336 
THE LAPWING. 
trinities of witnessing tliese manoeuvres by the Sandpipers, 
have probably often watched the similar proceedings of our 
common Lapwing or Pewit, which decoys a dog or a 
stranger away, either by screaming close to his ear, as 
she flits by in a sort of tumbling flight, or by scrambling 
along the ground as if wounded, when the young brood are in 
danger. Indeed, these 
latter birds, above any 
others, have need of all 
the art and cunning 
they can muster to save 
their eggs, which are 
eagerly sought after in 
the places where they 
are known to breed, 
for the purpose of sell- 
ing them at a high 
price, as a luxurious 
article of food. 
The Lapwing. 
In the Orkney Islands, to the north of Scotland, they were, 
and possibly still are, allowed to breed unmolested; and their 
increase is consequently very great. Probably they were once 
equally unmolested in every other part of North Britain, 
which may account for a curious Act of Parliament, said to 
have been passed many years ago in Scotland, for encourage- 
ment to destroy them as “ ungrateful’ 5 birds ; “ for that they 
come to Scotland to breed, and then returned to England 
with their young to feed the enemy. Their food consists 
chiefly of grubs and insects, easily procured in the low mossy 
grounds, which they prefer. Earth-worms, too, form a large 
portion of their diet ; but, as their bills are neither so long 
nor so strong as to pierce deep enough into the soil to get at 
them, they adopt the following clever mode of inducing them 
to show themselves above ground, when they are instantly 
seized by the watchful Lapwing. A friend of ours, one day 
finding a young Plover, carried it home, and kept it in a 
* Letters from the North of Scotland , vol. i, 
