BIRDS. 307 
drawn, as, dropping upon slices of toasted bread, they are 
relished as a delicious kind of sauce. By some late ob- 
servations, it appears that several individuals of the spe- 
cies remain with us the whole year. They frequent espe- 
cially wet and swampy woods, the thick hedges near rivu- 
lets, and places affording them their allotted food, which 
consists of very small insects found in the moist ground. 
The Woodcock's early visit and abode 
Of long continuance, in our temperate clime, 
Foretell a liberal harvest. PHILIPS. 
THE LAPWING, OR PEWIT. (Tringa Vanellns.) 
THIS is a bird well-known in all countries, and nearly 
everywhere to be met with. It is of the size of a common 
pigeon. The female lays four or five eggs, of a yellow 
colour, varied all over with great black spots and strokes. 
Lapwings build their nests on the ground in the middle of 
some field or heath, open and exposed to view, laying 
only some few straws under the eggs : as soon as the young 
are hatched, they instantly forsake the nest, running away 
with the shell on their back, and following the mother, 
only covered with a kind of down like young ducks. The 
parents have been impressed by nature with the most at- 
tentive love and care for their offspring ; for if the fowler, 
