S6 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Nestling ; two shades of buff above, delicately mottled with black ; buflEsb-white 

 below, with an indication of tbe black pectoral belt. 



The nest is usually on low hills (seldom on high fells) or on marshy wastes. 

 The male excavates several holes on slight elevations, on some common, or ploughed 

 slope, in one of which the female lays four (very rarely five) eggs. There is 

 nearly always some attempts at a lining, even when, as in a ploughed field, the 

 material has to be brought from a distance. But this is principally added during 

 incubation, and consists of grass and fine roots. The eggs have a greenish tinge 

 when fresh, but this fades into a pale brown-buff, spotted, chiefly at the larger 

 end, with deep brownish-black; occasionally the ground colour is pale grey, or 

 even blue- grey. The eggs measure if by if in., and are very pyriform. The greater 

 part are laid in April, but some may be found in March and up to the end of 

 the first week in June. Owing to the eggs having become a fashionable spring 

 delicacy (" Seest thou not what a deformed thief this Fashion is ? ") and the con- 

 sequent merciless harrying of the nests. Peewits have for some time been decreasing 

 in numbers in the south and east of England ; but the bulk of the eggs sold in 

 the London markets now come from Holland and other parts of North Europe, 

 where they have the greater wisdom to regulate and restrict carefully the taking 

 of them. Black-headed Gull's eggs (which, when shelled, closely resemble those 

 of Peewits, except in the mere detail of shape), and even Rook's eggs, are 

 occasionally sold for them. The female Lapwing incubates chiefly during the day 

 time, as far as can be ascertained in the case of so wary a bird. When a human 

 intruder catches her eye (which is long, as a rule, before she catches his) she 

 steals ofi" the nest, and creeps stealthily for some distance before taking wing, and 

 then flies up as if she had come from somewhere else ; while the male endeavours 

 to divert attention from her movements by wheeling and tumbling round the 

 intruder's head, screaming incessantly the cry which is anglicised as " Peewit." 

 When they have young birds, the latter squat closely when they hear the parent's 

 alarm note, and the old birds put on as "groggy" a gait as they can, to coax 

 dangerous visitors away. They will dash at a prowling Crow, or Kestrel, with the 

 utmost energy and courage, and strike them if necessary. 



Wild and wary to a degree. Lapwings are anything but a favourite bird with 

 the wild-fowler, as their alarm note and agitated flight disturb everything within 

 sight and hearing. But, like many wild and wary birds, they get very tame in 

 confinement, and are, apart from their pretty and engaging ways, very desirable 

 inmates of a garden, as their food, consisting of worms, slugs, and insects, endears 

 them to a gardener. But I must express a decided opinion that loose in a roomy 

 walled garden is the nearest to a cage that any Limicoline bird should get. 



