The breeding-grounds of the Gray Plover are on the tundras and barren grounds in the Arctic regions of the Old and New Worlds, above the limits of forest growth. The nest is always made upon the ground, and is merely a slight hollow, lined with a few scraps of withered herbage. The four eggs very closely resemble those of the Lapwing, but are not quite so olive. When once flushed from the nest the Gray Plover becomes very wary and restless, and does not return for some time; should the young be hatched various alluring antics are indulged in to withdraw attention from them. LAPWING. This bird is the typical species of Brisson’s genus _Vanellus_, and is known to most naturalists as _Vanellus cristatus_ or _vulgaris_. It cannot easily be confused with any other British bird, and is readily identified by its long conspicuous crest, metallic green, suffused with purple upper parts, and bright chestnut upper and under tail coverts. Further, its appearance in the air, so far as British Limicoline birds are concerned, is unique; the curiously rounded wings, and deliberate Heron-like flight, together with the peculiar note, make the matter of its identification easy to the veriest tyro in ornithology. The Lapwing is also not only the commonest of its order found in Britain, but certainly the most widely dispersed. Nevertheless, it is only during the non-breeding season that the Lapwing can fairly be described as a marine bird. From March onwards to the early autumn it retires to inland moors, pastures, and rough undrained lands to breed, returning coastwards again when the young are reared, especially from the more exposed and elevated localities. The favourite marine haunts of the “Green Plover,” or Peewit, as this bird is otherwise called, are rough saltings, mud-flats, and slob-lands; sands and shingles it rarely visits unless when driven to do so by heavy snowfalls; and at all times it prefers ground overgrown with herbage to the bare beaches. As this species presents little difference between summer and winter plumage, means for concealment may have some influence in its choice of haunt. When standing or running on the ground the Lapwing is a very ordinary looking bird; graceful enough, it is true; but the moment it rises into the air the observer is struck with the singularity of its appearance; the broad and rounded wings are unfolded and moved in a slow flapping Owl-like manner; very often grotesque evolutions are indulged in, the bird rising and swooping down again, turning and twisting in a most erratic way, and all the time persistently uttering the wild, mewing, plaintive cry that is absolutely characteristic of this Plover—an unmistakable and unique note among birds. It may be expressed on paper as a nasal _pee-weet_, frequently modulated into _weet-a-weet_, _pee-weet-weet_.