THE LAPWING 373 



it is better known. For a long time it has been known or suspected 

 that these scrapes are formed by the males they are commonly 

 alluded to by gamekeepers and egg-gatherers as " cocks'-nests." The 

 investigations of Mr. Edmund Selous went far towards confirming 

 this, and explaining the origin and significance of the habit, but it has 

 remained for Mr. Brock to discover more definitely the part the 

 scrapes play during the early spring activities. Extra nests con- 

 structed by some species, such as the wren and moorhen, have received 

 a certain amount of attention, and these also have been called 

 " cocks'-nests," but little is definitely known about them. The extra 

 scrapes formed by tree-pipits and wood-larks have been passed aside 

 as dust-baths, but they are as distinct from such, and as obviously 

 " scrapes," i.e. places prepared for nests, as are the false nests of 

 the lapwing. In all probability there is some analog} 7 between all, 

 or at any rate all owe their origin to the same cause, which I would 

 suggest is excessive reproductive energy on the part of the males. 

 It has been stated that the scrapes of the lapwing are formed 

 while the male is showing off to the female. 1 This is true so far 

 as it goes, as the male certainly displays in a scrape when a female 

 is near, and when he is therefore under the influence of extreme 

 sexual excitement. But it entirely disregards the very important 

 fact that the male may be seen scraping and considerably more 

 often when there is no female present. 2 



During the days that elapse between the return to the nesting- 

 grounds and mating, each male will form a number of scrapes, spread 

 over his particular territory, and generally in groups of two or three. 

 In these scrapes he frequently works. Sometimes he abandons 

 a group formed in the early days, and forms another set at some 

 distance off, thus effecting a modification in the limits of his territory, 

 which, as Mr. Brock observes, are always vaguely defined. Although 

 later, when mated, the female works in some of the scrapes formed 



1 Howard Sauuders, Manual of British Birds (1899), p. 556. 



2 See also Zoologist, 1911, p. 300; and Bird-life Glimpses, p. 164. 



