48 
PEEWIT. 
answering to the geographical description of an island, ‘entirely 
surrounded by water,’ on the marshy ground. To avoid, 
however, the evils attendant on this contingency, a mole-hill 
or other slight eminence is often chosen for a cradle. The 
young are not capable of flying till nearly full-grown. 
The eggs, which are, like those of most if not of all small 
birds, very delicate eating, and sold in immense numbers for 
the purpose, are four in number; and so disposed in their 
narrow bed as to take up the smallest amount of room, the 
narrow ends pointed inwards, like the radii of a circle, to 
‘one common centre.’ They vary to an extraordinary degree, 
though generally very much alike; some are blotted nearly 
all over with deep shades of brown. A fine series will be 
found described in my ‘Natural History of the Nests and 
Eggs of British Birds.’ In general they are of a deep green 
colour, blotted and irregularly marked with brownish black. 
They are wide at one end and taper at the other, as is the 
case with the birds of this class. They are hatched in fifteen 
or sixteen days. 
Male; weight, between seven and eight ounces; length, a little 
over a foot; bill, black; from it and proceeding under the 
eye is a streak of black, bent downwards; the region about 
the eyes is white; iris, dark brown. Forehead, crown, and 
back of the head, black glossed with green, ending in a 
crest of six or seven narrow long black feathers, with a slight 
upward curve, capable of being raised nearly straight up or 
depressed at pleasure: they are as much as three inches long 
or even more. Head on the sides, neck on the back and sides, 
white, sometimes speckled with black and brown; nape, olive 
brown; chin, throat, neck in front, and breast on its upper 
part, black glossed with green, on its lower, white; the chin 
and throat white in winter. Back above, olive green, glossed 
with copper-colour and purple; in winter it has less of the 
gloss and purple, and the feathers are margined with reddish 
white; on its lower part it is ended by a narrow band of 
chesnut. 
The wings, very much rounded, have the first feather shorter 
than the fourth, but longer than the fifth, the second and 
third equal in length, and the longest in the wing; greater 
and lesser wing coverts, olive green, glossed with green, copper- 
colour, and purple; primaries, black, but the first three or 
four greyish white at the end; secondaries, black over the ends, 
at the base white; tertiaries, green, glossed with green, copper- 
