LAPWING 



67 



which is the sole representative of its genus, is broadly distinguished by 

 the graceful crest adorning the head ; a similar feature occurs, it is true, 

 in certain foreign plovers, but these are distinguished by the presence 

 either of wattles on the sides of the head or of spurs on the wings. 

 The lapwing, which is a four-toed bird, further differs from the more 

 typical plovers by its broad and rounded wings, in which the secondary 

 quills are nearly as long as the primaries, and to which the slow flapping 

 flight, so different from the wild rush of the golden or the grey 

 plover, is due. On these grounds the lapwing might well have been 



%^ 



rM:^ 



^^^■■M 



^^i^.-Ai>A^f^^ 



/.LAND WARD STUDIOS 



LAinVING. 



placed in our system before the golden plover, were it not advisable 

 to place the typical representative of a family group near the beginning 

 of the series. 



In summer the range of the lapwing extends from Europe through 

 western and Central Asia to northern China, and thence across Bering 

 Strait into Alaska, while in winter a certain number of individuals 

 migrate from the more northern haunts of the species to the south of 

 Europe, northern Africa, the north-western districts of India, and the 

 south of China. The breeding-range of the species is unusually 

 extensive in regard to latitude, reaching in Europe from Spain nearly 

 to the Arctic Circle, and in Asia as far as latitude 65 . The species 

 is, indeed, to be regarded as a partial migrant, deserting only its extreme 

 northern haunts in summer, and visiting some of the most southern 



