LAPWING 239 



It is particularly vociferous during the breeding-season, 

 and the piteous cry of pee-wlt, or pee-ivee, is (when the bird 

 is in a high state of excitement as to the safety of its young) 

 often preceded by a round and full note which sounds like 

 oi-e, bi-e, the accent being well thrown on the diphthong. 



Nest. The Lapwing, in the breeding-season, resorts 

 to rough pasturage, moor-lands, marshes, the shores and 

 islands of lakes, as well as to the coast. I have found the 

 eggs laid on dry, sandy soil, on stony ground, and on wet 

 grass-covered slob-lands. 



The nest is a hollow, deeper in some cases than in 

 others. It would appear that this bird usually makes a 

 nest for itself rather than deposits its eggs in a ready-made 

 depression (i.e., the foot-print of a cow or horse). This is 

 all the more conclusive when we find the scrapings made 

 by the beak or feet against the wall of the nest, represented 

 by distinct radiating lines. I have noticed, however, that 

 several nests which showed the scrapings most clearly 

 did not contain eggs, being presumably ' hollows ' made by 

 the male, as he scratches the ground, when indulging in 

 his courting antics before his mate. I have further observed 

 that some nests, deep and well-scraped, were not lined, 

 either before or after the eggs were laid (Plate XVI., fig. 2). 

 In other cases I have discovered the nest neatly lined with 

 dry grass (Plate XVI., fig. 1). 



In localities where the birds are much disturbed by 

 intruders and the eggs often plundered, it seems likely that 

 many Lapwings may lay in adventitious hollows ; under 

 these circumstances I have found eggs deposited on the 

 bare level soil. This species has many enemies besides 

 man : Rooks, Hooded Crows, Jackdaws and Gulls purloin 

 the eggs and carry them some distance from the nest, 

 while rats break through the shells and rob the contents 

 as the eggs lie in situ. 1 



The eggs, four in number, are generally arranged so 

 that their narrow ends point to the centre of the nest 



1 I have discovered and photographed a nest containing fragments 

 of broken egg-shells apparently fresh and stained with yolk ; on the 

 soft sandy soil round the nest were the foot-prints of rats extending 

 as a track for several yards' distance. A little further on, I found 

 another nest, containing two eggs, each of which had an elongated hole 

 punched in its side from which the fresh contents were exuding. The 

 eggs were probably broken by Jackdaws which were disturbed 



