EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 127 



season from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in Scandinavia up to 

 the Arctic circle, but in Siberia not further north than lat. 55°. 



The site for the nest is very frequently on the bare fallow or 

 turf in any little depression that may chance to be there. The 

 footprint of a cow or a horse is very frequently selected. Where 

 no hole is to hand the birds scratch a little hollow, which is 

 scantily lined with a few bent sprays of withered heath, or bits 

 of dead rush, moss, or dry grass, on which the eggs are laid. 



The eggs are usually four in number, but the bird has been 

 known to sit on two or three, probably in cases where the first 

 clutch have been destroyed ; and in very rare instances as many 

 as five have been found. They are huffish-brown, light buff, or 

 olive, and in rare instances pale green in ground-colour, heavily 

 blotched and spotted with blackish-brown, and with underlying 

 markings of inky-grey. The eggs of this bird are subject to 

 much variation. On some the markings are small and evenly 

 distributed over the entire surface ; on others the blotches are 

 large and confluent, hiding most of the ground-colour. Some are 

 very sparingly marked ; others have most of the spots or blotches 

 in a broad zone round the large end. They are very large for the 

 size of the bird, varying in length from 2'0 to 1*75 inch, and in 

 breadth from 14 to 1*28 inch. The eggs of the Lapwing may 

 be easily distinguished from those of the Golden Plover by their 

 much browner appearance and, on an average, by their smaller 

 size. 



THE SOCIABLE LAPWING. 



(Vanellus gregarius.)* 



A specimen of this eastern Lapwing was shot in Lancashire, 

 in the autumn, about the year 1860. It is an inhabitant of the 

 steppes of Southern Eussia, extending to the Aral', and wintering 

 in North-western India, Arabia, and North-western Africa. 



The nest has not been described, but is doubtless similar to 

 those of the Common Lapwing. 



The eggs, four in number, are very similar to those of the 

 last-named species, but the spots appear to be rather more 

 sparsely distributed. They measure 195 to 165 inch in length, 

 and 135 to 1'25 inch in breadth. 



* Chatusia gregaria—Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 173. 



