THE LAPWING, 
113 
The improvement of the country, by drainage and other means, 
has been more injurious to the lapwing than to any other bird, 
and has wholly banished the species from many of its former 
haunts. It is often interesting to observe the tenacity with 
which, year after year, the poor bird clings to the place of its 
birth ; or, if a parent, to that in which it brought up former broods. 
The once spacious morass, when dwindled down to a spot of per- 
haps fifty yards in diameter — lying too low for drains to act upon 
it — will still exhibit its solitary pair of birds ; and even the moor, 
after being turned into arable ground, is frequently revisited as a 
nesting place. When undisturbed, these birds may be heard 
uttering their cry at a late hour in their breeding haunts. On 
the 1st July, I have heard them, and snipes at the same time, 
calling, until near ten o'* clock p.m., about the heath-covered sum- 
mit of Wolf hill. Lapwings generally call at all seasons during 
moonlight. 
So soon as the young are able to leave the nursery, they, with 
their parents, gather into flocks, and betake themselves to other 
quarters. On the 21st July, 1833, about eighty birds were 
observed, in company, about the head of Crumlin river. On the 
4th of August, I remarked a flock of forty leave the Belfast moun- 
tains, and fly towards the shore, the weather being dry and warm, 
as it had been for some time previously. Until the 13th there was 
not any rain. Their breeding places in the locality just named 
were occasionally visited by me, until the 16th of that month; 
and a few birds were seen at all of them but one ; those which 
remained being, doubtless, individuals whose nests had been 
robbed of their eggs early in the season. That these birds had 
young was evident from their manoeuvres. The number bred 
about here is very trivial, compared with that at other places. 
On the 2nd of August (1846) 1 saw above 200 flocked on the 
shores of Lough Neagh, near Toome; and on the 31st of 
July (1840) not less than 500 rose on wing together on the banks 
of the Shannon, near Portumna. Late in the autumn, and during 
winter, some thousands may be seen at these places during a fore- 
VOL. II. I 
