146 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



evidently a male bird from the length of the crest and the brilliancy of the 

 back, I have had since May of last year, when it was brought to me as a 

 small fluffy bird of about three weeks old. The other two were purchased 

 as full-grown birds of the year (1S87) in London. I had three Grey 

 Plovers, but unfortunately the finest of them drowned himself in a deep pan 

 (since removed.) The other two amply make up for the loss by their taine- 

 ness and interesting ways. During hard frost all these birds would run 

 to me when I made my appearance with the dish of bullock's liver chopped 

 fairly small. The Grey Plovers would be the first to arrive, nimbly 

 tripping across the lawn, and snatching a piece btfore the Black-headed 

 Gulls, screaming impatiently in the background, could come up ; when they 

 did arrive on the scene of their breakfast, they fully made up for lost time 

 by nearly choking themselves in swallowing six or seven large morsels in as 

 many seconds. The Lapwings are the timid ones; they always wait until 

 I have retired a few paces, and their appetites are move easily satisfied than 

 those of the Grey Plovers. But I feel confident that had I not taken great 

 care to throw the liver to them morning and afternoon I should not 

 now have the pleasure of seeing them running over the beds of the kitchen 

 garden, and out on the lawn, for the apparently inexhaustible supply of 

 worms, which are so adroitly extracted from their holes before one would 

 imagine they could quite realize whether they are " on their head or their 

 heels,' as the saying goes. The Curlew (a male bird) has quite lost the 

 timidity that he displayed upon first arriving, and will run quickly with a 

 suppressed whistle towards me, for the liver, which he 6\vallow8 down with 

 gusto. It will be interesting to watch the Grey Plover's assumption of 

 summer plumage, and also to see whether any of the three different kinds 

 (i.e. the Gulls, the Green and the Grey Plovers) will show any inclination 

 to incubate in a garden where many a quiet nook may be found. They all 

 delight in their ablutions ; indeed the Plovers of both sorts are most pugi- 

 listic amongst each other when the time arrives for perhaps three individuals 

 to have a bath in one pan ; however, if their cries are too loudly remonstra- 

 tive, all their washing is put a stop to by the arrivul of the Gulls, who 

 quickly settle the question by turning them out and plunging in themselves. 

 I had a female Curlew, but I gave her away to a friend who was about to 

 purchase a male ; unfortunately he bought another female as well, which 

 bird simply murdered, first, the one of her own sex in a furious fit of 

 jealousy, for she tran>fixed her through the neck with her long bill, and 

 then her mate, for what she apparently regarded as bigamy ; and never 

 rested until the two corpses were left in a mangled condition upon the grass. 

 Of the three Lapwings, two are males, and these also are most pugnacious ; 

 screaming at each other, with distended wings and crests erected, in a most 

 menacing manner — a demonstration, however, which generally ends in a 

 harmless tussle. — Hubeut D. Astlkv (The Rectory, Henley-ou-Thames). 



