CRESTED LAPWING. 



considered a delicacy, and are frequently brought 

 to the London markets for sale, and fetch a high 

 price. 



The female lays four eggs on the ground, in a 

 hole formed by herself, and partly filled with dry 

 grass ; they are of an olivaceous brown, blotched 

 with black : she sits about three weeks, and the 

 young are able to run within two or three days 

 after they are hatched, but are not capable of 

 flying till nearly full grown : they are led about by 

 the parents in search of food, but are not fed by 

 them. During this period the old birds exhibit 

 the greatest anxiety for their welfare, and the arts 

 used by them to allure boys and dogs from the 

 place they frequent are very singular ; the female 

 in particular, upon the approach of an intruder, 

 boldly pushes out to meet him ; when as near as 

 she dare venture, she rises from the ground, with 

 a loud scream, and apparently in great anxiety, 

 striking at the invaders with her wings, and now 

 and then fluttering as if wounded : to complete the 

 deception, she becomes still more clamorous as she 

 retires from the nest ; and at last, when their pur- 

 suers are drawn off to a proper distance, she exerts 

 her powers, and leaves them far behind. 



The food of these birds consists principally of 

 worms, which they extract from their holes with 

 great ingenuity. " I have seen this bird,'* says 

 Latham, approach a worm cast, turn it aside, 

 and after making two or three turns about by way 

 of giving motion to the ground, the worm came 



