154 
THE LAPWING. 
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 selling them at 
a high price, as a luxurious article of food. 
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 en- 
couragement to destroy them as “ ungrateful'' birds ; 
“ for that they came 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 or 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 confined place. In addition to its common 
food, a few square pieces of turf, six or seven 
inches in thickness, were introduced ; upon these 
■were thrown a number of garden-worms, which 
buried themselves in the sods as fast as they could. 
Care was taken to keep them moist by frequent 
* betters from the North of Scotland , vol. i. 
