Limicoloe 195 



its breeding quarters. These are as often on moors 

 as on grass-fields or ploughed land, while the nest of 

 a few straws or grass stems is sometimes conspicuous 

 by its absence ; the well-known eggs, sold in quantities 

 for eating, are laid from March to June, and are stone- 

 coloured or greenish with blackish brown markings. 

 The present writer foimd four in 1913 at an altitude 

 of 3000 feet in Scotland. The food consists of insects 

 and their larvae, worms, slugs, and small creatures from 

 the beach, for Lapwings resort in numbers to the shore 

 at low tide. Flocks are formed after the breeding 

 season and are very constant to the parts of the country 

 where they first congregate in autumn; the same 

 flock may even be seen through the winter till spring, 

 occupying the same two or three fields. The note of 

 " pee- wit " or " pease-weep " has given the bird more 

 than one of its names. South of the Arctic Circle it 

 ranges over Europe and northern Asia and even reaches 

 northern Africa, though far less common in the south. 

 The Turnstone {Arenaria interpres) ranges over the 

 Arctic regions of both the New and the Old Worlds, 

 and visits us between July and May, or more rarely 

 remains tiU June. It has not, however, been proved 

 to nest south of the Baltic. With us it frequents rocky 

 shores where sea-weed is plentiful ; in the far north it 

 retires to the feUs to breed. The locality most usually 

 chosen is, however, some spot near high-tide mark, 

 where the four greyish green eggs, with grey and brown 

 spotting, are deposited with scarcely any bedding. 

 The food of small moUusks, crustaceans, and insects is 

 sought among sea-weed and stones, which, as the bird's 

 name implies, are often overturned in the search. The 

 note is of a whistling nature, the fiight quick but not 



13—2 



