LAPWING. 



Charadriid^.] 



VANELLUS VULGARIS, Bechstein. 



Explanation of Plate. 



Figure 1. Banffshire, April 16, 1893. In collection of F. Poynting. 



2. Leek, Staffordshire, April 15, 1894. Ditto. 



3. Sandbach, Cheshire, May 6, 1890. In collection of H. Massey, Esq. 



4. Leek, Staffordshire, April 15, 1894. In collection of F. Poynting. 



5. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. 



6. Banffshire, April 3, 1893. Ditto. 



7. CoUooney, co. SHgo, 1865. In collection of H. Massey, Esq. 



8. Sandbach, Cheshire, 1861. Ditto. 



This well-known species is resident and generally distributed throughout 

 the British Islands. 



Macgillivrat writes as follows, respecting this species * : — " In the middle of 

 March, should the weather be good, they return to the higher grounds and 

 unfrequented pastiures. Frequently about this season, however, boisterous 

 weather suddenly comes on, accompanied with snow or hail ; and this so 

 commonly happens in the eastern districts of the middle division of Scotland, 

 that the people always expect what they call the ' Tuchit's storm,' about the 

 time of the arrival of that well-known bird. Thus Mr. Robertson, in his 

 Agricultural Survey of Kincardineshire, says : — ' The Green Plover or Peasweep, 

 arrives here so very correctly about Candlemas term, that the storm which 

 generally happens at that season of the year goes by its name (the Tchuchet 

 storm).' Many of them, however, betake themselves to the vicinity of marshes 

 and moors, in any situation, or to the downs or links, or disperse over the 

 fields. Their nests, which are slightly constructed, being often merely a few 

 straws or blades laid in a shallow cavity, are found sometimes on an exposed 

 slope or level part of the moors, where the herbage is short, sometimes on tufts 

 in the midst of a bog or morass, sometimes on the bare open ground or in a 



* ' History of British Birds, Indigenous and Migratory,' vol. iv. pp. 137-139. 



