284 COMMON LAPWING. 



season, giving 1 employment to many individuals. 

 Dogs are trained to seek the nests of this bird and 

 several of the other Charadriadce, the eggs of which 

 are also used in common ; they hunt by the scent, 

 and make a point as if at game, until the " egg- 

 man" comes up. (We do not know the kind of 

 dog that is employed.) The geographical distri- 

 bution is extensive, though confined to the Old 

 World. The Lapwing is generally spread over 

 Europe, extending to Scandinavia;* it extends 

 northward, to Iceland and the Faroe Isles ;f it is 

 enumerated among the birds of Japan, J and we 

 have received specimens from the neighbourhood 

 of Canton, in the plumage of the winter. 



In the full breeding plumage, the crown, chin, 

 fore parts of the neck and breast, are deep and 

 rich black, glossed with green ; from the occiput 

 springs a long crest of narrow black feathers, 

 bending or curved upward, and capable of being 

 erected nearly straight when the bird is excited ; 



* Nilson. f Yarrell. Temminck. 



A very ancient Lincolnshire family, the Tyrwhitts, bear 

 three Pewits for their arms ; and, it is said, from a tradition, 

 that it was in consequence of the founder of their family 

 having fallen in a skirmish, wounded, and being saved by his 

 followers, who were directed to the spot where he lay by the 

 cries of these birds, and their hovering over him. YarreWs 

 British Birds, communicated by Charles Anderson, Esq. of Lea. 



Mr. Selby considers the birds served up at the feast of the 

 Archbishop Neville, to the number of one thousand, were 

 Lapwings, not specimens of the heron known as egret, under 

 which name they are recorded. 



