintance, offer to 

 avail himself of it. The second year it did so fre- 

 quently ; and showed a good deal of impatience if either 

 the cat or the dog offered to interrupt its ablution. 

 The progress of domestication in this interesting bird 

 was cut off, by his attempting to swallow something 

 that he had picked up in the kitchen, too large for 

 his gullet. 



When we meet with lapwings on the moors, we 

 may be very apt to suppose that they live upon very 

 little food, as during the day they are almost perpe- 

 tually upon the wing, or running along the ground; 

 but in summer their principal feeding-time is in the 

 evening, when the worms come out of their holes. 

 They show r a good deal of art in this, for when they 

 come to earth that is newly cast up by a worm, they 

 instantly remove it ; and if the worm be too quick for 

 them, and has disappeared in the earth, the lapwing 

 begins beating with its feet, and agitating the ground, 

 till the worm again makes its appearance, when it is 

 instantly seized and drawn out. In this way it catches 

 a great deal of prey in a short time, and thus it is 

 enabled to remain on the wing during the day, for the 

 protection of its nest. 



The young, which are hatched in the space of three 



