THE CRESTLESS LAPWINGS. 1/5 



with many other stuffed birds, which impeded the view: it was 

 erroneously recorvled as a Cream coloured Courser by Mr. F. S. 

 Mitchell. It afterwards came into the possession of Mr. W. H. 

 Doeg, when it was correctly identified, and was exhibited by 

 Mr. Seebohm at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London 

 on November 20th, 18S8. Its pedigree appears to be perfectly 

 satisfactory." 



Range outside the British Islands. — The principal home of this 

 species is in South-eastern Russia, in the steppes of the Don, 

 the Volga, and the Caucasus, as well as the Crimea. The late 

 Professor Bogdanoff gives its range as the steppes of Tcher- 

 noze'm, from 51 to 53° N. lat., and its eastern range as ex- 

 tending to the Arab-Caspian region and Russian Songaria, 

 whence it wanders in winter to North-western and Western 

 India, and to Arabia and North-eastern Africa. It has oc- 

 curred on more than one occasion in Western Europe, having 

 been killed at least three times in Italy, as v/ell as near Nice. 

 Mr. Howard Saunders saw one in the Cadiz Market, in Feb- 

 ruary, 1868, and the late Professor Taczanowsky identified two 

 adults near LubHn in the autumn of 1842. 



Habits. — Very Httle has been recorded about the habits of this 

 species. Mr. Hume gives the following note of his observations 

 in Sind : " This Lapwing was often met with, chiefly in waste 

 places in the immediate neighbourhood of cultivation. As a 

 rule it is an upland bird ; you may see it occasionally near 

 jheels, but is most common in the neighbourhood of cultivation 

 on waste and dry uplands. It keeps together in flocks of from 

 twenty to one hundred, and until shot at once or twice is 

 fearlecs and tame." Colonel E. A. Butler also gives a short 

 note : " The Black-sided Lapwing is very common during the 

 cold weather in the neighbourhood of Deesa (farther south it is 

 not so plentiful), congregating in flocks, varying in numbers 

 from four or five to fifty or sixty. Like ^. ca?itianus and ^. 

 curonicus, it frequents open sandy and grass maidans and bare 

 cultivated or uncultivated ground." 



Nest. — Apparently no details are known of the nidification 

 of this species. 



Eggs — Four in number, very similar to those of the Lapwmg, 



