LAPWING 237 
tail coverts snow white. ‘Tail consisting of twelve feathers, 
two other ones white, the rest white with a band of black 
near the end, widest in the middle ones and narrowing 
as it approaches the sides of the tail. Primaries black, 
secondaries pure white, tertiaries and wing coverts ash grey 
with dark feathers coming out same as back” (EK. Wi lliams). 
LAPWING. Vanellus vulgaris (Bechstein). 
Coloured Figures.—Gould, ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ vol. iv, pl. 
33; Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii, pl. 531; Lilford, 
‘Coloured Figures,’ vol. v, pl. 16. 
The Lapwing, Green Plover, or Peewit', is familiar to 
to most of us. Large numbers remain to breed in our Isles, 
while the arrival of autumn and spring migrants makes this 
species still more abundant. In Ireland and Scotiand, 
where unreclaimed moor-land and marsh are still extensive, 
the Lapwing is even more plentiful than in England. 
In the latter country, the resident birds are prevented 
from increasing to any great extent, by the practice of 
systematically robbing their eggs for table-use. In Ireland, 
on the contrary, the eggs are little interfered with, while 
large numbers of the birds are netted wholesale for the 
markets : netting, however, is carried on chiefly in autumn 
and winter, so that many of the victims are migrants from 
the north. 
Pasturage, ploughed fields, the shores of inland lakes, 
the banks of the lar ger rivers, as well as the slob-lands of 
our tidal estuaries, all afford feeding-ground for this widely- 
distributed Plover. 
The Lapwing is one of the most handsome and remark- 
able of our native birds; it is endowed with an elegant head- 
crest of long gently- curved and tapering plumes, “and with 
strongly- contrasted plumage, of unsullied white and satin- 
black ; this, on the wings and back, exhibits in the reflected 
light of the sunshine, a beautiful play of iridescence, which 
varies from deep metallic-green to violet. The bird should, 
'These three are not merely local names, but are so well known 
to sportsmen and naturalists that when speaking or writing about this 
Plover they may be used indiscriminately. 
