THE LAPWING. 113 



The improvement of the country, by drainage and other means, 

 has been more injurious to the lapwing than to any other bird, 

 and has wholly banished the species from many of its former 

 haunts. It is often interesting to observe the tenacity with 

 which, year after year, the poor bird clings to the place of its 

 birth ; or, if a parent, to that in which it brought up former broods. 

 The once spacious morass, when dwindled down to a spot of per- 

 haps fifty yards in diameter — lying too low for drains to act upon 

 it — will still exhibit its solitary pair of birds ; and even the moor, 

 after being turned into arable ground, is frequently revisited as a 

 nesting place. When undisturbed, these birds may be heard 

 uttering their cry at a late hour in their breeding haunts. On 

 the 1st July, I have heard them, and snipes at the same time, 

 calling, until near ten o' clock p.m., about the heath-covered sum- 

 mit of Wolf hill. Lapwings generally call at all seasons during 

 moonlight. 



So soon as the young are able to leave the nursery, they, with 

 their parents, gather into flocks, and betake themselves to other 

 quarters. On the 21st July, 1833, about eighty birds were 

 observed, in company, about the head of Crumlin river. On the 

 4th of August, I remarked a flock of forty leave the Belfast moun- 

 tains, and fly towards the shore, the weather being dry and warm, 

 as it had been for some time previously. Until the 13th there was 

 not any rain. Their breeding places in the locality just named 

 were occasionally visited by me, until the 16th of that month; 

 and a few birds were seen at all of them but one ; those which 

 remained being, doubtless, individuals whose nests had been 

 robbed of their eggs early in the season. That these birds had 

 young was evident from their manoeuvres. The number bred 

 about here is very trivial, compared with that at other places. 

 On the 2nd of August (1846) T saw above 200 flocked on the 

 shores of Lough Neagh, near Toome ; and on the 31st of 

 July (1840) not less than 500 rose on wing together on the banks 

 of the Shannon, near Portumna. Late in the autumn, and during 

 winter, some thousands may be seen at these places during a fore- 



VOL. II. I 



