oj6 history of 



numbers. Yet even in captivity their animosity still continues ; 

 the people that fat them up for sale, are obliged to shut them up 

 in close dark rooms ; for if they let ever so little light in among 

 them, the turbulent prisoners instantly fall to fighting with each 

 other, and never cease till each has killed its antagonist, espe- 

 cially, says Willoughby, if any body stands by. A similar ani- 

 mosity, though ill a less degree, prompts all this tribe ; but when 

 they have paired, and begun to lay, their contentions are then 

 over. 



The place these birds chiefly choose to breed in, is in some 

 island surrounded with sedgy moors, where men seldom resort ; 

 and in such situations I have often seen the ground so strewed 

 with eggs and nests, that one could scarcely take a step, without 

 treading upon some of them. As soon as a stranger intrudes 

 upon these retreats, the whole colony is up, and a hundred dif- 

 ferent screams are heard from every quarter. The arts of the 

 lapwing, to allure men or dogs from her nest, are perfectly amus- 

 ing. When she perceives the enemy approaching, she never 

 waits till they arrive at her nest, but boldly runs to meet them : 

 when she has come as near them as she dares to venture, she 

 then rises with a loud screaming before them, seeming as if she 

 were just flushed from hatching ; while she is then probably a 

 hundred yards from the nest. Thus she flies with great clamour 

 and anxiety, whining and screaming around the invaders, strik- 

 ing at them with her wings, and fluttering as if she were wound- 

 ed. To add to the deceit, she appears still more clamorous, as 

 more remote from the nest. If she sees them very near, she 

 then seems to be quite unconcerned, and her cries cease, while 

 her terrors are really augmenting. If there be dogs, she flies 

 heavily at a little distance before them, as if maimed; still voci- 

 ferous and still bold, but never offering to move towards the 

 quarter where her treasure is deposited. The dog pursues, in 

 hopes every moment of seizing the parent, and by this means 

 actually loses the young ; for the cunning bird, when she has 

 thus drawn him off to a proper distance, then puts forth her 

 powers, and leaves her astonished pursuers to gaze at the rapidity 

 of her flight. The eggs of all these birds are highly valued by 

 the luxurious ; they are boiled hard, and thus served up without 

 any further preparation. 



As the young of this class are soon hatched, so, when exclud- 



