302 
CHARADRIIDzE. 
and would frequently walk directly up to them; whilst 
those who are, like myself, uninitiated in the pursuit of 
this particular species, might wander, as I have often 
done, in fruitless weariness over a great extent of coun¬ 
try. The eggs of the Peewit are as much prized by the 
epicure for their inward excellence, as they are by the 
collector tor their outward beauty. Immense numbers 
are sent to Leadenliall Market in the spring, and the 
eggs of many other species of birds are imposed upon 
the Londoners in their stead. Mr. Yarrell mentions, 
that two hundred dozens of Peewits" eggs were sent in 
one season from Pomney Marsh to Dover. 
Although the eggs of the Peewit are for the most part 
very much alike—and any one who had not seen a large 
number of them, might suppose that they are subject to 
but little variety,—there is scarcely any bird, the eggs of 
which differ more. Mr. Charles Adamson, of Newcastle, 
has a large series of these eggs, selected by himself from 
thousands which are exposed for sale in Leadenliall 
Market, amongst which there is not only an extraordi¬ 
nary variety of colour, but a strange difference in shape : 
some are quite white, minutely dotted with black_a 
variety which, a few years ago, was passed off by the 
dealers for the egg of the avocet; some have their 
surfaces thickly blotched nearly all over with deep shades 
of brown; many of them are as unlike each other, or the 
characteristic eggs of the species, as they well can be. 
