254 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



wing is a light sitter, rising from its eggs at once and 

 flying about the air overhead in a restless, erratic 

 manner, uttering its mewing cry, and generally becom- 

 ing most demonstrative when furthest from its nest. 

 The eggs are most difficult to find, so closely do they 

 resemble surrounding objects. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Lapwing normally are four in number, 

 but instances of five have been recorded. They are 

 pear-shaped, and range from buffish-brown of various 

 shades to pale olive and olivc-grecn, rarely to delicate 

 bluish-green in ground colour, richly blotched and 

 spotted with blackish-brown and paler brown, and with 

 underlying markings of ink-gray. Usually most of the 

 markings are large and confluent, and most abundant 

 on the larger end of the egg, the smaller spots being 

 more sparingly distributed over the remainder of the 

 shell. A common variety has the markings principally 

 displayed in a zone round the larger end of the egg ; 

 another has them evenly distributed over the entire 

 surface, small and often streaky. Rarely they are 

 very sparingly marked, especially when the ground 

 colour is pale blue. Average measurement, I'g inch in 

 length, by i"3 inch in breadth. Incubation, performed 

 by both sexes, lasts from twenty-five tb twenty-six 

 days. If the first clutches of eggs be taken, others will 

 be laid. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the Lapwing 

 are very characteristic, and can only be confused in our 

 islands with those of the Golden Plover, from which 

 however they are readily distinguished by their smaller 

 size and browner (not yellow) general appearance. 



