378 THE PLOVERS 



for anything, the particular plumes owe their beauty or distinctive 

 appearance to having been so displayed. The courting actions of 

 birds often appears like a desire to display some particular part of 

 their plumage, when no such object may exist. 



The scraping and displaying actions of the lapwing certainly 

 appear to be involuntary, and, as argued by Mr. Selous the direct 

 result of sexual activity or excitement, and his expressed belief, that 

 out of such frenzied impulsive actions the more elaborate cases of 

 sexual display have arisen, appears reasonable. 1 The uptilted attitude 

 of the male lapwing may be a more elaborate phase of his frenzied 

 working in the scrapes, during which the tail is often held straight up. 

 Another apparently involuntary or purposeless action is the plucking 

 of nest material and throwing it about, often over the shoulder. 



Although a lapwing's nest is often but a scantily lined hollow, 

 good substantial nests may frequently be found. In such nests the 

 lining is carefully worked in, and may be as much as an inch in thick- 

 ness. Usually the greater part of the lining is added after the first 

 eggs are laid, as in the case of other species. I once found two or three 

 nests in the fens, built on long grass and rushes of the previous year's 

 growth, and which was matted together and beaten down by the winter 

 weather, forming a platform over boggy ground ; in one case there were 

 six or more inches of water underneath. The nests were large and 

 built of grass straw, with finer bents by way of lining. They were 

 quite conspicuous even at a distance. As the situation did not lend 

 itself to scraping, it is unlikely that these nests can have originated in 

 the usual way. 



I have perhaps devoted an undue proportion of this chapter to 

 the habit of forming additional nest scrapes. But the habit is more 

 pronounced in the lapwing than in other Waders, and, moreover, the 

 species is comparatively easier of observation ; the ground actions of 

 less conspicuous species are considerably more difficult to witness, and 

 one can only surmise by analogy not always a safe guide that the 



1 Bird-life Glimpses, p. 168. 



