370 THE PLOVERS 



THE LAPWING 



[W. FARREN] 



The lapwing is the most familiar of all the Waders. It loves 

 desolate places far from human habitation, but meadows just beyond 

 the house-line of a large town suit it equally well. It nests on 

 highland moors and lowland fields, boggy marshland, and dry sandy 

 fallows, plough fields, meadows, and commons. The only invariable 

 condition is that the situation must be perfectly open, for the lapwing 

 at all times is a wary bird, and avoids localities whence it cannot sight 

 danger from afar. 



The species is found from February to June in favoured localities 

 from one end of the British Isles to the other, and, outside our 

 boundaries, from the Arctic Circle to the south of Spain and Northern 

 Africa, and eastward to Japan. It is resident throughout temperate 

 Europe, moving southwards in winter from the more northern nesting- 

 grounds. 



Of late years its numbers in the nesting season have somewhat 

 increased in the north of Scotland, but fewer breed than formerly in 

 many southern localities. This is especially true of East Anglia, where 

 the draining of the fens so altered the character of the country as to 

 lose entirely for us, as nesting species, many interesting marsh-birds. 

 But the lapwing, less specialised in habitat, may still be seen, although 

 in diminished numbers, sporting over the black land of the rich 

 cultivated fields that were once a dreary waste of marshland. 



Large numbers of the birds are shot or netted for the market in 

 winter, which, however, has but tittle effect on the vast flocks that 

 visit us at this time. A far more serious levy on the resident breeding 

 stock is the indiscriminate taking of their eggs, which still goes on 

 unrestricted in most districts. Large numbers of the " plovers' eggs " 



