IS proverbially accounted a foolish bird, yet why so it is hardly possible to say. Its length is about ten inches; the bill is not quite an inch long, and is black. The forehead is mottled with brown and grey; the top of the head is black; and over each eye there is an arched line of white. The back and wings are a light brown; the breast is a pale dull orange; the middle of the body is black, and the rest and the thighs are of a reddish white. The tail is brown, black towards the end, and tipped with white. This bird is migratory, and makes its appearance in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Derbyshire in April, but soon leaves those counties and passes on towards the north, breeding in the mountains of the north of England and Scotland. In April, and sometimes in September, Dottrels are seen in Wiltshire and Berkshire. They are generally caught, like other birds, by night; when, dazzled by the light of a torch, they are at a loss to know where to fly for safety, the whole place being in darkness, and generally select the very spot which they should avoid. Many ridiculous stories have been propagated about the gestures of this bird, and its endeavouring to imitate the actions of the fowler, and thereby falling into the snare laid for him; but they ought to be entirely disbelieved. [Illustration: THE LAPWING, OR PEEWIT. (_Vanellus cristatus._)] THIS well-known bird is found in nearly all countries, and is of the size of a common pigeon. The female lays four or five eggs, of a yellow colour, varied all over with large 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: so 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 attentive love and care for their offspring; for if the fowler, or any other enemy, should come near the nest, the female, panting with fear, lessens her call to make her enemies believe that she is much further off, and thereby deceives those that search for her brood; she also sometimes pretends to be wounded, and utters a faint cry as she limps away, to lead the fowler from her nest. This bird is really beautiful, although it does not exhibit that gaudiness of colours of which other species of the feathered tribe can boast: it weighs about half-a-pound. The head, and the crest which elegantly adorns it, is black; this crest, composed of unwebbed feathers, is about four inches in length. The back is of a dark green, glossed with blue shades; the throat is black; the hinder part of the neck and the breast are white. The Lapwing, when in search of food, stamps with his feet upon the ground, and when the earth-worms, alarmed at the noise, appear, he seizes and devours them. His voice, on the