THE LAPWING, OR PEEWIT 247 
and courageous office it performs for the Crocodile. This unwieldy 
monster, having no flexible tongue wherewith to cleanse its mouth, 
comes on shore after its meals, opens its jaws, and allows the Tré- 
chilus to enter and pick off the leeches and fragments of food, which, 
adhering to its teeth, interfere, with its comfort. This story was 
long believed to be a fable; but the French naturalist Geoffrey 
de Saint Hilaire has, in modern times, confirmed the veracity of the 
father of history, and pronounces the Tréchilus of the ancients to 
be the Pluvier a Collier interrompu, the subject of the present chapter. 
The Cayman of South America is also said to be indebted for a 
similar service to the kindly offices of a little bird, which, however, 
is not a Plover, but a Toddy. 
THE LAPWING, OR PEEWIT 
VANELLUS VULGARIS 
Feathers on the back of the head elongated and curved upwards ; head, crest 
and breast, glossy black; throat, sides of the neck, belly and abdomen 
white ; under tail-coverts yellowish red; upper plumage dark green 
with purple reflections ; tail, when expanded, displaying a large semi- 
circular grdduated black patch on a white disk, outer feather on each 
side wholly white; bill dusky; feet reddish brown. Young—throat 
dull white, mottled with dusky and tinged with red; upper feathers’ 
tipped with dull yellow. Length twelve and a half inches. Eggs olive- 
brown to stone buff, blotched and spotted with dusky black. 
THE Peewit, or Green Plover, as it is sometimes called, is among 
the best known birds indigenous to the British Isles. This 
notoriety it owes to several causes. The lengthened feathers on 
the back of its head, forming a crest, at once distinguish it from 
every other British Wader. Its peculiar flight, consisting of a 
series of wide slow flappings with its singularly rounded wings, 
furnishes a character by which it may be recognized at a great 
distance ; and its strange note, resembling the word ‘ peweet’ 
uttered in a high screaming tone, cannot be mistaken for the note 
of any other bird. In London and other large towns of England 
its eggs also are well known to most people ; for ‘ Plovers’ eggs’, 
as they are called, are considered great delicacies. 
Peewits are found in abundance in most parts of Europe and Asia 
from Ireland to Japan. They are essentially Plovers in all their 
habits, except, perhaps, that they do not run so rapidly as some 
others of the tribe. They inhabit the high grounds in open countries, 
the borders of lakes and marshes and low unenclosed wastes, and 
may not unfrequently be seen in the large meadows, which in 
some districts extend from the banks of rivers. They are partially 
migratory; hence they may appear at a certain season in some 
particular spot, and be entirely lost sight of for many 
