LAPWINGS. 



377 



hatching and rearing their young. The hen lays three or four 

 eggs in the most simple nest that can be imagined, placed in 

 an exposed position on any little rising ground in the marshes. 

 These eggs are, it is said, of an exquisite flavour, and in some 

 countries, especially Holland, a large trade is done in them. 



The flesh of the Lapwing is only good eating during certain 

 months of the year.* About All Saints' Day these birds acquire 

 their finest condition, when in some parts of France they are 

 in great demand. In the spring, as food, they are very in- 

 different, easily explaining why the Church has allowed them to 

 be eaten during Lent, for at that period assuredly no food could 

 be more maigre. There is an old saying which celebrates, and 

 also exaggerates, the culinary virtues of the Lapwing and its 

 brother bird, the Plover : "He who has never eaten either the 

 Plover or the Lapwing does not know what game is." 



The Lapwing might be ranked amongst the most useful auxi- 



Fig. 149. Pewit, or Crested Lapwing ( Vanellus cristatus, Temm.). 



liaries of man ; it destroys a prodigious quantity of worms, 

 caterpillars, and noxious insects. After hearing this the reader 

 might, perhaps, imagine that this bird has found aid and protection 



