CRESTED LAPWING. 
51 1 
considered a delicacy, and are frequently brought 
to the London markets for sale, and fetch a high 
price. 
The female lays four eggs on the ground, in a 
hole formed by herself, and partly filled with dry 
grass ; they are of an olivaceous brown, blotched 
with black : she sits about three weeks, and the 
young are able to run within two or three days 
after they are hatched, but are not capable of 
flying till nearly full grown : they are led about by 
the parents in search of food, but are not fed by 
them. During this period the old birds exhibit 
the greatest anxiety for their welfare, and the arts 
used by them to allure boys and dogs from the 
place they frequent are very singular ; the female 
in particular, upon the approach of an intruder, 
boldly pushes out to meet him ; when as near as 
she dare venture, she rises from the ground, with 
a loud scream, and apparently in great anxiety, 
striking at the invaders with her wings, and now 
and then fluttering as if wounded : to complete the 
deception, she becomes still more clamorous as she 
retires from the nest ; and at last, when their pur- 
suers are drawn off to a proper distance, she exerts 
her powers, and leaves them far behind. 
The food of these birds consists principally of 
worms, which they extract from their holes with 
great ingenuity. “ I have seen this bird,” says 
Latham, “ approach a worm cast, turn it aside, 
and after making two or three turns about by way 
of giving motion to the ground, the worm came 
