MAY 101 



to sit upon them so late that her power of producing a 

 second clutch of eggs was gone ; whereas, nowadays, when 

 nearly all the first laid eggs are taken, the birds go off and 

 lay again under more propitious circumstances. If this 

 be so, we may eat our ploTers' eggs with a clear con- 

 science ; but still, not only in mercy but in self-interest, 

 county councils would do well to prohibit the slaughter of 

 lapwings, because it is the winter flight, the birds which 

 are now breeding in more northern latitudes, that confer 

 most benefit upon our farmers by the destruction of grubs 

 and mischievous insects. 



XVI 



Talking of lapwings, has it occurred to many people to 



notice the strange indifference with which the „, 



° Plovers 



peasantry of most parts of the British Isles Eggs and 

 regard some of the articles which find a ready ° *" 

 sale in cities as delicacies ? This is the more remarkable 

 in the case of things like plovers' eggs, which any country 

 boy may collect for himself Of course, the high price 

 which plovers' eggs now command, and the numerous 

 agencies throughout the land where the price may be 

 obtained, suggest to the said boy to sell rather than to eat 

 the eggs. But the high price is an affair of recent years 

 — at least in certain remote parts of Scotland with which 

 I am well acquainted ; and I think I may afiirm with 

 certainty, that at no time within the last half-century did 

 plovers' eggs form any part of the cottagers' diet, nor, for 

 that matter, of the farmers'. 



Plovers' eggs are followed by the later and richer 

 luxury of the eggs of the black-headed gull {Larus 

 ridibundus). This bird breeds in dense colonies on the 



