156 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Description Manners. 



The reeves lay four eggs, in a tuft of grass, 

 about the beginning of May; and the young are 

 hatched in about a month. 



THE LAPWING, OR PEE-WIT. 



THIS bird is about the size of a common pi- 

 geon, and is covered very thick with plumes, 

 which are black at the roots, but of a different 

 colour on the outward part. The feathers on 

 the belly, thighs, and under the wings, are most 

 of them white as snow; and the under part on 

 the outside of the wings white, but black lower. 

 It has a great liver, divided into two parts, and, 

 as some authors affirm, no gall. 



Lapwings are found in most parts of Europe, 

 as far northward as Iceland. In the winter they 

 are met with in Persia and Egypt. Their chief 

 food is worms; and sometimes they may be seen 

 in flocks nearly covering the low marshy grounds 

 in search of these, which they draw with great 

 dexterity from their holes. When the bird 

 meets with one of these little clusters of pellets, 

 or rolls of earth, that are thrown out by the 

 worm's perforations ; it first gently removes the 

 mould from the mouth of the hole, then strikes 

 the ground at the side with its foot, and steadily 

 and attentively waits the issue: the reptile, 

 alarmed by the shock, emerges from its retreat, 



