110 CHARADRIID.E. 



ing account of it. The term Squatarola helvetica, used by Cuvier 

 — it was the Tringa helvetica of Linnseus — is adopted in Bona 

 parte' s Comparative Catalogue of the Birds of Europe and the 

 United States. 



THE LAPWING. 



Green Plover (in Ireland) , Peewit. 



Vanellus cristatus, Meyer and Wolf. 

 Tringa vanellus, Linn. 



Owing to the prevalence of bogs and humid tracts is 

 abundant in Ireland. 



In the spring and summer, these beautiful and interesting birds 

 enliven all our moist moors with their presence, and increase 

 wonderfully, considering the extent to which they are robbed of 

 their eggs. Idle country lads and mountain herds often lie on 

 the mountain side from morning till evening, for the purpose of 

 watching the poor lapwing to her nest ; and in some places have 

 confessed to me that they had " almost lived upon the eggs " so 

 procured. In the north of Ireland these are very seldom brought to 

 market, though they are to Dublin, in large quantities. The places 

 resorted to by the lapwing for breeding are of various kinds ; as 

 the elevated mountain moor, the low morass, pastures, rushy 

 meadows, and fallow-lands; more rarely, bean-fields and rocky 

 marine islets. About the middle of February, they generally 

 revisit and take up their abode on their breeding station ; but the 

 time varies according to the season. On the 1st March, 1833 

 and 1834, a friend noted them as beginning to fly around his dog 

 on the Belfast mountains ; but so late as the 26th March, 1843, 

 I saw a number about the margin of a bog, which, though 

 the weather had been fine and open for some time before, evi- 

 dently had not yet chosen sites for their nests. Had they done 

 so, we should have been saluted by them in crossing the bog ; 

 but not one came near us, nor even hovered over the bog itself. 



