170 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Eggs. Three or four in number (usually three), pear-shaped, 

 and laid point to point. In character the eggs are very similar 

 to most of the Ringed Sand-Plovers, at least as regards the 

 ground-colour. The black markings are, however, much more 

 plentiful, forming larger blotches, and they are also more 

 equally distributed over the egg. Axis, 1*2-1 '4 inch; diam., 

 0-85-0-95. 



THE LAPWINGS. GENUS VANELLUS. 



Vanellus, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 94 (1760). 



Type, V. vanellus (Linn.). 



The Lapwings belong to a section of the Plovers in which 

 the wings are not long and pointed as in those species which 

 we have been last considering, but are very broad and rounded, 

 the secondaries, in flight, being nearly as long as the primaries. 

 These birds have, in consequence, a much slower and more 

 heavy mode of flight than the pointed-winged Golden Plover or 

 the Sand-Plovers. The present genus contains but a single 

 species, which is remarkable for its long and recurved crest of 

 narrow pointed plumes, but it has no spur on the wing or 

 wattle on the face, like so many of the tropical Crested Plovers. 



I. THE LAPWING OR PEEWIT. VANELLUS VANELLUS. 



Tringa vanellus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 248 (1766). 



Vanellus cristatus, W. & M.; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 133 (1852) ; 



Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 57 (1885). 

 Vanellus vulgaris> Bechst.; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 545, pi. 531 



(1875) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 161 (1883); Saunders, ed. 



YarrelFs Brit. B. iii. p. 283 (1883) ; id. Man. Brit. B.p. 539 



(1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xix. (1891). 

 Vanellus vanellus^ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 166 



(1896). 



(Plate LXXIX.) 



Adult Male. General colour above glossy olive-green, the 

 scapulars purple at their tips ; wing-coverts glossy steel-blue, 

 with a greenish shade, more conspicuous on the median series; 

 quills black, the primaries with a sub-terminal patch of ashy- 

 white, the secondaries white at the base of the inner web, the 

 innermost secondaries glossy green ; lower back and rump 



