86 
NATURE STUDY. 
pie than prevails in France. The reputation the English have 
acquired as destroyers of game birds had led us to expect a 
scarcity of other birds. Quite the contrary was the fact. The 
island is alive with birds from Folkstone to Peterborough, the 
“ Land’s End and John O’Groat’s ” of our tour. Taking a cir¬ 
cular tour in the midland district we passed through the edge 
of the old fen country. Between Ely and Peterborough we saw 
large flocks of lapwings (Vanellus cristatus), plover-like birds 
which go in companies in search of their favorite, diet of earth¬ 
worms. Two sturdy yeomen in the coach with us showing a 
disposition to be sociable, we asked them about the birds. One 
said they were a kind of plover. The other tossed the remark 
over his shoulder that when he was a boy they called them 
“ Pe-weest,” to which the first added that some called them 
lapwings. This was in itself sufficient identification, as we 
found afterward when we compared our notes with the text¬ 
books. The birds were about ihe size of pigeons and had 
glossy green backs and white bellies. When on the ground 
their movements are rhythmical and graceful ; in flight, owing 
to the peculiar conformation of their wings, they are awk' 
ward, almost bat-like. 
One lovely day, never to the forgotten, we took a trip out of 
London to the favorite haunt of Dutch William, otherwise 
known as “of Orange,” or “the Third,” Hampton Court. We 
could easily see how the place would suit his majesty, fresh 
from the flats and dykes and windmills of Holland. It is much 
more beautiful and much less Dutchy now, than it was then, for 
William’s horse chestnuts have become old trees, grand with 
the accumulated majesty of two centuries. Such a sight is the 
springtime blossoming of these ancient trees, that the announce¬ 
ment of it is made annually in the London papers for the 
benefit of the public, who come in crowds by rail or boat to 
enjoy the sight. The place was full of birds. The summer 
quiet being on them we heard few songs. It was here in this 
home of romance and royalty and art that we saw our first true 
robin redbreasts (Erithacus rubecula). Shy, yet not nervous 
