504 LAPWING 



recognized and recognizable position, which he did in 1841, then 

 calling it (Abhandl. Geb. Zool. <& vergl. Anat. ii. p. 3, pis. x. xi.) 

 Falco feldeggi, it having been brought to his notice from examples 

 obtained by the Baron of that name in Dalmatia. In the same year, 

 however, Sir Gardiner Willdnson {Mann. & Oust. Anc. Egypt, ser. 

 2, ii. pp. 121, 210) conferred the name of Falco aroeris ^ on the sacred 

 Falcon of the ancient Egyptians, which we now know to be the 

 true Lanner. It is found locally throughout the countries border- 

 ing the Mediterranean, from Spain eastward, and is known to breed 

 on the Egyptian Pyramids. Fui'ther to the southward it is 

 replaced by the allied F. tanypterus (which the late Mr. Gurney 

 regarded as a local race), and in Western Asia by F. habylonicus. 



LAPWING, Anglo-Saxon Hledpewince ( = " one who turns about 

 in running or flight," see Skeat's Etymol. Did. p. 32 1),^ a well- 

 known bird, the Tringa vanellus of Linnaeus and the Vanellus vulgaris 

 or V. cristatus of most modern ornithologists. In the temperate 

 parts of the Old World this species is perhaps the most abundant 

 of the Charadriidse (Plover), breeding in greater or fewer numbers 

 in almost every suitable place from Ireland to Japan, — the majority 

 migrating towards winter to southern countries, as the Punjab, 

 Egypt, and Barbary, — though in the British Islands some are 

 always found at that season, chiefly about estuaries. As a straggler 

 it has occurred within the Arctic Circle (as on the Varanger Fjord 

 in Norway), as well as in Iceland and even Greenland ; while it 

 not unfrequently appears in Madeira and the Azores. Conspicuous 

 as the strongly contrasted coloiirs of its plumage and its very 

 peculiar flight make it, one may well wonder at its success in 

 maintaining its ground when so many of its allies have been almost 

 exterminated, for the Lapwing is the object perhaps of gi'eater per- 

 secution than any other European bird that is not a plunderer. Its 

 eggs — the well-known " Plovers' Eggs " of commerce ^ — are taken by 



^ It may be doubted whether either of these names can stand, since Gmelin's 

 F. griseus in 1788 {Syst. Nat. i. p. 275) is founded on the "Grey Falcon" of 

 Latham and Pennant, the description of which was transmitted to the last by 

 Thomas Bolton, who subsequently communicated a drawing of the bird to Lewin, 

 by whom it was reproduced {B. Gr. Brit. ed. 2, i. pi. 17). The figure seems 

 intended for an adult of the true Lanner, though coloured somewhat to resemble 

 F. chicquera. The question is intricate, and could not be here discussed. Con- 

 fusion began early, since Lewin in the first edition of his work figured (No. 15) 

 a very different bird, and one not agreeing with the description. 



2 Caxton in 1481 has "lapwynches" {Beynard the Fox, cap. 27). 



2 There is a prevalent belief that many of the eggs sold as "Plovers'" are 

 those of Rooks, but no notion can be more absurd, since the appearance of the 

 two is wholly unlike. Those of the Kedshank, of the Golden Plover (to a small 

 extent), and enormous numbers of those of the Black-headed Gull, and in certain 

 places of some of the Terns, are, however, undoubtedly sold as Lapwings', having 



