162 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAEADEIID^E. Genus VANELLUS. 



Subfamily CHARADRIINM. 



LAPWING. 



VANELLUS CEISTATUS. Wolf and Meyer. 

 PLATE XXIII. 



Tringa vanellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 248 (1766). 



Vanellus cristatus Wolf and Meyer, Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 133 (1852) ; Seebohm, 



Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 57 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 253 (1893) ; 



Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 126 pi. 40 (1896). 

 Vanellus vulgaris Bechstein, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 545, pi. 531 (1875) ; Yarrell, 



Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 283 (1883) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xix. (1891). 

 Vanellus vanellus (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 170 (1896); Sharp, 



Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 166 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Lapwing is widely and 

 generally distributed throughout the British Islands, in all suitable districts 

 including the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. It is commonest in 

 Scotland and Ireland, and more widely spread in winter than in summer, during 

 the former season visiting the Channel Islands. Foreign : Palaearctic region, 

 encroaching on the Nearctic region in the extreme west and east ; parts of the 

 Oriental region in winter. It is an accidental visitor to Greenland and Jan Mayen, 

 a summer visitor to Iceland and the Faroes. It breeds in localities suited to its 

 requirements throughout Europe, south of the Arctic circle, and in small numbers 

 in North Africa as far south as Egypt. It is a resident in Europe south of 

 the Baltic; but the birds that breed further north are migratory, and winter in 

 Asia Minor, the basin of the Mediterranean (including Africa north of the Great 

 Desert), the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores, whilst it has been known to 

 stray as far as Barbadoes (fide Col. Feilden). In Asia it does not appear to 

 range further north than lat. 55 (although, according to Bogdanow, it reaches 

 ten degrees further north : a circumstance which seems probable, as it is an 

 occasional wanderer to Alaska), but it is a common summer migrant to South 

 Siberia, Turkestan, Mongolia (including the Thian-Shan range up to 11,000 feet), 

 and may probably breed in the north island of Japan. The Asiatic birds winter 

 in Persia, North India (south to 25 N. lat.), China, and Japan. 



