CHAP. XVII PEWITS 155 



feed, they do not take much to the land till the end of March, 

 when, if the weather is mild, I see them all day long flyit)g 

 about in their eccentric circles — generally in pairs ; immediately 

 after they appear in this manner, they commence layingtheir 

 eggs, almost always on the barest fields, where they scratch 

 a small hole just large enough to contain four eggs — the usual 

 number laid by all waders ; it is very difficult to distinguish 

 these eggs from the ground, their colour being a brownish-green 

 mottled with dark spots. 1 often see the hooded crows hunting 

 the fields frequented by the pewits, as regularly as a pointer, 

 flying a few yards above the ground, and searching for the eggs. 

 The cunning crow always selects the time when the old birds 

 are away on the shore ; as soon as he is perceived, however, 

 the pewits all combine in chasing him away: indeed, they attack 

 fearlessly any bird of prey that ventures near their breeding- 

 ground ; and I have often detected the locale of a stoat or 

 weasel by the swoops of these birds : also when they have laid 

 their eggs they fight most fiercely with any other bird of their 

 own species which happens to alight too near them. I saw 

 a cock pewit one day attack a wounded male bird which came 

 near his nest ; the pugnacious little fellow ran up to the intruder, 

 and taking advantage of his weakness, jumped on him, tramp- 

 ling upon him and pecking at his head, and then dragging him 

 along the ground as fiercely as a game-cock. 



The hen pewit has a peculiar instinct in misleading people 

 as to the whereabouts of her nest ; as soon as any one appears 

 in the field where the nest is, the bird runs quietly and rapidly 

 in a stooping posture to some distance from it, and then rises 

 with loud cries and appearance of alarm, as if her nest was 

 immediately below the spot she rose from. When the young 

 ones are hatched too, the place to look for them is, not where 

 the parent birds are screaming and fluttering about, but at some 

 little distance from it ; as soon as you actually come to the 

 spot where their young are, the old birds alight on the ground 

 a hundred yards or so from you, watching your movements. 

 If, however, you pick up one of the young ones, both male and 

 female immediately throw off all disguise, and come wheeling 

 and screaming round your head, as if about to fly in your face. 

 The young birds, when approached, .squat flat and motionless 

 on the ground, often amongst the weeds and grass in a shallow 



