22 BRITISH BIRDS. 



coverts and vent pale chesnut; tail white at the 

 base, the rest of it black, with pale tips, outer 

 feathers almost wholly \vhite: legs red; claws 

 black; hind claw very short. 



This bird is a constant inhabitant of this country; 

 but as it subsists chiefly on worms, it is forced to 

 change its place in quest of food, and is frequently 

 seen in great numbers by the sea-shores, where it 

 finds an abundant supply. It is every where well- 

 known by its loud and incessant cries, which it 

 repeats without intermission whilst on the w r ing, 

 and from which in most languages a name has 

 been given to it, imitative of the sound. The 

 Pee-wit is a lively active bird, almost continually 

 in motion; it sports and frolics in the air in all 

 directions, and assumes a variety of attitudes; it 

 remains long upon the wing, and sometimes rises 

 to a considerable height; it runs along the ground 

 very nimbly, and springs and bounds from spot to 

 spot with great agility. The female lays four eggs, 

 of a dirty olive, spotted with black: she makes no 

 nest, but deposits them upon a little dry grass 

 hastily scraped together : the young birds run very 

 soon after they are hatched : during this period the 

 old ones are very assiduous in their attention to 

 their charge; on the approach of any person to the 

 place of their deposit, they flutter round his head 

 with cries of the greatest inquietude, which increase 

 as he draws nearer the spot where the brood are 

 squatted; in case of extremity, and as a last re- 

 source, they run along the ground as if lame, in 

 order to draw off the attention of the fowler from 

 any further pursuit. The young Lapwings are first 

 covered with a blackish down interspersed with 



