COMMON LAPWING. 
283 
young and old assemble together, and frequent 
the pastures and fallows; some particular fields 
being often chosen by them in preference to others, 
probably on account of the abundance of food ; 
and here they will assemble daily for some time, 
feeding chiefly in twilight, or clear nights, and 
resting during the day. Extensive meadow lands 
are similarly frequented, as also the low merse 
lands at the mouths of rivers, and, we believe, 
the fenny counties. The clouds of birds that rise 
about sunset, to seek their feeding grounds, per- 
forming many beautiful evolutions ere they go off, 
is incredible, except to one who has witnessed 
it. In Holland, where this bird is extremely abun- 
dant, and where the view on all sides is bounded 
equally by a low horizon, thousands may be seen 
on all sides at once, gleaming in the setting sun, 
or appearing like a dense black moving mass 
between its light. The extent of their pasture 
there is almost unbounded, yet it appears fully 
stocked. Towards the end of October and in 
November, those which have spent the summer in- 
land, begin to return to the flat sea coasts, where 
they feed at the retreat of the tide, and on the low 
lands which generally accompany this character of 
shore, and remain until the spring again induces 
them to travel inland. The young are esteemed 
for the table, and plovers’ eggs, which, under that 
name (when pure), are those of the Peewit, are in 
great request in the London and some other of our 
large southern markets, their collection during the 
