128 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



Europe and Asia. Though pretty generally diffused in Great Britain, it 

 is only found breeding in the extreme north of Scotland, on the Orkney 

 and Shetland Islands, where the eggs are hatched by the first part of 

 June. In these places the nests are made on elevated portions of the 

 heath. During the breeding season the Whimbrel is found on the 

 Faroe Islands and in Iceland. It is distributed throughout Denmark, 

 Scandinavia and Russia ; a few are known to breed in Lapland, as far 

 north as latitude 65°, It is said by the best authorities that this bird 

 is the most widely diffused of all the waders. Its extra-limital range 

 includes Siberia, India, China, Australia and Africa. 



On the Faroe Islands it is recorded as breeding from the 25th of 

 May to the 17th of June. The nest being simply a depression in the 

 soil on some slight elevation in dry spots in marshes. The eggs are 

 four in number, pear-shaped, and vary in color from light olive-brown 

 to dark greenish-brown, clouded with spots and blotches of dark umber ; 

 average size 2.34x1.67. 



[269.] Vanellns vanellus (Linn.) [512.] 



Lapwing. 



Hab. Northern portion of Eastern Hemisphere; occasional in Arctic America, Greenland and the 

 Islands of Norton Sound, Alaska. 



The Lapwing or Peewit is one of the most familiar birds of 

 Europe. A rare visitant in Greenland and other parts of North Ameri- 

 ca. Abundant in all suitable localities in Great Britain and in all the 

 adjacent smaller islands. Found as far North as the Faroes, and in 

 Iceland. Common in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and throughout 

 Russia. It is not so abundant in various portions of Continental 

 Europe, as in France, Spain and Italy. 



The Lapwing is a handsome plover ; in the adult in summer dress 

 the fore-part and top of the head, chin, throat and breast is uniform 

 blue-black ; side of head and neck white, grayish behind the neck ; 

 upper parts chiefly metallic bottle green, changing to a coppery pur- 

 ple. From the occiput springs a long crest of narrow bluish-black 

 feathers which curve upwards. It is commonly called Te-wit, Crested 

 Lapwing, Green Lapwing and Green Plover. 



The nests of this bird are like those of all the Plovers — slight de- 

 pressions in the soil with a few grasses for a lining. The eggs are 

 four in number ; they vary from dull, light, grayish-buff to deep olive 

 buff, more or less heavily marked with spots and blotches of brown- 

 ish-black ; they are pyriform in shape. Four eggs in my cabinet, col- 

 lected in Staffordshire, England, April 18, measure 1.88 x 1.30, 1.89 x 

 1.32, 1.84x1.36, 1.82x1.32. The average size is 1.85 x 1.33. 



