PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 325 



birds, reaches our shores, followed in October and November by the adults, now 

 moulted, in smaller numbers. Most of the birds pass on, but a few remain with 

 us for the winter. The return passage lasts till late in May, and a few non- 

 breeding birds may remain till July. A gregarious, and, to a great extent at least, 

 a nocturnal traveller. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Does not breed in the British Isles. [F. c. R. j.] 



5. Food. Insects and their larvae ; worms, molluscs, and crustaceans, such 

 as small shell-fish, shrimps, and sandhoppers. Also eat a good deal of vegetable 

 matter, such as seaweed. "Small fish" (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 233), "grass- 

 hoppers and other insects, as well as berries of various kinds " (Macgillivray, British 

 Birds, iv. p. 92). The food of the young consists chiefly of insects especially 

 mosquitoes and their larvae. They are assisted in their search for it by both 

 parents, [w. F.] 



LAPWING [Vanett-us vandlus (Linnaeus) ; Vandlus vulgdris Bechstein. 

 Peewit, peeswipe, green-plover ; happinch, lappinch (Cheshire) ; hornpie 

 (Suffolk) ; horniewink ; tieves' nicket (Shetlands). French, vanneau huppe, 

 dix-huit ; German, Kiebitz ; Italian, pavoncella]. 



i. Description. The lapwing may be readily distinguished by its recurved 

 crest of erectile feathers. The sexes are alike, and there is a slight seasonal change 

 of coloration. (PL 120.) Length 11 in. [27940 mm.]. The adult, in nuptial dress, 

 has the top of the head, including the recurved feathers of the crest, the lores, fore- 

 part of the cheeks, a line under the eye, throat, and fore-neck black, glossed with 

 green ; while the eyebrow, sides of the face and neck, are dull white. The mantle is 

 of a rich metallic coppery green with purple reflections, while the wing-coverts are 

 of a deep steel blue-black with a metallic sheen. The primaries are black, the three 

 outermost with greyish white tips. The upper tail-coverts are of a reddish chest- 

 nut, while the tail has the basal portion white, the rest black, but the black area 

 decreases from the middle feathers outwards, so that the outermost feather is 

 nearly all white. The under surface, from the black gorget backwards, pure white, 

 save the under tail-coverts, which are of a pale cinnamon. The male differs from 

 the female in having a conspicuously longer crest, and hi the shape of the wing when 

 expanded, which is thus much broader and more rounded than in the female. After 

 the autumn moult the black on the throat disappears. The fledgling resembles the 

 adult in whiter, lacking the black throat ; but it may always be distinguished by 



