LAPWING. 



by the very peculiar bend of the wings of those birds. 

 This gives them a very decided advantage over those 

 birds which have wings pointed in their first quills, 

 and straight in their general lines, such as are the 

 wings of the swallows and swifts. These can turn 

 laterally upon the points of the wings as pivots, with 

 perhaps more celerity than the lapwings ; but the lap- 

 wings can turn upwards or downwards, or in any ob- 

 lique direction, much more cleverly ; so that if we 

 take all the possible directions of a wing into the 

 account, there is perhaps no bird which has such per- 

 fect command of the air as the lapwing ; and there is 

 none which displays such antics in its aerial move- 

 ments, or the contemplation of which is a more beau- 

 tiful study, in the finest branch of animal mechanics. 

 At the same time the birds are very elegant in their 

 forms, compact and neat in their plumage, lively in 

 their manners, inoffensive and uninjurious to man in 

 their feeding, and altogether among the most interest- 

 ing of the feathered race, though they are birds of the 

 wilds, rather than of fertile and highly cultivated 

 places, and discursive and migrant at different seasons 

 of the year. 



We shall now notice the principal species, and in 

 doing this we shall begin with the typical one, or the 

 lapwing properly so called, which is well known in 

 all the swampy wilds of rather upland places in the 

 British islands, and which is as much admired as it is 

 well known, from the beauty of its form, and the 

 singular energy and activity of its manners. 



THE CRESTED LAPWING (V. crutatus). This is a 

 bird which is pretty generally distributed, and which 

 forces itself upon the notice of all the observer?, on 

 account of the brightness of its colours. The top of 

 the head, the nape, the upper part of the neck, and 

 the breast, are black with metallic reflections ; and 

 the feathers on the hind part of the head are formed 

 into a beautiful fibrous crest. The upper part is a 

 sort of mottled green with very rich metallic reflec- 

 tions. The quills of the wings are pure white, except 

 a considerable space at the point, which is black, 

 with the exception of the two external ones, and 

 these are white for the whole of their length. The 

 sides of the neck and all the under parts are pure 

 white. The under tail coverts are russet ; the bill is 

 black ; and the feet brownish red. The length of 

 the full-grown bird is between eleven and twelve 

 inches. The young before the first moult have the 

 crest very short, a black patch under the eyes, the 

 throat clouded with white and ash colour, and the 

 greater part of the feathers on the upper part mar- 

 gined with russet-brown. The plumage both of the 

 old arid the young is subject to some variations, 

 though the causes of these variations have not been 

 investigated. 



Lapwings are common in every part of Britain 

 which is adapted to their habits ; but unless it is on 

 the sea-shore, and indeed even there, they are birds 

 of seasonal appearance. In the breeding season they 

 disperse themselves over the interior of the country, 

 and seek those marshy places of the moors which are 

 removed from human habitations. They are not 

 found exclusively on the uplands ; for their habit is 

 not particular as to elevation above the level of the 

 sea, their proper situation in wild nature being that 

 ground which is intermediate between the wet and 

 the dry, but rather nearer the former; and in such 

 situations they are found from the margin of the salt 

 marsh, which is barely elevated above the level of 



the sea, to the margin of the uppermost bound which 

 is found on the slope of the mountain. 



As is the case with many other birds of the same 

 order, and especially of the same family, the lapwings 

 are to be considered as dispersive rather than as 

 migratory in the summer. When the winter sets in, 

 arid those small animals upon which they feed are 

 either buried in the earth or confined, or treasured 

 up in the egg, in the inland parts of the country, they 

 resort to the sea, which, in all latitudes where it does 

 not freeze, knows no winter as a sterile season in 

 which it cannot supply food ; and when the summer 

 approaches, they disperse themselves over the couir- 

 try, each species resorting to that situation in which 

 it can find the most abundant supply of food for itself 

 and its young, and where its labours in the procuring 

 of that food are of the greatest benefit. 



The common lapwing, as is the cae with most 

 birds of the family, makes no regular nest, but merely 

 smoothes and partially clears of herbage a little space 

 under cover of the grass or heather. The eggs are 

 four in number, as is the case in almost the whole of 

 the family, and they are arranged in a regular quatre- 

 foil or cross of four leaves, the small ends being 

 almost in contact at the centre, and thoir large ends 

 disposed outwards so regularly that the axis of each 

 opposite pair form a straight line, and those of the 

 two pairs are at right angles to each other. The 

 ground colour of the eggs is of a pale greenish olive, 

 and they are marked over with blotches of dusky 

 and rather brownish black, which are more numerous 

 and larger toward the large ends of the egirs than the 

 small ones. The youn are capable of using their 

 feet cleverly almost the moment they leave the shell ; 

 but they are for some time covered with down, and 

 not with feathers ; and some time elapses before they 

 are capable of flight. It is not long, however, before 

 they are enabled, partially at least, to find their own 

 food with comparatively little assistance from the 

 parent birds ; and until they are fledged and can use 

 the wing, they are but rarely seen, as they crouch 

 and conceal themselves among the herbage. By this 

 means they are safe from ravens and other enemies, 

 which prowl about the same sort of places in which 

 lapwings are bred ; and there is no doubt that the 

 simplicity of the place where they are deposited, and 

 the inconspicuous colour of the eggs, also contribute 

 a good deal to the safety of the nest. 



But in addition to those natural means of conceal- 

 ment, which do not call into exercise the instinct of 

 the birds, lapwings are more assiduous, and. perhaps 

 more dexterous in decoying suspicious visiters away 

 from their nests, than any birds with which we are 

 acquainted. They do not show the least alarm, or 

 resort, to any stratagem in the case of sheep or cattle, 

 but remain as quiet when these are ranging the places 

 where they nestle, as if there were no animal there 

 but themselves. Their next neighbour toward the 

 hill, the plover, and also the snipe, which comes be- 

 tween them and the marsh, give them just as little 

 alarm ; and they are in no ways disturbed by hares, 

 grouse, or any of the inhabitants of the wilds which 

 do no injury to the nests of birds. If, however, a 

 carrion crow, or a hooded crow, which is a more fre- 

 quent visiter of their haunts, especially in the northern 

 parts of the British islands, makes its appearance, 

 they are up in arms ; and as there are generally, il 

 not invariably, more than one pair upon the same 

 breeding ground, the whole are in the air and iu 



