274 JACKSON: NOTES ON THE LAPWING NEAR GARSTANG. 



to distinguish how many of these were young birds ; this being the 

 earhest attempt at flocking it seems that some six weeks elapse before 

 the young are able to fly, and during all this time they appear to be 

 altogether unprotected, as they are on the ground, cannot fly, and do 

 not attempt to run away, but seem to rely solely on their admirable 

 skill in keeping out of sight. We carefully searched a large pasture 

 field for young birds, but were unable to find one although there were 

 certainly some in it, as six or seven old birds were flying around all 

 the time. We afterwards found one in the same field by seeing it 

 walking about with the old one and going to the spot. In such cases 

 the young birds disappear long before you can get near them, and even 

 before the old bird takes to flight. On the same date we also took 

 three eggs which were only slightly incubated, so that there will be 

 at least eight weeks between the early and late hatches, the latter are 

 probably birds which have had their first lot of eggs taken. These 

 small young ones are most active on their legs, and if lifted up and 

 again placed on the ground will run a few yards, then stick their bill 

 to the ground and run on again in exactly the same fashion as the 

 old birds ; they seem to do this whether there is anything to pick up 

 or not. 



July 9th — Very few single birds left in the fields now, and we saw 

 one flock of about sixty, but too far off" for minute examination. 

 We also saw during the daytime two or three birds, apparently asleep 

 and not standing on their legs. 



July 1 6th — Saw only two or three single birds about the fields, 

 but several large flocks — one which was in a rough pasture-field con- 

 tained not less than 200 birds, and more than half of them appeared 

 to be birds of the year. 



August ist — Almost all the Tewits in flocks now. After careful 

 search over a grass field with the glass, we discovered one young bird 

 walking about, being evidently about the latest of its kind. On going 

 to the place we found it ' squat,' and took two photos of it in this 

 position, which give some slight idea of the admirable protective 

 power of unobtrusive colour and marking when no movement what- 

 ever is made by the bird. This young bird could fly well for twenty 

 or thirty yards and no doubt would be fairly on the wing in three or 

 four days. 



August 20th — During the morning spent some time trying to get 

 near a large flock of Tewits in a pasture-field : there were about 200 

 birds and all seemed to be resting, some pruning their feathers, some 

 sitting down, but none appeared to be feeding. They seem to have 

 a kind of daily migration, and just as dusk comes on and the first star 

 appears they leave the fields they have frequented duringthe day, 



Naturalist, 



