PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 329 



We may give two further records of lapwings marked as young in Stirlingshire 

 (cf. Witherby, British Birds, vol. iii. p. 251, and vol. iv. p. 336) : 



(Marked 1909) 17 Nov. 1909, Aranjuzon, Basses Pyrenees, France. 

 (Marked 1910) 28 Feb. 1911, Gouran, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. 



As regards habits : the lapwing is notably gregarious, and the migratory flocks 

 are sometimes of immense size. The majority of the movements are executed at 

 night, although diurnal migration also occurs, but the species is seldom recorded 

 among the victims of the lighthouse lanterns. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is placed on open ground, whether pasture, 

 ploughland, moor, or marsh, and is generally on slightly elevated ground rather than 

 in the depressions. As a rule it is a saucer-like hollow in the ground, scantily 

 lined with a few bits of bent, though some nests are much better lined than others. 

 (PL LH.) Generally other ' false nests ' are to be found close at hand, which are 

 apparently the work of the cock bird (see Saunders, Manual, p. 556 ; S. E. Brock, 

 Zoologist, 1911, p. 296). The eggs are normally 4, but there seems to be no doubt 

 that 5 are occasionally laid by one hen, and they are generally deposited on alternate 

 days. They do not vary much as a rule in appearance, being pyriform in shape, and 

 stone colour to olive brownish in ground-colour, more or less thickly spotted and 

 blotched with black, sometimes showing ashy shellmarks. Occasionally eggs are 

 found with a band of greenish more or less clearly defined, and some eggs are greenish 

 blue, very sparingly marked. A rare and very beautiful variety has brownish 

 red markings on a warm ground. (PL L.) Average size of 66 eggs, 1-83 x T31 in. 

 [46'7x33'4 mm.]. Incubation is performed by both sexes (Farren and others), but 

 probably the greater part of the work is undertaken by the hen. J. v. Wangelin 

 (Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas) asserts that the male takes no part, but this 

 appears to be incorrect. Naumann gives the period as 16 days, obviously an error, 

 as H. S. Gladstone estimates it at 26 days, and W. Evans found that the young were 

 hatched out on the 25th, 26th, and 27th days (Ibis, 1891, p. 80). The first eggs are 

 laid towards the end of March, but frequently not till the beginning of April, and 

 one hen will lay as many as twenty eggs in a season if persistently robbed, so 

 that under these circumstances fresh eggs may be found in June and even in 

 July, but the lapwing is single-brooded, [r. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Chiefly worms, slugs, snails, insects of various kinds especially 

 beetles and their larvae and pupae. And on the coast various molluscs and 

 crustaceans. Fragments of sea-weed (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 238). Mr. J. E. 



