The Lapwing
A lapwing’s egg. Lapwings are handsome birds - black and white , with a splendid crest. They are well-known for their habit of trying to draw people and other potential predators away from their nest by simulating having a broken wing. They have many local names, reflecting the affection with which they are held by many – Pee Wit, Pie Wipe, Toppyup, Peasiewheep and so on.
Yet in British folklore they have a dark reputation. One legend says they flew over the cross crying ‘Pine Him! Pine Him!’ (Make him suffer) and were cursed for this. In Scotland their call is said to have betrayed persecuted Covenanters, hiding out on the moors. They are also associated with the Seven Whistlers (also called the Gabble Ratchet and Gabriel Hounds) – the pack of disturbed souls, in the form of hounds or birds, which can sometimes be heard flying wildly through the sky at night. Chaucer writes of the ‘false lapwing, ful of trecherye’ and Caxton describes it as a ‘foul and villainous bird’.
Poor lapwing! Maybe all of these traditions should be ditched. An alternative note is struck by John Heath-Stubbs:
The lapwing is a type of guile – that guile
Is elemental, sacrificial love.
She tumbles across the field, trailing
A simulated broken wing, to draw you off
From the hollow scrape or dried out cattle-footprint
Where lie the blotched and pear-shaped eggs …
After all sacrificial love is what Easter is all about.
Reading:
‘Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
(Matthew 20. 26-28)
Prayer:
‘Jesus, we thank you that when we have to face destructive powers you stand in our place and shelter us for their attack. Amen.’
