NOTES AND QUERIES. 29 



times in the fields as well ; and, as is their wont, when laid in the 

 latter situation, the eggs are surrounded with small pebbles or pieces 

 of shells ; but the following nesting arrangement I venture to think 

 very rare, and should much like to know if any of your correspondents 

 have met with a similar nest. On May 26th, 1900, I found, in a 

 ploughed field, a rude nest, constructed of bents, resembling that of the 

 Lapwing, only smaller ; this contained three eggs of the Einged Plover. 

 The ground on which it lay was about to be harrowed, so I removed the 

 eggs. On June 14th I found a similar nest (evidently the work of the 

 same pair of birds) a short distance from where the first had been con- 

 structed, but this one was placed in a patch of coarse grass, and con- 

 tained four Einged Plover's eggs. I am aware that Col. Feilden de- 

 scribes a nest of the Einged Plover lined with the leaves and stems of 

 Atriplex littoralis, but this was found abroad, and referred to the small 

 variety of Einged Plover. — J. E. H. Kelso (67, Elm Grove, Southsea, 

 Hants). 



On the feigning of Injury by the Lapwing (Vanellus vulgaris) to 

 attract attention from its Young. — Whilst looking through some back 

 volumes of ' The Zoologist,' I noticed (1897, p. 473) the statement, 

 " that sitting Lapwings (that is, females) decoy intruders from their 

 nests by their devices," described as an ornithological fallacy. I con- 

 clude that by the word " devices " the writer refers to the feigning of in- 

 jury usually attributed to that bird. Mr. E. Selous appears to be equally 

 sceptical upon this subject, for in his book ' Bird-Watching ' (p. 66) 

 he writes : — " Perhaps it may be wondered why I have not included 

 the Peewit in the list of birds which employ, or appear to employ, a 

 ruse in favour of their young ones, since this bird is always given as 

 the stock instance of it. The reason is that whilst the birds I mention 

 [Nightjar, Mallard, &c. — B. B. E.] have always, in my experience, gone 

 off, so to speak, like clockwork, when the occasion for it arrived, I have 

 never known the Peewit to do so, though I have probably disturbed as 

 many scores — perhaps hundreds — of them, under the requisite con- 

 ditions, as I have units of the others. I have also inquired of keepers 

 and warreners, and found their experience to tally with mine. They 

 have spoken of the cock-bird ' leading you astray ' aerially, whilst the 

 hen sits on the nest, and of both of them flying with screams close 

 about your head when the young are out, which statements I have 

 often verified. But they have never professed to have seen a Peewit 

 flapping over the ground as with a broken wing in the way it is so 

 constantly said to do. I cannot therefore but think that by some 

 chance or other an action, common to many birds, has been particu- 



