BLACK-AND-WHITE BIRDS. 27 



LAPWING. — Plate 14. Length, 12 inches. Crown, 

 long recurved crest, fore -cheeks, throat, fore -neck, 

 and upper breast greenish-black ; sides of the face 

 and sides of the neck white ; upper parts deep 

 green ; under parts white ; wing- feathers black ; tail 

 white, with broad black band at the end. Nearer 

 inspection would reveal a brownish hind-neck, and 

 fawny patches at the base of the tail ; but the 

 dark parts of the plumage are so dark, and 

 both the dark and the white so broadly distri- 

 buted, that the general impression received at a 

 moderate distance is that of a black-and-white bird. 

 Resident. 



Eggs. — 4, olive- green or stone -buff, with dark- 

 brown blotches, trails, and spots, and a few under- 

 lying markings of gray ; 1'6 x 1'3 inch (plate 122). 



Nest. — Only a depression in the turf or fallow- 

 land. 



Distribution.- — General throughout the British 

 Islands. 



During the breeding season the Lapwing, Peewit, 

 or Green Plover, as it is variously named, is prin- 

 cipally a bird of the moorland, nesting on the ground. 

 It is a walking bird, moving with a rapid running 

 gait, in the pauses of which it poses attentively, 

 often on a slight eminence, sometimes standing 

 motionless for prolonged periods. The bird has, 

 however, fits of wild exhilaration, when it dashes 

 up into the air, breaks back in a mad zigzag 

 descent, and then scours along in low flight with 

 humming wings, its loud ' Co-u-whee-whee ! ' filling 



