112 
CHAEADRIIDJ3. 
like that of the wind-hover or kestrel, is highly attractive ; and 
the occasional habit of the species, when on the ground, of throwing 
up vertically its singularly formed and beautiful wing, is not with- 
out its interest. The crest of this bird (according to an observant 
shooter) is always borne proudly erect during the breeding season ; 
but in autumn and winter is carried horizontally, as the species is 
generally figured. 
Sir Walter Scott, in the Tales of my Gr^ndfather,^^ refers 
to the persecution of the lapwing in the following words : — The 
country people retained a sense of the injustice with which their 
ancestors [the Covenanters] had been treated, which showed itself 
in a singular prejudice. They expressed great dislike of that 
beautiful bird the green plover, in Scottish called the peaseweep. 
The reason alleged was, that these birds being, by some instinct, 
led to attend to and w^atch any human beings whom they see on 
their native wilds, the soldiers were often guided in pursuit of the 
wanderers, when they might otherwise have escaped observation, 
by the plover being observed to hover over a particular spot. 
For this reason the shepherds often destroyed the nests of the 
bird when they met with them.'’^ 2nd voL, chap, vi., 2nd series. 
In YarrelFs History of British Birds there is a very interesting 
account of an opposite kind, in which the founder of the 
family of Tyrwhitts having fallen wounded in a skirmish, was 
saved by his followers, who were directed to the spot where 
he lay by the cries of these birds, and their hoveriDg over him, 
vol. ii., 483, 2nd edit. 
An encounter between a rook and a pair of lapwings was once 
witnessed by Mr. Poole, when the former must either have been 
intent on booty or on enjoying the sport of terrifying the anxious 
parents. So often as they were seen to drive him away did he 
return to renew the combat. In the ^British Naturalist^ 
(vol. i. p. 305) there is a graphic account of the lapwing^s 
performance, when the egg-plundering grey crow visits its breed- 
ing haunt. On the shore they do not, however, display such 
gallantry, as I have seen the black-headed gull drive them quite 
away when they approached its feeding ground. 
