158 C'HARADRIID.E. 



it. Morning and evening are in general the usual times of 

 feeding, which is continued also during moonlight nights. 



The nest of the present species is always on the ground, 

 among grass or other short herbage in open situations, 

 commons, and meadows, provided there is water near at 

 hand. This summer we have been greatly amused by two 

 pair of these birds, which had their nests among some 

 wheat that had been much swamped, and consequently 

 had become stunted during the spring ; the birds were 

 daily seen hovering over the place, calling their well-known 

 cry of peewit whenever a man or dog came within sight, 

 and the playful evolutions that were performed over the 

 river in the evening and continued till dark were extra- 

 ordinary, and elegant in the extreme. 



The four eggs (the invariable contents of each nest) are 

 hatched in fifteen or sixteen days, and the young run about 

 as soon as they are dry ; at first they are only clothed 

 in down, but in a fortnight the quills appear among it, and 

 they then resemble unsightly porcupines on high legs. 



The Crested Lapwing measures full twelve inches ; the 

 wing nine inches ; the beak ten lines and a half; the tarsus 

 one inch ten lines. 



The colouring of the beak is black, the eye brown, and 

 the legs and feet transparent red-brown ; the claws dusky. 



The plumage in summer is as follows : — The head is orna- 

 mented with a pendant crest, which the bird generally carries 

 on a line with its beak, but which can be raised at pleasure 

 in a fan shape around the back part of the cranium ; these 

 feathers are black, as are also the top of the head, the entire 

 front of the face surrounding the base of the beak, the chin, 

 fore part of the throat and entire upper part of the breast ; the 

 rest of the head and neck are pure white ; the back, scapulars, 

 wing-coverts, and tertials are deep bronze-green, with rich 



