LAPWING 291 



wing invariably excites surprise in the beholder. Seen on the ground 

 he is a handsome bird ; in plumage and long, curling crest unlike 

 any other British species, elegant in form, and graceful and some- 

 what stately in his movements. The moment he takes flight, dis- 

 playing his curiously shaped, rounded wings, that have a heavy, 

 flopping, heron-like motion, he appears like a different creature: 

 he looks awkward and strange, like an owl or a goatsucker driven 

 out of its hiding-place in the daylight. But no sooner does he begin 

 to practise his favourite evolutions in the air than a fresh surprise 

 is experienced. Eising to a height of forty or fifty yards, he suddenly 

 dashes in a zigzag, downward flight, with a violence and rapidity 

 unsurpassed by even the most aerial species in their maddest 

 moments, and, turning like lightning when almost touching the 

 surface, he rises, to repeat the action again and again. The heavy 

 appearance and slow, flopping movement, and the marvellous wing- 

 feats, are in strange contrast. 



He is a vociferous bird, and when his breeding-ground is invaded 

 he circles high above the intruder, dashing down at intervals, as if to 

 intimidate him, and uttering all the while a wailing cry, somewhat 

 cat-like in character. His call, heard both by day and night, most 

 frequently in the breeding season, is a hollow, bubbling sound, fol- 

 lowed by a prolonged and modulated clear note of a peculiar quality, 

 not readily describable, except by the epithet ' eerie,' which is some- 

 what vague. It is a quality heard chiefly in the voices of nocturnal 

 species owls and others. 



The lapwings begin to nest at the end of March on heaths and 

 waste lands, and in meadows, pastures, and fallows. As a rule, more 

 than one pair, and often several pairs, have their nests near each 

 other ; and so gregarious are the birds at all times, that even during 

 incubation, and when the young are out, they are to be seen associat- 

 ing together when feeding, and when indulging in their sportive 

 exercises hi the air. A slight depression in the soil, with a few dried 

 grass-stems for lining, serves for nest, and the eggs are four in 

 number, olive-green, thickly mottled with black and blackish brown 

 spots. False nests are often found near the nest containing eggs, 

 and these are said to be formed by the male in turning round and 

 round when showing off to his mate. 



The lapwing is common throughout the year, but in autumn, 

 when they congregate, often in flocks of many hundreds, and even 

 thousands, there is a very general movement ; and no doubt at this 

 season a large proportion of the birds that breed with us leave the 



