66 



PLOVHR GROUP 



with a few twigs and fragments of rcindccr-moss, on the open tundra. 

 As to the eggs themselves, these are perhaps best described as inter- 

 mediate between those of the plover and those of the lapwing, the 

 blotching being similar, but the ground-colour, which is browner in 



some examples and 

 more olive in others, 

 being less buff than 

 typical specimens of 

 the former and not 

 so purely olive as 

 those of the latter. 

 In length they range 

 from 1.9 to 2.2 inches. 

 As with plovers gen- 

 erally, a single annual 

 clutch is laid. 



With the excep- 

 tion of its shyer dis- 

 position and more 

 littoral habits, the 

 grey plover is very 

 similar in its mode 

 of life to the golden species. Although sometimes collecting in flocks 

 of considerable size, it seems to be more generally seen in small parties 

 on the seashore, the members of which occupy themselves in searching 

 for the small animals left by the ebbing tide. 



GKKY I'LOVKK (CUCK IN SLMMKK-DKK.SS. 



Lapwing" or 



Peewit 



(Vanellus 



vulgaris). 



Fortunately for lovers of bird -life the lapwing or 

 peewit, which derives one of its names from its flight, 

 and the other from its well-known cry, is such a wary 

 bird, and its eggs so marvellously resemble their 

 surroundings, that despite the enormous numbers in 

 which the latter are taken for the table, it still holds its own in large 

 flocks on all the open grounds, whether dry or marshy, throughout the 

 British Islands. Indeed, although the numbers of these birds appear 

 to have diminished considerably in many parts of England, the species 

 is reported to be on the increase in certain districts in Scotland. As 

 the TriHi^a vanellus of Linn.uus, the species is known in advanced 

 nomenclature as Vanellus vanellus, while it is often termed Vanellus 

 eristatus, a name far preferable to V. vuli^ar/s, but unfortunately of later 

 date. From all British representatives of the plover group, the lapwing. 



