THE PLOVER TRIBE 2251 



being distributed over the temperate and tropical portions of Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, and South America. These birds derive their common English name from 

 their slow and flapping flight, which is at the same time graceful, and often very 

 erratic. In general habits they closely resemble the plovers, but most of them are 

 gregarious at all seasons; and in summer their favorite haunts are open downs, 

 moors, fallows, or marshy commons, although some kinds seek the neighborhood 

 of the coast in winter. Partially nocturnal, their food comprises insects, worms, 

 and mollusks; and their well-known cries are loud and frequently melancholy in 

 tone. Their nesting habits and eggs are similar to those of the plovers. 



The common lapwing ( Vanellus cristatus) is the typical representa- 

 tive of its genus, and such a familiar bird as to need but little in the 

 Lapwings 



way of description. Belonging to a group in which there is no spur 

 on the wing, this species is specially distinguished by the combination of a metallic 

 lustre on the green plumage of the upper parts, and the absence of white on the 

 wing coverts, while it is also the only member of the two genera in which both the 

 upper and under tail coverts are chestnut buff. The crest is of great length. This 

 handsome bird has the widest geographical range of any of the lapwings, extending 

 from Britain to Japan, and also occurring on the two sides of the American 

 Continent in Alaska and Greenland, while in winter it migrates as far south as 

 Northern Africa, Persia, and India. Resident throughout the year in the British 

 Islands, in the Arctic regions of Scandinavia and the tundras of Siberia it is but 

 a summer visitor. Not only is this bird the most widely -distributed member of 

 the genus, but the species is probably the one most numerous in individuals, as is 

 attested by the enormous number of its eggs which reach the English market 

 where they form by far the greater proportion of those sold as plovers' eggs. 

 When associated in their enormous winter flocks, lapwings are among the most 

 difficult of birds to approach, more especially from their constant habit of changing 

 their ground. When the breeding place is approached, "the old bird," writes Mr. 

 Seebohm, "glides steadily off the nest, runs a little distance, then rises in the air 

 to flutter restlessly above the intruder's head, uttering its harsh, wailing cries. 

 So closely do the eggs resemble surrounding objects in color that it is no easy 

 task to find them, but the old birds very often betray their whereabouts by 

 hovering above them; at these times the birds are easily approached, often coming 

 within a few feet. When the young are hatched, they soon follow their parents 

 in search of food. If menaced by danger, the old birds quit their offspring at once, 

 fly into the air, or reel and tumble along the ground as if wounded, while the 

 nestlings scurry off in different directions and hide themselves among the herb- 

 age." 



As an example of a species of this genus we may refer to the Cayenne lapwing 

 ( V. cayennensis] , and its variety the Patagonian lapwing, in which the crest is very 

 small. These birds, which are known in the pampas by the name of teru-teru, 

 generally live in pairs, and have a curious habit of indulging frequently in a kind 

 of dance or march, which is described by Mr. W. H. Hudson. This observer writes 

 that anyone watching a pair of these birds, will see an individual from another pair 

 rise and fly to them. Advancing to receive their visitor, the pair place themselves 



