AN ENGLISH FARMER'S FRIEND

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 8

AN ENGLISH FARMER'S FRIEND

There are many British plovers, and all of them are birds as useful to man as they are interesting. Their eggs are much esteemed for the table and very dear to buy. The commonest' plover is the lapwing or green plover, usually called the peewit in imitation of its call note. “ Peewit ” is often heard in the country, especially in marshy districts. It is a useful bird to the farmer, and its life is protected nearly everywhere. The peewit is a handsome creature, with its dark green back and crest, its black throat, and its white head and underparts. Its eggs are handsome, too, varying much in colour from grey to olive, but always blotched with very dark spots. This variation makes the eggs difficult to detect when they are on the ground. This is fortunate for Lady Peewit, who never troubles to make a nest. She just scrapes out a shallow hole or uses a natural one, and leaves protection to Mother Nature. The peewit feeds exclusively on insects and other small creatures such as watersnails. Wireworms, slugs, caterpillars, all are devoured, and an enormous number destroyed by a pair of the birds in a single season. In eating watersnails it destroys the elementary form of that dread disease the liver-fluke, which attacks sheep.