MISCELLANEA. 365 



in a sLort time, and confirmatory of the above observation, it 

 may be mentioned that in Easter week, 1866, I found some 

 Peewits' eggs under the following circumstances in the same 

 district, but not in the same fields. There had been a severe 

 snowstorm and a heavy fall of snow for the season on Easter 

 Monday, and all the moors were covered with snow until the 

 Wednesday morning following, when it all disappeared from the 

 higher grounds exposed to the eun's rays. About five o'clock 

 on Thursday evening I started a Peewit from a piece of un- 

 covered moorland, though snow was still lying in all the hollows 

 and sheltered spots around. On going to the place from which 

 the bird rose there was a nest with two eggs, which the bird 

 had been sitting on, as they were quite warm. iN'ow both these 

 eggs must have been laid since the morning of the previous day, 

 if not in a shorter time, for all the moors were covered with 

 snow till the middle of that day. That is, two eggs had been 

 laid in or within the twenty-four hours, 



Peewits, as is well known, often rise from a nest containing 

 only one or two eggs. This seems to indicate that these birds 

 begin to sit continuously from the time the first egg is laid. This 

 habit would be of the greatest advantage to the Peewit, for, the 

 nest being always on exposed, open ground, the eggs, if volun- 

 tarily left uncovered by the parent bird for a short time even, 

 would inevitably fall a prey to the numerous gulls, rooks, and 

 crows which are constantly hawking for eggs over the moors in 

 spring. 



To the more migratory species of this family, which have to 

 travel such immense distances for the purpose of nesting and 

 rearing their young, this rapid habit of laying their eggs and 

 incubating them would be of special service, for many of these 

 birds leave our shores late in spring for their breeding-grounds, 

 often within the Arctic circle, the young of some of them return- 

 ing as early as August, and the others in the early part of 

 September, on their journey back to the north of Africa, or 

 further southwards; the whole process of nesting and rearing 

 their young, and the passage of many thousand miles to and from 

 their winter quarters having to be accomplished in three or four 



