LAPWIISTG 147 



The measurements of 100 eggs measured by the writer average 47 

 by 33.7 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 58 

 by 32.6, 47.4 by 37.2, 42.3 by 33 and 44.7 by 31.2 millimeters. 



Young. — Incubation is performed by both sexes, but much the 

 greater part by the hen, the male being on guard to give the alarm. 

 Incubation begins with the third or fourth egg and the period is 

 as a rule 24 or 25 days, but in some cases is said to extend to 27 

 or even 28 days. The adults are very bold and demonstrative when 

 the eggs are chipping and will even strike sheep or dogs. The 

 young remain in the nest until the down has been thoroughly dried 

 and at first do not travel far afield, crouching when the parents give 

 the alarm. They can swim readily and are led by the old birds from 

 dry uplands toward water meadows. Directly the young are able to 

 fiy they assemble into flocks. Only one brood is reared during the 

 season. 



Plumages. — The plumages and molts are fully described in A 

 Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby 

 (1920). 



Kidgway (1919) says that the sexes are alike, and that he has 

 been unable to verify the supposed differences in the wing formula of 

 male and female. It is, however, easy to distinguish the sexes in 

 life by the shape of the wing of the male, which is, as described by 

 Frohawk and others, much more rounded in shape than that of the 

 female. 



Food. — This consists largely of earthworms, mollusca (including 

 the large slugs Avion and AgrioUmax as well as the smaller snails. 

 Helix sp. ; also during the winter months marine shell fish, Tellina, 

 Bythinia^ Physa^ etc.) and insects. This latter family includes Cole- 

 optera {OtiorhyncJms, Carabidae, Ocypusolens, Aphodius, Agriotes, 

 various species of Geodephaga, etc.), Diptera, including larvae of 

 Tipulidae, Lepidoptera (many larvae of moths such as Noctua sege- 

 tum^ N. exclamationes, etc.), and Orthoptera. Vegetable matter is 

 also eaten, but not largely. Seeds of Ranunculus repens, Polygonum 

 aviculare, and Spergula have been recognized, also fragments of sea- 

 weed (Algae) in winter. Spiders and marine Crustacea are also 

 recorded. 



Behavior. — The lapwing is preeminently a gregarious bird. All 

 through the winter months it is to be met with in flocks, sometimes 

 of great size, and even in the breeding season it is rare to find a single 

 pair nesting out of sight and earshot of its neighbors. The curious 

 " wobbling " flight enables the species to be recognized at great dis- 

 tances. Unlike some other gregarious species, such as the starling, 

 the lapwing is not expert in the art of simultaneous maneuvers and 



